Sawyer Free Library is excited to present Musical Storytime @ 21 Main Street on Friday, June 16 at 11:15 a.m. for our youngest patrons and their caregivers!
Join Ruthanne Paulson for some musical fun at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in Downtown Gloucester. It will be a festive morning of Spring fun, stories, singing, dancing and playing music.
There is no registration needed. Questions? 978-325-5500 or sawyerfreelibrary.org
Sawyer Free Library (SFL) is thrilled to announce 2023 summer reading program, “Find Your Voice” and invites the community to embark on a summer-long journey of creativity, self-expression, and exploration.
Summer at the Sawyer Free Library officially kicks off this month with an overflowing calendar of free events and programs to inspire, educate, and entertain patrons of all ages. From innovative reading challenges and interactive workshops to book discussions, author talks, live music, field trips, and much more, the Sawyer Free Library is the ultimate destination this summer for kids, teens, and adults to unleash their imaginations and find their unique voices.
“Our voices have the power to share stories, express ourselves and spark change,” said the Sawyer Free Library Director Jenny Benedict. “The Sawyer Free Library’s summer long program, “Find Your Voice” is designed to inspire individuals of all ages to discover the joys of reading, unlock their creativity, and connect with others through the power of words. With a wide range of dynamic programs, activities and resources the Library offers something for everyone to get creative and express themselves all summer long.”
Kids of all ages can make their voices heard loud and clear at the SFL through an exciting lineup of fun programs, innovative incentives, and educational activities to encourage them to stay active, engaged, and read for fun.
To get started, young people and their families can pick up their Summer Reading Information and Activity Log at the Library, which has program information, the event calendar, and reading log. Children can stay on top of their summer reading with their “Find Your Voice” time-tracking reading logs. Register from June 13 to August 1, and then read (or be read to) for at least 500 minutes throughout the summer to earn prizes, including tickets to the Topsfield Fair. People can register in person or online for the program.
Children and families looking for things to do need not look further than the Sawyer Free with its busy summer schedule. Younger library goers will be moving and grooving during musical story time with Ruthanne Paulson on Friday, June 16, engaging with puppet friends reading stories and singing songs during an interactive storytime on June 28, and dancing with Creative Movement in the Library’s Amphitheater on July 29.
Kids will get the chance to get an up-close look at rainforest reptiles on Friday, July 7, presented by Conservation by Education, learn about the snakes of the world with Rick Roth and the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team on Saturday, July 15, and meet a variety of insects, bugs and more with Professor Bugman Entomology Adventureson Tuesday, August 8.
Throughout the summer, everyone can get their hands dirty on Thursday mornings while sharing stories and gardening in the Library’s raised gardens with Backyard Growers. Then on select Tuesday afternoons, young poets can try out rhymes, personification, haiku, and more in workshops led by young Gloucester poet Willa Brosnihan.
The Library will also host fun local field trips for children and their caregivers, including a visit to Hammond Castle on Tuesday, July 18, and Maritime Museum on July 24.
It is also a big summer for Tweens and Teens. Students entering grades 6-12 are encouraged to track their “Summer Reading and Library Adventures” on the official form available on the Library’s website to qualify for weekly prize drawings including treats from Bravo, Turtle Alley and more.
Middle and high schoolers are encouraged to check out the Library’s full summer schedule of weekly programs, including creative workshops with local paper artist Katherine Morrison on bookmaking on June 23 and building wire trees with Local Sculptor & Wire Artist Ryan Kelley in July. Young Gloucester Scientist Club will host a series of field trips, including a whale watch in June, a community garden scavenger hunt with Backyard Growers in July, an adventure on the water with Maritime Gloucester in August, and more, with the summer anchored by the exciting author visit in July by Taylor Tyng of the celebrated graphic novel series Clara Poole and the Long Way Round.
SFL also knows that summer reading is for everybody, whether you read at the beach or on your commute to work so it is giving adults a chance to get in on the summer fun, too, with Adult Book Bingo 2023. From now until September 1, 2023, those 18 and older can keep track of the books they read on the Library’s downloadable custom bingo card by writing the title and author in the matching square. Each completed horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line enters you into a raffle to win $25, $50, or $75 Cape Ann Gift Certificates.
In addition to the myriad of resources and programs the Library offers adults—technology training, job search help, historical resource assistance, and more – there will also be summer-themed special programs and reading lists available from local author talks, live music, and much more.
