Five Things You Need to Know Today

5 Things, Including Italian Days, Arabian Nights

Here's a look at Medfield today.

Our weekday morning column, "5 Things You Need to Know," provides you with information that can help you plan your day and give you some fodder for water cooler conversations. Here's a look at Medfield today... 1. An evening with local author Vittorio Palumbo who wrote "Italian Days, Arabian Nights: Coming of Age in the Shadow of Mussolini" at library from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. 2. Today's Town Hall meetings include the Board of Assessors at 1 p.m. (Assessor's Office) and the Safety Committee at 7 p.m. (Warrant Committee Room).  The Conservation Commission meeting scheduled for tonight has been cancelled.  3. Today's library events for children include Pattycake Place from 10:45am to 11:15am (activity room), Book Bunch from 11:30am to noon (…

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Medfield Listens – We All Have a Story to Share

Editor's note: The following is from the desk of Andrea Fiorillo, Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian.

We all have a story to share. We all come from a specific family, time, place, and circumstance. Each of us, no matter how quiet or short our lives, has loved, lost, laughed, and witnessed major world events. Our stories frame our identity and connect us to the past and one another.   In Outwitting History, as Aaron Lansky visits homes to collect Yiddish books, he quickly finds there is more to the endeavor than loading up boxes and thanking donors. As elderly owners relinquish their precious collections to the young Lansky they offer tea and conversation. This older generation shares stories of the literature they are handing over, their homeland, language, family, and community. And he listens. It slows him down considerably, yet he …

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Outdoor Sculpture Path to be Installed in Medfield Beginning in June

An outdoor sculpture path, "Thoughts Are Free," will be installed along 3/4-mile of Rte. 109 in Medfield between the historic Peak House and the old section of Vine Lake Cemetery.

A sculpture path is being installed in Medfield along Route 109 Main Street to coincide with the Medfield Public Library's program, "Medfield Reads." Sculptor Hannah Verlin's work will be featured throughout 16 outdoor sites in Medfield along Route 109 between the Peak House (347 Main St.) and the old section of Vine Lake Cemetery (625 Main St.) beginning on June 1 and lasting through October. The sculpture path, entitled "Thoughts Are Free" is positioned to geographically identify Medfield's planned Cultural District and thematically tie to Aaron Lansky's book "Outwitting History," according to a press release from Medfield resident and project manager Jean Mineo. The installation includes the 16 lines from the poem Thoughts are Free, cut…

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PHOTOS: Medfield Reads Visits Yiddish Book Center in Amherst

Medfield Reads of the Medfield Public Library organized a tour from the library to the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass.

Editor's note: Submitted by Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian Andrea Fiorillo. Medfield Reads hit the road for a trip to the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. earlier this month. After reading about the adventures of Aaron Lansky in the book Outwitting History, forty community members boarded a charter bus, generously funded by the Friends of the Medfield Public and the IMLS, and set off for our own bookish adventure. It was a beautiful day for a field trip. On arriving at the Yiddish Book Center we were given a guided tour.  The Center works to rescue Yiddish and other modern Jewish books and open up their content to the world. Their mission extends beyond books into many aspects of Yiddish culture. On the tour…

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40 Community Members Hit the Road with Medfield Reads Program

Editor's note: The following was submitted by Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian Andrea Fiorillo.

Medfield Reads hit the road for a trip to the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts last Sunday. After reading about the adventures of Aaron Lansky in the book Outwitting History, 40 community members boarded a charter bus, generously funded by the Friends of the Medfield Public and the IMLS, and set off for its own bookish adventure. On arriving at the Yiddish Book Center, those on the trip were given a guided tour. The Center works to rescue Yiddish and other modern Jewish books and open up their content to the world. Their mission extends beyond books into many aspects of Yiddish culture. On the tour, the group learned about the Center’s language internship programs and discovered treasures such as galleries full of art…

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Medfield Reads Events: It Starts with a Book

Editor's note: The following release is from the desk of Andrea Fiorillo, Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian.

Medfield Reads is like a train – the program's chosen book, Outwitting History, acts as the engine and as the community thinks about and plays with the book’s themes, each idea becoming its own joined car. The good news is you can get on the train anywhere you’d like. Whether you are a serious reader or have not picked up a book in years and don’t intend to, there are many ways to connect to this community project. The themes the program has been exploring are intergenerational dialogue, language, and cultural roots. Participants have enjoyed diverse events like concerts celebrating music from places far and near, films highlighting endangered peoples, children’s language workshops, and presentations on immigration, architecture, and …

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Award-Winning Author Aaron Lansky Visits Medfield

The following press release is from the desk of Andrea Fiorillo, Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian.

A lively audience greeted Aaron Lansky, author of the Medfield Reads title Outwitting History, when he spoke at the Medfield High School on March 12. He was warm, engaging, funny and inspiring. Recounting many of the stories detailed in his book, Lansky made them come alive with humor and feeling. He told of how he came to his life’s work collecting and promoting Yiddish literature and how that work continues today at the National Yiddish Book Center (NYBC) which he founded in Amherst. The NYBC is more than a home for Yiddish books; it is a vibrant cultural center, with language courses, galleries, a theater, and interactive exhibits. Its architecture is modeled on intricately hewn Polish wooden synagogues. The work of preserving the past …

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Award-Winning Author to Visit Medfield High School on March 12

Aaron Lansky, the author of the award-winning book, "Outwitting History, the Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books," will be at Medfield High School to present and sign copies of his book as part of the Medfield Reads program.

Editor's note: The following was submitted by Andrea Fiorillo, Medfield Public Library Adult Services Librarian. As part of Medfield Reads, Aaron Lansky will speak at the Lowell Mason Auditorium of Medfield High School on March 12 at 7 p.m. Lansky, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Award is the President of the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. and author of the award-winning book "Outwitting History, the Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books." When he was a 23-year-old graduate student, Lansky stumbled upon an alarming fact: throughout North America, thousands of Yiddish books – books that had survived Hitler and Stalin – were being discarded and destroyed. As an older generation passed on, more …

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Sculpture Path to Outline Medfield’s Cultural District

Medfield resident Jean Mineo is organizing a sculpture path from the Peak House to Vine Lake Cemetery that will likely appear in town by late spring.

Thanks to the efforts of Medfield resident Jean Mineo and a grant she received from the Medfield Cultural Council, a sculpture path will be returning to town this spring. “I think it will be really cool,” said Mineo. “We are hoping for installation [of the sculptures] in late spring and depending on materials, it could be up for the summer and maybe into September or it could be a shorter project. It’s not permanent but it would be an opportunity to get that conversation going [about] what the cultural opportunities are in Medfield.” Two years ago, Mineo organized a similar sculpture path at Vine Lake Cemetery. Five sculptors each produced a piece of contemporary sculpture related to the theme portals, which was displayed in the old …

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