Programs
Please be aware that the following programs are subject to change as we continually review our safety guidelines regarding Covid-19.
Movie Matinee: The Banshees of Inisherin
Monday, February 6 @ 1-3pm
In-person program
On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, Pádraic is devastated when his buddy Colm suddenly puts an end to their lifelong friendship. With help from his sister and a troubled young islander, Pádraic sets out to repair the damaged relationship by any means necessary. However, as Colm’s resolve only strengthens, he soon delivers an ultimatum that leads to shocking consequences. R 1h 54m.
Paint Night with Marisabel Artieda
Thursday, February 9 @ 6-7:30pm
In-person program
This program is now full! If you’d like to be put on the waitlist, please email Jessica at jzaccagnini@gunnlibrary.org
Local Peruvian Artist, Marisabel Artieda, will lead this paint night! Marisabel will teach color-blending techniques as we paint a vivid but simple winter scene. All materials will be provided by the library. This program is limited to 20 people so please register in advance to reserve a spot.
Marisabel Artieda was born in Lima, Peru and started drawing and painting at a very young age. She studied art and graphic design at The Institute of the Andes where she earned her BA degree. In 2001 she moved to Washington, Connecticut, where she joined the Washington Art Association and found the support network that she was looking for. Marisabel teaches painting classes for children at the Washington Art Association.
Love Your Library Day!
Saturday, February 11 @ 11 -12pm
In person program
Did you know that February is Love Your Library Month? Libraries across the country participate every year to highlight all of the wonderful items, programs and services the library has to offer. Gunn Memorial Library and Museum will be celebrating with an array of programs for library lovers of all ages!
GML and the Hickory Stick Bookshop have teamed up for our Readopoly Reading Challenge which runs through the end of March. Come share which books you are reading and get recommendations for the remaining challenges! Join Librarians Audra MacLaren and Jessica Zaccagnini for hot cocoa and a book talk on great reads you can use to complete the 2023 Winter Reading Challenge!
While you are here visit the Gunn Museum’s exhibition Washington, Connecticut – An American Story and learn about your community; its history and people. Join the museum curator, Amy Campanaro between 10-2 for tours or just to talk history!
Don’t miss the Kids activities too-
11 -12: Kids ages 10-12 can join Ms. Ashley in the Junior Library to play a game of “Kids Create Absurdity.” This fun and unpredictable card game is full of crazy questions and hilarious answers. Some cards even include singing, doing impressions, telling stories or creating your own silly combinations. Complete the Library Scavenger Hunt with the whole family or bring a friend and see just how fun spending time at the library can be! Register here.
1-2pm: Ms. Linda will have a variety of games and crafts for little ones. Create a jar of candy hearts, a flamingo pencil topper, or an actual love monster. There will be plenty of pink, red, glitter, and lace to make your creations extra special! If you complete the scavenger hunt you’ll win a special Valentine’s Day treat. Register here.
Movie Matinee: Mack & Rita
Monday, February 13 @ 1-2:30pm
In-person program
When 30-year-old Mack Martin reluctantly joins a Palm Springs, Calif., bachelorette trip for her best friend Carla, her inner 70-year-old gets released — literally. The frustrated writer and influencer magically transforms into her future self: aunt Rita. Freed from the constraints of other people’s expectations, Rita comes into her own, becoming an unlikely social media sensation and sparking a tentative romance with Mack’s adorable dog-sitter, Jack. PG-13 1h 25m
Short Story Group Meeting
Tuesday, February 14 @ 6:30 -7:30pm via Zoom 
Online program
Our next Short Story Discussion Group will meet via Zoom to discuss two short stories from T.C.Boyle’s 2022 collection I Walk Between the Raindrops. This collection is an inventive, uproarious, and masterfully told collection of short stories characterized by biting satire, resonant wit, and a boundless, irrepressible imagination.
From this collection, we will read “Dog Lab” and “These are the Circumstances.”
PDF Copies of the stories can be found here.
T.C. Boyle is an American novelist and short-story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published eighteen novels and twelve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his third novel, World’s End, and the Prix Médicis étranger (France) in 1995 for The Tortilla Curtain. His novel Drop City was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. Most recently, he has been the recipient of the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Henry David Thoreau Prize, and the Jonathan Swift Prize for satire. He is a Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California and lives in Santa Barbara.
So You Wrote a Book, Now What: The secrets to getting published with Jan Kardys
Saturday, February 18 from 10-12
In-person program
If you have dreams of being a published author, it often feels like a daunting undertaking full of risk and no guarantees. Jan Kardys has 35 years of experience working with various high profile publishers and she will lead a two-hour workshop to teach aspiring authors what they need to know about how to get published.
Kardys has worked with Scholastic, Macmillan, and is the current president of the Black Hawk Literary Agency which has given her experience in editing, marketing, subsidiary rights, art, production and so much more. During this workshop, Kardys will give participants the information they need to take on the world of publishing.
Registration for this workshop is required.
Jan Kardys is President and Literary Agent at black Hawk Literary Agency. She has 35 years of experience working with publishers like Scholastic, Macmillan, Warner Books and more. She is a former English teacher and former employee for Google. She also organizes and leads the Unicorn Writers Conference. She lives in Redding, CT.
Book Club- Harlem Shuffle
Thursday, February 23 @ 6:30 -7:30pm
In person program
Gunn Memorial Library’s Fiction Book Club meets on the fourth Thursday of each month. Participants can join any time! For the month of February we will be reading Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Copies of the book can be found at the front desk of the library.
Harlem Shuffle is about an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a decent life for himself and his family. Few people know he descends from a line of uptown hoods and crooks, and that his façade of normalcy has more than a few cracks in it. Cracks that are getting bigger all the time.
Cash is tight, especially with all those installment-plan sofas, so if his cousin Freddie occasionally drops off the odd ring or necklace, Ray doesn’t ask where it comes from. He knows a discreet jeweler downtown who doesn’t ask questions, either.
Then Freddie falls in with a crew who plan to rob the Hotel Theresa—the “Waldorf of Harlem”—and volunteers Ray’s services as the fence. The heist doesn’t go as planned; they rarely do. Now Ray has a new clientele, one made up of shady cops, vicious local gangsters, two-bit pornographers, and other assorted Harlem lowlifes.
Thus begins the internal tussle between Ray the striver and Ray the crook. As Ray navigates this double life, he begins to see who actually pulls the strings in Harlem. Can Ray avoid getting killed, save his cousin, and grab his share of the big score, all while maintaining his reputation as the go-to source for all your quality home furniture needs?
Harlem Shuffle’s ingenious story plays out in a beautifully recreated New York City of the early 1960s. It’s a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem. But mostly, it’s a joy to read, another dazzling novel from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning Colson Whitehead.
Book Discussion questions can be found here.
Movie Matinee: Till 
Monday, February 27 @ 1-3:10pm
In-person program
The true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. PG-13 2h 10m
