Community Calendar

You’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience as New York Times best-selling author Josh Malerman (Bird Box, Watching Evil Dead) and his theatrical troupe Wow Town present a theatrical reading of scenes from Malerman's instant best-seller, Incidents Around the House.

Following the presentation, Josh will sit down with best-selling author Gregory Galloway for exclusive talk-back on the production, and more!

Why You Should Come
Malerman is a force of nature. With Incidents Around the House, he has created a modern version of radio theater, done live with real musicians, actors, and the author himself, front and center.

Wow Town mixes narration, props, actors, and a live score from Jim Byrne (multi-instrumentalist), Tessa Stransky (violin), and Chad Stocker (bass). And as Josh always reminds the troupe: "It's not a play, it's still a reading. But it's a lot more than me alone at a podium."

Stick around after the program for an exclusive talk back with Josh and best-selling author Gregory Galloway.

Book Launch
Alice Baber: An Artist’s Triumph Over Tragedy
by Gail Levin

Join us for a book launch celebrating Alice Baber: An Artist’s Triumph Over Tragedy by art historian and artist biographer Gail Levin. This new biography revisits the life and work of Alice Baber, an abstract painter known for luminous fields of color that seem to float and shift with light. During her lifetime, Baber’s work entered major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, and the permanent collection of Guild Hall, before her premature death at just fifty-four. Levin draws on extensive research to trace Baber’s artistic development, her place in the mid-century art world, and the forces that contributed to her later obscurity. More than a portrait of an individual artist, the book offers a needed reappraisal, restoring Baber to the history of American modernism and introducing her work to a new generation.

The Seymour Library welcomes again the historian John Cilio. Mr. Cilio will speak on how the idea of an individual's freedom and and a nation's freedom grew from concepts present in the Colonists' print media and everyday interactions.

The Colonists' concept of freedom grew organically from concepts present in the print media of the time. Mr.Cilio will look into the early days of the Revolution---he will use primary and secondary sources as he focuses in the viewpoints and the mindset as the Colonists' gear up to the inevitable fight for independence.

The presentation will show how sermons from various states and church ministers, newspaper articles of the time and taverns served as lively hubs that encouraged Colonists to consider rebellion and ultimately self-governance as their best options for respect, independence and meaningful survival on their own collective terms.

Call the Library at 203-888-3903 for more information on this program. Registration is not necessary for this program.

Free with Museum admission

June 6, 2 PM - 3 PM

Discover the Parrish with a Museum Docent. Docent-led tours offer visitors focused insight into the Museum and its exhibitions. Docent tours are free with Museum admission and are offered on the first and third Saturdays of each month.

Seymour Library welcomes Valley local Matt Yanarella. Mr. Yanarella will relate the Valley story of Chauncey Judd. The well known tale is of a local youth who was kidnapped during a raid by the British.

On March 15, 1780 robbers led by a British officer raided Ebenezer Dayton's Bethany Connecticut home while he was away on business. Dayton's wife and children, however, were at home. The robbers after the raid traveled west across the Naugatuck River, hiding out on their way.

Encountering Chauncey Judd, a newly turned 16 year old, the robbers took Judd hostage and at times considering killing him. Rescued, miles from home, it is said that Chauncey Judd never fully recovered from the trauma of his experience.

The events relating to Chauncey Judd took place in what has since become parts of Oxford, possibly Derby, Naugatuck and Middlebury. Come and hear the full details and all the speculations about this daring kidnapping.

Call the Library at 203-888-3903 for more information on this program. Registration is not necessary for this program.

Michael Langlois returns to the Ridgefield Library for an exciting presentation telling the story of the founding of our nation through two American musicals,1776 and Hamilton. This lecture looks at these Revolutionary musicals and their contrasting visions of American society at a crossroads.

Go to the Events Calendar at ridgefieldlibrary.org for more information and to register. This program is made possible with the support of the Friends of the Ridgefield Library Scholarly Series and with promotional support by Ridgefield Commemorates America at 250.

The Seymour Library welcomes the historian John Cilio again. Mr. Cilio will speak of the history of the American symbol of the Liberty Bell.

In the early days of America, bells were a community's primary means of mass communication. They were rung for fires, funerals, festivals and other important events. The bell America calls the Liberty Bell was brought to Philadelphia in 1752 and weighed more than a ton.

When it first rang, it was uninspiring in tone and cracked after use. The colonists melted it down and recast the bell, more than once. It endures as a national treasure and one of the six symbols most recognized for representing America.

Join John Cilio at the Seymour Library as he explains why the bell became a prized icon of American Traditions.

Call the Library at 203-888-3903 for more information on this program. Registration is not necessary for this program.

Free with Museum admission

2 PM - 3 PM

Discover the Parrish with a Museum Docent. Docent-led tours offer visitors focused insight into the Museum and its exhibitions. Docent tours are free with Museum admission and are offered on the first and third Saturdays of each month.

The Bethel Pride book club meets the third Saturday of each month in person at Rainy Day Paperback at 3PM or online via Discord (see below).
March: Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique
April: Nicked by M.T. Anderson
May: Body Horror: Capitalism, Fear, Misogyny, Jokes
June: Man O'War by Cory McCarthy
July: Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity
August: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

If you cannot attend in person, book club is also hosted via text chat on Friday & Saturday via Discord. Please visit store website for a link!

The popular series kicks off its 15th year with Padma Lakshmi, the Emmy-nominated producer, television creator/host of CBS’s America’s Culinary Cup, food expert, New York Times best-selling author, and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. Padma will sit down with Florence to discuss her 2025 book, Padma’s All American—Tales, Travels, and Recipes from Taste the Nation and Beyond: A Cookbook. This very personal book is the result of seven years of traveling, tasting, listening, and observing.

Enjoy a pre-show continental breakfast, courtesy of Citarella, before this culinary adventure. A book signing will follow in the lobby.