Thanks to the generous support of the Massachusetts Library System, the Boston Bruins, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, and the Gloucester Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Mass Cultural Council, program participation is free. Registration is now open for all children, teens, and adult programs.
The summer programming will run from June 5 to September 1. To discover the complete schedule and register for events, please visit the Sawyer Free Library website at www.sawyerfreelibrary.org, call 978-325-5500, or the Library 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester.
Sawyer Free Library’s summer operating hours beginning on June 3, will be Monday 8am to 6 pm, Tuesday 8 am to 6:15 pm, Wednesday 8 am to 6 pm, Thursday 10 am to 7 pm, Friday 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday 10 am to 1 pm, and 24/7 at sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Namaste! Enjoy yoga with your little ones at Treetop Yoga!
Join Erin McKay and Sawyer Free Library for Storytime Yoga – FREE yoga for children exploring stories, movement and fun this Tuesday, June 6 at 10:45 a.m. at Treetop Yoga!
Hosted by Sawyer Free Library, the free program will be held at Treetop Yoga Studio, 3A Pond Road. Yoga for children 5 and under and their caregivers.
Register at sawyerfreelibrary.org. Questions? Contact: jvitale@sawyerfreelibrary.org
Sawyer Free Library is excited to announce its Sawyer Free Folk Showcase this summer, a series spotlighting local singer-songwriters. The showcase will be held on the first Thursday of the summer months at its 21 Main Street location in downtown Gloucester. The first one is this upcoming Thursday, June 1, with Gloucester-based singer-songwriter Hayley Reardon from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.
Hayley will perform a 45-minute set of her music followed by a brief discussion about her approach to songwriting and lyrical composition. The evening is free and open to all to come and enjoy. No registration is required.
Hayley Reardon is a critically acclaimed folk-pop artist and a storyteller in the truest sense of the word. Her songs are postcards from an artist brave enough to take the road less traveled. Raised in Massachusetts, Reardon dove headfirst into music at 15 and honed her craft for over a decade, sharing the stage with acts like Lori McKenna, Rodney Crowell, and Anaïs Mitchell, among others. Her raw artistry boasts a lyrical and melodic weight far beyond her years. Her music has been described as “brilliantly moving folk/pop with a lyrical depth and soul” (Performer Magazine) and “a melancholy little masterpiece” (American Songwriter Magazine). She recently made a splash with her single, “Losing From Within,” grabbing the attention of Spotify Editorial Playlists like Fresh Folk, Folk Pop, Morning Coffee, and Today’s Singer/Songwriters. Her latest EP, In The Good Light, was recorded in Barcelona with Catalan collaborator Pau Figueres (one of Spain’s finest guitarists). Having recently made her home here in Gloucester, Hayley wowed audiences at the 2023 Singer/Songwriter Challenge at Machaca, winning first prize and making a memorable impression on the Cape Ann music scene.
The Sawyer Free Library is honored to have her perform for its first Sawyer Free Folk Showcase series.
For more information, visit the calendar at sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5571.
As a part of May’s Local Memoir Series, the Sawyer Free Library is pleased to present Virginia McKinnon as she reads from her newly released memoir, A Fisherman’s Daughter: Growing Up Sicilian-American in the Oldest Fishing Port in America. All are invited to this special evening on Thursday, May 18, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester.
At age 93, this first-time author shares short stories of her heritage growing up in Gloucester, spanning her lifetime, including her late husband’s WWII experiences in the Asiatic Pacific. Drawing on her vivid memories from throughout her life as a child when she could hop fishing boat to fishing boat during St. Peter’s Fiesta in Gloucester Harbor to the joyful celebrations of marriage and family life, to her community and public life work as a social worker, eucharistic minister, lector, and writer, Virginia’s book documents a cultural history of a way of life in Gloucester and America.
The event is free and open to the public at Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street, Gloucester. For more information and to register, visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org.
For May’s Young Gloucester Scientists Club field trip, they have teamed up with Rick Roth and the Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team to learn about the link woodland creatures, such as salamanders and frogs, have to ponds in Gloucester. Suitable for 4th-8th graders.
Join in on the fun on Friday afternoon, May 19 from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. `Location details will be sent after registering.
The event is free but you need to register at SawyerFreeLibrary.org.
Sawyer Free Library is pleased to offer Baby Sign Language with Baby Keands on Monday, May 15 from 10:20 – 12 noon at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester.
