Gwendolyn Hallsmith
For the kick-off event of this year’s One Book, One Watertown series, Gwendolyn Hallsmith will be speaking about community sustainability and local environmental issues. Ms. Hallsmith is the Director of Global Community Initiatives, and is the other of The Key to Sustainable Cities, which discusses new approachies to city planning.
Her writing and speaking share many common themes with this year’s selected book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman.
Last Thursday, October 9, was the date of our fabulous Indian dinner with Tamarind Bay, and our penultimate event for One Book, One Watertown.
After reading about all the delicious Indian food in the Namesake – because like any good family, the Ganguli family bonds through mealtimes – I was really looking forward to tasting what Jhumpa Lahiri had so lovingly described.
And Tamarind Bay, a local Indian restaurant, did not disappoint. With heaping platters of soft rice, warm naan (flat bread), and plentiful helpings of vegetarian and non-vegetarian offerings, there was something for everyone. There was chicken tikka masala, a dish made of tender chicken, a creamy tomato sauce, and mild spices, saag paneer, cooked spinach, cheese and spices, and a rich and tasty dish with chick peas that I didn’t catch the name of. And then there were tasty side dishes, and a uniquely spiced rice pudding for dessert. Tamarind Bay also enlightened our group of diners with a brief, but fascinating lecture on Indian food.
Luckily for you, if you missed our all-you-can-eat Indian Buffet, we still have some room open on Tuesday, October 21st where we invite Tamarind Bay back to do it all again. Tickets are on sale at the library for $5.
On Thursday, October 9 at 7 PM and Tuesday, October 21 at 7 PM, learn about – and taste! – Indian food in our closing events for One Book, One Watertown.
Local Indian restaurant, Tamarind Bay, provides the food for our final events. Tickets for this event will be on sale soon, for $5 each. Space will be limited, so make sure you get yours early!
On October 5th at 1 PM, we’ll be showing the movie version of The Namesake, starring Kal Penn.
Here are some reviews of the film to whet your appetite:
Roger Ebert: “The Namesake tells a story that is the story of all immigrant groups in America: Parents of great daring arriving with dreams, children growing up in a way that makes them almost strangers, the old culture merging with the new. It has been said that all modern Russian literature came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat.” In the same way, all of us came out of the overcoat of this same immigrant experience.”
Claudia Puig from USA Today: “Nair has taken a fascinating piece of literature and woven a rich cultural tapestry for the screen. The Namesake elicits laughter and tears in its profound and emotionally resonant family portrait.”
Ty Burr from The Boston Globe: “The Namesake has a deep, alluvial poetry to it, like a mighty river reaching the sea. It’s mysterious and ordinary, insightful and banal, rambling and precise, and it is altogether unexpected.”
This Saturday is Watertown’s Annual Faire on the Square. This year, we’re participating with several events based on our community reading program, One Book, One Watertown.
Because we’ve been reading Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, all three events we have planned celebrate Indian culture:
Taal Tales Dancing: Learn about traditional Indian dancing with Tara Ahmed.
Saturday, September 27 at 11: 30 AM
This 45-minute lecture/demonstration presents a history of classical South Indian dance and performances of dance pieces celebrating various deities. You will see analogies between art from India and America, and learn to understanding parallels between art forms and cultures. In this highly interactive program, the participants are engaged by asking and answering questions throughout the entire program. A small group is invited to get up to learn some movement, and there is a Question & Answer period at the end of the program.
Henna Tattoos: Get your own henna tattoo with Sue Murad.
Saturday, September 27 starting at 2 PM
Express your appreciation for Indian culture on your skin. Visual artist Sue Murad specializes in hand drawing these gorgeous henna tattoos that will last about two weeks. The Watertown Free Public Library has invited “Henna Sue” to help us celebrated Faire on the Square and One Book, One Watertown.
Drop In Crafts: Learn how to make Indian Block Prints in an event hosted by our Children’s Department.
Saturday, September 27 from 2-4 PM.
The Children’s Department will host Open Craft from 2-4 pm in the Watertown Savings Bank Room. Stop by to learn about Indian Block Printing and make your own print!
We kicked off our first ever One Book One Watertown Community Read with a talk by Professor Bakirathi Mani, who teaches at Swarthmore College. About 70 people attended the event, nearly filling up the room. After Professor Mani spoke about the Namesake and Jhumpa Lahiri, people asked questions, and told their own family stories of immigration and relocation.
It was a great event, and we’d like to thank everyone for attending. Hopefully we’ll see you all again next Saturday, September 27th for the events we have planned for Faire on the Square.
Next week will finally see the official start to the events for our community reading program, One Book, One Watertown.
Swarthmore College Professor, Bakirathi Mani, will visit the library to give an engaging lecture on The Namesake and Jhumpa Lahiri.
Bakirathi Mani is a professor at Swarthmore College, and the Chair of their Women’s Studies Department. She has Pd.D.s in Modern Thought and Literature and Cultural and Social Anthropology, and specializes in studying the South Asian diaspora in the United States. As such, she is a scholarly authority on Jhumpa Lahiri and her works.
Refreshments will be provided for guests by our own cafe. No registration required.
Are you looking forward to September? You will be when you see the finalized list of events we’re putting on for our One Book, One Watertown program.
We’ll have more information on each event soon, so keep an eye on this space for updates!
All of the new copies of the Namesake are now in, so come in and get your copy to read, or place a request online. They’re all brand new, clean, and easy to carry paperbacks, so you can take your copy with you to read on the bus, train, or, if you’re very coordinated, while you’re walking around town.
The events for this program will kick off in September, so you have over a month to read the acclaimed book by Jhumpa Lahiri, if you haven’t already.
This fall, the library is going to launch a community reading program for Watertown called “One Book One Watertown.”
Thanks to a grant from the Watertown Community Foundation and funding from the Library Building Foundation, we’ll be able to buy enough copies of Jhumpa Lahiri’s exiting novel, The Namesake, for everyone in town to read. And we mean everyone! So, stop by over the next couple of months and pick up a copy, because starting in the fall, we’ll be having book discussions, special events, lectures, crafts, food and more.
If you aren’t tempted yet, let me tell you a little bit more about the book. The Namesake is a family history, encompassing two generations of the Ganguli family, an immigrant family that gains and loses more than they expect in their pursuit of the American Dream. There’s the father, Ashoke Ganguli, who leaves Calcutta with his wife Ashima to settle in Central Square, in Cambridge, and their two children, Gogol and Sonali. The book is primarily concerned with the son, Gogol, and how he struggles against his parents cultural values, even though he shares them more than he thinks.
The New York Times called the book, “that rare thing: an intimate, closely observed family portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds to disclose a capacious social vision.”
So get reading! More updates will be posted as we finalize event dates, so stay tuned.
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