Community Calendar

The Seymour Library welcomes magician Chris Lengyel. Mr. Lengyel will give a talk on the life and career of Harry Houdini ending with a tribute performance of magic.

The year of 2026 in the 100th anniversary of the death of Harry Houdini. Despite the decades, the name Harry Houdini is still recognizable to the public as a magician, an escape artist, an actor and an acknowledged expert on spiritualism fraud.

Beyond his skill on stage, acting in silent movies and escapes from locked boxes, underwater or being entombed, Houdini became known to modern audiences for his death on Halloween and the seances to contact his spirit, first by his widow Bess and later by other magicians and magic societies.

Mr. Lengyel will talk about Houdini's life, career and his influence on magic and pop culture. He will perform magic tricks inspired by Houdini or that Houdini performed himself.

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

Registration is required for this free, virtual lecture: https://HamptonsObservatory.org

On October 21, 2026, at 7:00 PM, ET, Hamptons Observatory and co-host Suffolk County Community College will present a free, virtual lecture, “The Astronomy of the Northern Dene.”

Indigenous astronomies provide centuries-old models of knowing, being, and relating to the world. In this talk Chris Cannon will share his 17 year immersive experience learning from Northern Dene elders across Alaska and Canada about their traditional astronomical knowledge. At the center of these knowledge systems is a Traveller figure who journeyed around the world in ancient time before incarnating among the stars as a massive constellation. The Traveller constellation is a gamekeeper, a teacher, a guardian, and the spiritual embodiment of all things. The Traveller, together with a host of other celestial and atmospheric phenomena like thunder and the northern lights, bridges the divide between earth and sky, instilling balance and instructing people on how to live with each other and their environments.

Chris Cannon, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he is Chair of the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies. He has worked with Northern Dene Elders and communities across Alaska and Canada since 2008. His work has been featured in the New York Times; in a recent PBS/NOVA documentary--”Knowledge Keepers”--on Dene star navigation (on-demand on PBS); and in his recent book, In the Footsteps of the Traveller: The Astronomy of Northern Dene. Chris also serves on the editorial board for the Alaska Native Language Center and on the Board of Trustees for the University Press of Colorado.

Hamptons Observatory extends its thanks to Suffolk County Community College for its kind collaboration and Dr. Cannon for sharing his expertise.

About the photo: According to the Dene, a constellation that includes the Big Dipper represents the legend of a Traveller who lives in the stars. The Milky Way, seen here, is the Traveller's trail.

Molly Jong-Fast is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator. She hosts the Fast Politics podcast and wrote How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir.

Guy Benson is the political editor of Townhall.com, an American columnist, commentator, and political pundit. He contributes to Fox News and hosts a conservative talk show on Fox News Radio, and previously for NPR.

With the well-informed and highly respected voices of Jong-Fast and Benson leading the way, a lively political conversation—only two weeks before Election Day ‘26—is anticipated. This timely conversation promises to provide audience members with invaluable perspectives on the potential election outcomes and broader implications for the future of American politics.

Old Time Jam
Third Wednesday of the Month, 7:30 PM
Tickets: Donations Appreciated

Calling all fiddles, guitars, and banjos for an Old Time Jam at the Granite!

Play along or sit back and listen to Appalachian music with us. Bring any acoustic string instrument and make new friends playing old-timey tunes with other musicians.

Come as you are, give as you can. All are welcome!

Chicago, 1927. Tensions and temperatures rise during a blistering recording session as the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey, and her ambitious trumpeter, Levee, clash over control of her music, exposing the emotional and economic exploitation Black artists faced in America. An exploration of dreams deferred, cultural identity, and the power of the blues, August Wilson’s electrifying masterpiece, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, returns in a brand-new production more than 40 years after it first raised the roof of the American theater in its world premiere at Yale Rep.

Keeping sharp and staying active is vital for older adults.

The AFA Barbara Rabinowitz Center offers free, dementia-friendly activities for Long Island seniors every weekday in Amityville.