Learn about the benefits of signing with babies from Sheryl White of Baby Kneads. During this free class, caregivers will learn how to teach American Sign Language to their little ones, practice several signs and more.
This event will be held at Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street. Register at sawyerfreelibrary.org. Questions? Contact: jvitale@sawyerfreelibrary.org.
As a part of May’s Memoir Month, the Sawyer Free Library is pleased to welcome local author Stella Nahatis on Thursday, May 11 at 5:30 to discuss her newly released memoir, Taxi to America: A Greek Orphan’s Adoption Journey. All are welcome to attend this special event at the Library located at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. To register click HERE or for more information, visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org.
Stella’s journey from Thessaloniki, Greece, to America begins with a pre-dawn taxi ride that she and her sister share while the coffin holding a loved one rides along in the taxi’s trunk. Orphaned and separated from her younger sister “for her own good” as the culture dictated at the time, Stella ends up being adopted by a Greek couple that had emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts. At age 11, she overcomes multiple losses and cultural differences to find a place in her new homeland while finding ways to stay connected to those she loved in Greece.
This story of resilience and perseverance follows Stella’s journey of becoming an “Amerikanaki” and eventually reconnecting with her sister, who had stayed in Greece with her own set of adoptive parents. Even as Stella embraces her new life and culture in America, she rebuilds her loving relationship with her sister after an eight-year separation. Later in life, the sisters take another taxi ride together, this time to recover important details of their birth parents’ life stories that mirror the determination to survive and thrive that marks their own.
To register, or for more information, visit, sawyerfreelibrary.org.
A morning of unstructured play for little ones and their caregivers at SFL at 21 Main Street. Books and toys will be provided. Best suited for ages 0-2.
No registration needed. Questions? Contact: jvitale@sawyerfreelibrary.org
Sawyer Free Library will welcome EMILY FRANKLIN—poet and award-winning author who has appeared in the New York Times and the Boston Globe—for a discussion of her new book THE LIONESS OF BOSTON on Tuesday, May 9 at 6:00 pm. The event will be at the Sawyer Free Library at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. Registration is required at sawyerfreelibrary.org. Please note that space is limited.
A novel of historical fiction, “The Lioness of Boston” tells about the life of daring visionary Isabella Stewart Gardner, who created an inimitable legacy in American art and transformed the city of Boston itself. It is a portrait of what society expected a woman’s life to be, shattered by a courageous soul who rebelled and was determined to live on her terms.
A misfit who befriended other outcasts to rise into art and intellectual society, Isabella used her own collections to open the now-famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
By the time Gardner opened her home as a museum in 1903 — to showcase her collection of old masters, antiques, and objects d’art — she was already well-known for scandalizing Boston’s polite society. But when Isabella first arrived in Boston in 1861, newly married and unsure of herself, she was puzzled by the frosty reception she received from stuffy bluebloods.
At first, she strived to fit in. Then, following tragedy and upper-society rejection, she set out on a new path.
Franklin describes how Isabella discovers her own outspoken nature and infiltrates the Harvard intellectual world. Then, as she explores the larger world, she meets artists and kindred spirits — Henry James, Oscar Wilde and John Singer Sargent. A worldwide traveler, she attends the first Impressionist exhibit, collects a wide range of paintings and objects, and forges an important relationship with Bernard Berenson, who will become her art dealer/confidante.
Freed by travel, Isabella explores the world of art, ideas,L and letters. From London and Paris to Egypt and Asia, she develops a keen eye for paintings and objects, and meets feminists ready to transform 19th-century thinking in the 20th century. Isabella becomes an eccentric trailblazer, painted by John Singer Sargent in a portrait of daring décolletage, and fond of such stunts as walking a pair of lions in the Boston Public Garden.
Franklin, whose award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Guernica, JAMA, and numerous literary magazines, has also been featured and read aloud on NPR and was named notable by the Association of Jewish Libraries. A lifelong visitor to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, she lives outside of Boston with her family, including two dogs large enough to be lions.
Click HERE to register. Space is limited. Questions, 978-325-5500.
“The Lioness of Boston is a captivating story of a significant woman in Boston’s history who left that city a cultural legacy to last the ages. This beautiful novel will appeal to those who love masterful historical fiction, and stories of triumphant women who leave an indelible mark.” – New York Journal of Books
Cape Ann Community 