Dennis Public Library Newsletter - October 2023

From: Dennis Public Library
September 29, 2023


Premiere Performance of Come Here, Shakespeare!
Saturday, October 14th at 12:00 p.m.

With Rod Owens, retired English teacher and living actor — as 12 characters. . . in 15 scenes. . . from 5 plays: As You Like It, The Tempest, Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and King Lear.

Please call the library at 508-760-6219 to register.

What's Hiding on Your Bookshelf?
Friday, October 20th 1:00-3:00 p.m.

The Friends of the Dennis Public Library will host a fundraiser with Ken Gloss, owner of the Brattle Bookshop, and an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Ken will appraise your books and ephemera. The cost is $5 per book or $10 for three books.

New England Ghost Ship
Saturday, October 21st at 11:30 a.m.

Author Jill Farinelli will discuss her book The Palatine Wreck: The Legend of the New England Ghost Ship. Two days after Christmas in 1738, a British merchant ship traveling from Rotterdam to Philadelphia grounded in a blizzard on the northern tip of Block Island, twelve miles off the Rhode Island coast. The ship carried emigrants from the Palatinate and its neighboring territories in what is now southwest Germany. The 105 passengers and crew on board?sick, frozen, and starving?were all that remained of the 340 men, women, and children who had left their homeland the previous spring. They now found themselves castaways, on the verge of death, and at the mercy of a community of strangers whose language they did not speak.

Shortly after the wreck, rumors began to circulate that the passengers had been mistreated by the ship’s crew and by some of the islanders. The stories persisted, transforming over time as stories do and, in less than a hundred years, two terrifying versions of the event had emerged. In one account, the crew murdered the captain, extorted money from the passengers by prolonging the voyage and withholding food, then abandoned ship. In the other, the islanders lured the ship ashore with a false signal light, then murdered and robbed all on board. Some claimed the ship was set ablaze to hide evidence of these crimes, their stories fueled by reports of a fiery ghost ship first seen drifting in Block Island Sound on the one-year anniversary of the wreck. These tales became known as the legend of the Palatine, the name given to the ship in later years, when its original name had been long forgotten. The flaming apparition was nicknamed the Palatine Light. The eerie phenomenon has been witnessed by hundreds of people over the centuries, and numerous scientific theories have been offered as to its origin. Its continued reappearances, along with the attention of some of nineteenth-century America’s most notable writers, has helped keep the legend alive. This despite evidence that the vessel, whose actual name was the Princess Augusta, was never abandoned, lured ashore, or destroyed by fire.

So how did the rumors begin? What really happened to the Princess Augusta and the passengers she carried on her final, fatal voyage? Through years of painstaking research, Jill Farinelli reconstructs the origins of one of New England’s most chilling maritime mysteries.

Please call the library at 508-760-6219 to register for this program.

Author Event: E.A. Meigs
Thursday, October 26th at 6:00 p.m.

So, you might ask, how does one start writing a historical fiction book series?  Where does one gain knowledge and insight sufficient to breathe life into an ancient world, a world whose inhabitants have long-since perished?  Speaking for myself, it has been a lengthy and convoluted –but never boring– journey!  Local Cape Cod author E. A. Meigs will speak on her writing/illustrating career and the many experiences that have brought her to this juncture in life.

Please call the library at 508-760-6219 to register.

English for Speakers of Other Languages

Fridays

The library is holding informal sessions to learn conversational English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL):

Fridays at 12:30 p.m.

All are welcome. Bring friends and family!

Please call the library at 508-760-6219 or stop in for more information.

Buy a Brick, Support the Library

The Friends of the Dennis Public Library offer engraved bricks for sale to honor family, friends, special occasions, or businesses. Bricks will be placed in the library’s walkway. Each brick costs $125. Proceeds from the project are used to support library programs and purchase equipment. Order forms are available at the library and on the library’s website: dennispubliclibrary.org.

October Art Display

Brenda Fernandez is an Abstract, Collage, and Mixed Media Artist.