The Center’s free programs help seniors strengthen their brains, be creative, and socialize.

Programs include arts & crafts, music, games, chair yoga, dance, and movement.

Visit afalongisland.org or call 631-223-4000 to learn more.

Open Studios New Haven returns to the city with a bang! This year, more than two dozen locations across New Haven, Westville, and West Haven will open their doors (and studios) in a month-long extravaganza of events! Open Studios New Haven (OSNHV) runs October 1 to November 1, with an exciting line-up of weekend events including: Opening Weekend (Oct 1- 4), Downtown Weekend (Oct 10 - 11), Erector Square/Marlin Works Weekend (Oct 17 -18), Westville Weekend (Oct 24 - 25), and a Giant Puppet Parade in Westville’s Edgewood Park on November 1 (11am). With support from the City of New Haven, the Town Green District, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, you can meet local artists, visit their studios, learn about the creative process, and to purchase unique artwork, jewelry, and handicrafts ahead of the holiday season! Free and open to everyone. Get a sneak peek at OSNHV with “Glorious Index: Small Works by Open Studios Artists,” at The Gallery Upstairs at the Institute Library (Opening Reception, Thursday, October 1, 5-7pm). Discover all of the locations, addresses, and events on printed maps available throughout the city, and at OpenStudiosNHV.org.

Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt will explore the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art ranging from the early 19th century through the present day. These objects, from the humble to the refined, from the shamelessly commercial to the Afrofuturist, represent the range of artistic responses to – and misconceptions about – ancient Egyptian visual culture.
Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for Egyptian symbols and motifs contributed to the erasure of the ancient Egyptian people themselves, as their beliefs and customs became exoticized in popular memory. The exhibition will examine how these objects reflect the phenomenon of “Egyptomania” over the last two centuries and will position their oversimplified or stereotypical narratives in conversation with current archaeological understandings of ancient Egyptian culture.
Hieroglyphs to Hype: The Modern Afterlife of Ancient Egypt is curated by Megan Paqua (adjunct instructor of ancient Egyptian archaeology and art history and Fairfield University Art Museum Registrar) and will be on view from September 18 - December 12, 2026 in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries.

Charles-Théodore Frère, Along the Nile, ca. 1870, oil on panel. Fairfield University Art Museum, Gift of Michael T. Vigario’08, 2023, 2023.11.01

This exhibition focuses on more than 60 recent works by photographer James Welling (American, born 1951). From the artist’s Cento and Personae series, these photographs of ancient sites in Italy and Greece, as well as antiquities in museums around the world, underwent digital and painterly alteration to achieve transformative effects. The photographs will be exhibited alongside a selection from the Museum’s extensive collection of historic plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture.
As Welling explains, he is interested in “reanimating” the men and women of the ancient past through these works and connecting them to our own time in a fresh way through his innovative combination of photography and painting. Visitors to the exhibition will feel their curiosity piqued by his elusive and often haunting evocations of the ancient Mediterranean world.

James Welling, Fragment of a gold leaf wreath, 2020, oil pigment, oil pastel, and wax over electrostatic print on polypropylene substrate. Courtesy of the artist and Regen Projects. © James Welling

This exhibition explores the enduring fascination with ancient Egyptian art and culture (dubbed “Egyptomania” by 19th-century Europeans) through a selection of paintings, prints, photographs, and decorative art from the early 19th century to the present day.

These objects, from the humble to the refined, from the shamelessly commercial to the Afrofuturist, represent the range of artistic responses to – and misconceptions about – ancient Egyptian visual culture.

Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for Egyptian symbols and motifs contributed to the erasure of the ancient Egyptian people themselves, as popular memory exoticized their beliefs and customs. The exhibition will examine how these objects reflect the phenomenon of “Egyptomania” over the last two centuries and will position their oversimplified or stereotypical narratives in conversation with current archaeological understandings of ancient Egyptian culture.