Are you in need of help of any sort? Speak with Mass Support! They’re here to help, and they’re doing a lot of stuff virtually this year. You can also just get in touch via MASSSUPPORT@RIVERSIDECC.ORG or 888-215-4920.
Miss the movies? Watch Images Cinema online! Or watch Amherst Cinema online!
You can order Tony DiTerlizzi signed books here from Odyssey Bookshop!
Buy comics from amazing local retailers Comics N’ More! They’re great!
You can join up with the Westfield Athenaeum Monthly Reading Challenge:
Sign up at https://westath.beanstack.org/ to join our Monthly Reading Challenges, running from September 2020 to June 2021. Each month, read a book for a new challenge and then join one or more of our Reader’s Chats to discuss the book you’ve read with other readers on the fourth Tuesdays of every month. Not sure what to read? Check our Facebook page for a themed #shelfiesunday video and Beanstack for book lists for applicable challenges. The challenge and book clubs are for all ages. JANUARY’S CHALLENGE: Read a book you meant to read in 2020!
Monday from 8PM – 10PM you can hang out with the Far Out Film Discussion via Zoom! This week they’re talking about The Juniper Tree which stars Bjork so you know it’s very far out there, extremely far.
Far Out Film Discussion will have a zoom meeting to talk about the 1990 film The Juniper Tree by American filmmaker Nietzchka Keene. The Juniper Tree is based on a Grimm’s fairytale and stars musician Bjork. View the trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POwG00JWrRo. It can be found online at kanopy : https://boston.kanopy.com/product/juniper-tree. To virtually attend this discussion, click the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87523942049
Tuesday from 9AM – 5PM you can participate in a Teen Craft Tuesday, local teens! This time it’s melted crayon art! Contact oeberli@westath.org for more info!
This month’s Teen Craft is… Melted Crayon Paperweight! You’ll receive everything to make a melted crayon paperweight. For students in grades 5-12 | Registration required. This craft will require the use of an oven and handling hot items.
Wednesday from 6PM – 9PM you can attend Northampton Webdive – Wednesday Edition! It’s online, join here!
A regular rendezvous of web makers, designers and creative coders. Held on the third Wednesday over the interwebs. Check back around the start of of the event for the link to join the Webive.
Wednesday 7PM – 8PM you can attend the Irish Writers Book Club! Join here! Meeting ID: 824 3414 2330. Passcode: 258458.
Read the best Ireland has to offer! From the land of great story-tellers, we will be reading famous and lesser-known Irish authors, including contemporary and classic writers of fiction, non-fiction, and plays. We will discuss style, sense of place, history, psychology, culture, and the Diaspora. If you are interested in great writing, this is a group you will enjoy being a part of. Upcoming authors include Edna O’Brien, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Donal Ryan, Colum McCann. Come for the books, stay for the craic!
Wednesday from 7:30PM – 8:30PM you can check out “Librarians Discuss: Why Do Popular Children’s Books Never Win Awards?” You can check it out on the Westfield Athenaeum Facebook page!
Alright, “never” might be a bit strong, but you have to admit – it’s rare! Why do popular children’s books almost never win book awards? What’s the difference? What makes a children’s book an award winner? Which has longer staying power? The books that children have to read in school for the next 50 years or books they might actually like? The Newbery, the Caldecott, the Printz and other book awards are all fair game. Come discuss with us!
Wednesday from 7PM – 11PM you can hang with the lovely folks from Start Playing Online! They gather at the Discord channel: https://discord.gg/fAM8yJw. Most games are played on Board Game Arena if you want to check it out ahead of time. It’s fun and everyone’s nice!
Thursday from 3:30PM – 4:30PM teens can join the Teen Writing Group! Contact ghohmeyer@westath.org for more info!
Do you like writing fantasy? Science fiction? Realistic fiction? All kinds are welcome at our Teen Writing Group. Each meeting tackles a new topic – suggested and voted on by group participants – with fun activities and writing prompts. In this class, you help pick what we learn and work on your creative writing skills! This group is for students in grades 5-12. Participants are not made to read their work unless they desire to do so. This class will take place on Zoom on the first and third Thursdays of every month.
Thursday from 7PM – 8PM you can attend 2020 Favorites: A Fireside Book Share at The Carle!
Join Carle staff as we share our favorite titles from 2020. We’ll discuss striking illustrations, compelling narratives, and other aspects of the books that have captivated us. Participants are invited to share their own 2020 favorites as well – so grab a book and get cozy by the fire with us! Click here to register.
Friday from 1PM – 2PM you can attend the Virtual Book/Movie/Podcast chat online at Forbes! It’s a fun time to chat with folks about media. Join here!
Saturday 2PM – 3PM you can attend the VIRTUAL: Social Justice Book Group: The Warmth of Other Suns! Join here! Meeting ID: 936 2007 0920. Passcode: 340325.
For January and February, we will be discussing The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
Sunday from 2PM – 3Pm you can attend “Equal to the Best Written Pamphlets”: Ceramics and the Abolition Movement, a lecture at Historic Deerfield. It’ll be presented via Zoom, “Free, registration is required. This lecture series will be presented live via Zoom webinar. The link to the webinar will be sent to registrants prior to the event. Webinars will be recorded and available to registrants for viewing for two weeks after the live event.” You’ve got to register here!
Sunday from 2PM – 3PM you can also attend “40 Years in Yiddishland: The Yiddish Book Center celebrates the Klezmer Conservatory Band” Register here!
The Yiddish Book Center’s fortieth anniversary in 2020 also marks the fortieth anniversary of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (KCB), an internationally renowned Yiddish and klezmer music ensemble. Two of the major players in the flourishing international Yiddish cultural resurgence, the KCB and the Center have been celebrating together throughout the histories of both organizations, beginning with the band’s appearance at the Center’s milestone events in Amherst as early as 1981 and continuing more recently with their performances as perennial headliners at the Center’s Yidstock Festival of New Yiddish Music. This special, ninety-minute retrospective from the Yiddish Book Center celebrates the history of the KCB.
We played the lovely game Embracelet this weekend! It’s a very sweet adventure game about being a teen in Norway and we really can’t say too many nice things about it. It has a distinctive kind of collage look, it has teen characters who feel real, and it gracefully tells a lovely story.
Oh! Also check out this neat website Never Been Seen!
Never Been Seen shows objects from the Science Museum Group Collection that have never been seen online before. Each time you refresh this webpage an object with zero views is shown, making you the very first person to see it. To try it just click on the link above, or the image below.
THE VALLEY NERD WATCH 