She expresses her art through bold colors, energy and emotion. She begins her paintings by putting words, markings, shapes, and various art mediums on the substrate of choice. The colors, paint, and paper come easily as she uses her fingers, palette knives, spatulas, brushes and whatever her intuition guides her to use to complete her art.

On her journey she has taken art classes, art retreats, online art classes and paints as often as she can. Brenda is a member of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum and has sold many pieces of her art. She is inspired simply by being alive and feeling the freedom of expressing herself through painting.

Brenda will host an artist reception on Wednesday, October 4th at 2:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. Come meet the artist and check out the artwork.

Call for Artists for 2023
The Dennis Public Library wants to show you off!

The Dennis Public Library is seeking new artists to display their “two-dimensional” work in the library’s busy meeting room. The library also has a large display case in the main lobby suitable for showcasing three-dimensional work.These spaces are available together or separately. Show periods run for one calendar month and artists are welcome to hold an opening. If you are, or know of, an artist who has not shown at the library since our post-Covid reopening, please consider displaying at the library.

The library is located at 5 Hall Street in Dennis Port.

For more information, call Kym Cormier at 508-760-6219 ext. 205 or email her at kcormier@clamsnet.org

Host Your Own Book Club With Family And Friends

What is a Book Club Bag?

Our Book Club Bags are tote bags containing ten copies of a title, discussion questions, author information, and a sign-up sheet for participants. Book Club Bags circulate for four weeks, are not renewable, and are unable to be placed on hold online.

You can reserve a Book Club Bag by calling the library at 508-760-6219 or inquiring at our Circulation Desk.

What titles are available?

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, and Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

Book Clubs

Tuesday, October 10th at 6:30 p.m. - Mystery Book Club

This month the Mystery Book Club is reading Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. This meeting is hybrid, online options are available. Please email jlsullivan@clamsnet.org if you are interested in attending.

Wednesday, October 18th at 2:00 p.m. - DPL Book Club

This month the DPL Book Club is reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Please email mkornfeind@clamsnet.org if you are interested in participating.

Fun for the Kids!

Pre-school Play, Story and Craft Time
Thursdays at 10:30am

Join Lisa, our Children's Librarian, each Thursday for play time, fun stories, songs and a craft. All ages are welcome. No registration is required. Come and join the fun!

Spooky Halloween Craft Tuesday
Drop in for a Spooky Halloween Craft
Tuesdays in October 1-7pm

Each week we will have a different craft appropriate for all ages. Drop in anytime between 1pm-7pm on each Tuesday in October for a fun Halloween craft.

LEGO Play
LEGO - Saturday Free Play
Saturdays, October 7th and 28th, 11am-1pm

Join us for some LEGO fun. Check out our collection of LEGOs. Challenges will be provided or you can create your own. Stop in anytime between 11am-1pm.

Participants will also have the option to experience LEGO Education BriqQ Prime for an added challenge.

Discover physical science in action while playing with LEGOS!

Girls Who Code signups

Are you interested in learning how to code?  Would you like to build Apps? Do you like computers?

We are looking for girls in 6th-12th grade to join our Girls Who Code club at the Dennis Public Library, 5 Hall St, Dennis Port.

We anticipate a launch date in November 2023 and will meet on Tuesdays, 4:30pm-6pm. Snacks are provided.

Sign ups are being taken now! Space is limited!

Contact Lisa Cunningham (lcunningham@clamsnet.org) at 508-760-6219 for more information.

Cape Cod Children's Place
Story & Project with Jill Silva
Tuesdays, Session 1: September 19th-October 24th, and Session 2: November 21st - December 5th - 10am-11am

We are happy to welcome CCCP this fall for another great program.

Jill will be facilitating Story & Project on Tuesdays from 10-11am.

Each week we will enjoy an open eded project and story designed to spark creativity, logic and scientific curiosity.

Ages 2-5. All material are included. Pre-registration is required.

Please call Cape Cod Children's Place to register at 508-240-3310.

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