Community Calendar

The Songs of America
Sunday, October 18, 3 PM (Doors 2 PM)
Tickets: $45

Featuring: Eric Mahl, Sarah Joyce Cooper, and friends

This program dives deep into the very roots of what we have come to know as the “American sound,” through song. From Africa to the British Isles, to Mezzo-America, from Spirituals to Rock and Roll, from Appalachia to Danbury, we will explore the rich traditions of music from all over space and time that have come together to create the unique and kaleidoscopic world of American music that permeates the very air we breathe.

The program will include traditional renditions of folk songs from around the world featuring the works of Samuel Barber, Charles Ives- even Claude Debussy and many more. Join us for an enlightening and entertaining afternoon of The Songs of America.

The Mountain Maidens Folk Show will perform LIVE music at the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook Village (97 Main Street, Stony Brook, NY) on October 18th from 3-4pm. The event is free for members or with general admission ticket purchase or $10 at the door concert ticket purchase.

For details on this and upcoming events please visit https://www.limusichalloffame....

About The Mountain Maidens

These three dynamic voices, blended in splendid ancient and modern harmonies will lift your spirit, excite your senses and warm your heart.An Afternoon of Folk, Irish and Acoustic Covers in Splendid Three-part harmony on guitars, banjo, mandolin, ukelele and more.

"Castle of our Skins brings 'an endlessly curious and almost archaeological mind to [their] programming’" —The New York Times

Co-founded in 2013 by two musicians who met at the New England Conservatory, Castle of our Skins centers Black arts, culture, and history in each curated event, musical selection, and artistic collaborator. As part of their 2026-27 artist residency with the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts, this acclaimed Black arts institution will present Sacred Transcendence, an afternoon of African American spirituals, from classics to those reimagined. Blending voice, strings, and piano, the program will weave foundational spirituals published by H.T. Burleigh, James Weldon Johnson, and R. Nathaniel Dett with reimagined contemporary works by composers suchas Shawn Okphebelo, Adolphus Hailstork, and Jessie Montgomery.

Within the Greater Boston classical music and arts scene, Castle of our Skins is unrivaled in their dedication to program works by African diasporic composers in collaboration with other artistic disciplines. They are committed to education, especially early intervention through music and the arts.

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.

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.

Looking to practice your Spanish speaking skills?
Adults and teens are welcome to join us for a casual and informal conversation group.
This is not an instructional course, but rather an excellent opportunity to chat and improve your skills through facilitated conversation.
Native Spanish speakers looking to engage in friendly conversation are also welcome.

Registration is required.

For more information about this program, Please contact Adriana Navea at 203-797-4505 ext. 7714 or anavea@danburylibrary.org

Course description:

College is a crucial institution in which our society works through its expectations for young people. This course explores the purposes of college education through the first great book on the philosophy of education, Plato’s Republic. We read The Republic in conversation with other thinkers including Aristotle, Confucius, John Stuart Mill, Virginia Woolf, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. For the 325th anniversary of Yale’s founding, we also explore the changing conception of college education at Yale over the centuries and read some of the college’s and the university’s key founding documents. Themes include the development of personal character, participation in a community, preparation for citizenship, and conversation with others on intellectual matters. We also explore some of the social and economic functions of college education.

The 2026 DeVane Lecture series will be led by Pericles Lewis, Dean of Yale College and Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature

The class is free and open to the public and will run on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:20 p.m., from September 2 to December 9, 2026.

Join us online for these restorative sessions, led by teacher Jackie DeLise!