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Eastham Library

    AT THE LIBRARY

    A Leaky Roof Gets Repaired for a Second Time

    Eastham sidesteps a complete redesign by trying a different kind of seal

    By

    This article was updated on Nov. 24.

    EASTHAM — When Library Director Melanie McKenzie came to work on Sept. 23, she found the area around the circulation desk flooded. There had been a torrential downpour the day before, during which Eastham got 6.65 inches of rain, according to the Community Cooperative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network, a volunteer group of weather observers.

    Loan Vo, who works for Dan’s Custom Hardwood Flooring, makes repairs near the library’s circulation desk. (Photo by Parker Mumford)

    It wasn’t the first time that part of the relatively new library roof had leaked, and Town Manager Jacqui Beebe sounded exasperated when she addressed the select board at its meeting that evening. There was “no doubt in her mind,” she said, that the town would need to completely redesign the roof if it wanted to stop the leak for good, and that it would be expensive.

    But on Nov. 19, Beebe seemed hopeful about the repairs now underway. “I wouldn’t want to go to town meeting and say there are things that were suggested that we didn’t try,” she said. “We are not going to go for a huge capital investment until we have exhausted all of our methods.”

    Contractors working for BluSky Restoration, a company founded in Denver but working nationally and with offices in Woburn and Stoughton, were originally expected to finish creating a thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) seal along the length of the leaky area this week. A delay pushed the expected completion to Nov. 25, according to Beebe.

    Their approach was different from that of the previous contractors who tried to fix the problem in 2019. The seal is larger this time, said Beebe, leading to a greater overlap between it and the metal that will hopefully keep rain from penetrating the roof.

    “It’s a metal roof, so it’s not easy to replace just a single section, but we’re trying anyway,” Beebe said. “BluSky felt very confident that they could replace that section of the roof, seal it, and make it work.”

    The current repair job has a price tag of $25,715 — much less than Beebe and other town officials had anticipated spending for a roof redesign. Instead of requesting capital funding, Beebe said the money will come from the town’s maintenance and repairs account.

    BluSky also oversaw interior repairs associated with the September water damage, removing saturated ceiling tiles and setting up dehumidifiers to minimize further problems. The company was expected to complete installing, sanding, and finishing the library’s new flooring on Nov. 20.

    A No-Fault Round One

    When patrons entered the library early Tuesday afternoon this week, staff directed them through the gardens to prevent them from interfering with the final stages of the repairs. Despite the design award from the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association that the Eastham library received in 2018, this wasn’t the first time visitors found themselves re-routed during roof repairs.

    In 2016, architects brought old and new together at the Eastham library in an award-winning redesign. But the roof has now been repaired twice after serious leaks in 2019 and this fall. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    The first fix was needed in fall 2019. The leak seemed to be a consequence of the shape of the roof, which was designed to direct water away from nearby Depot Pond and into a rain garden in the crook of the L-shaped building. Before falling into the garden, water flowed through a channel where two sections of the roof met.

    That’s where the trouble was, according to Al Alfano, chair of the library’s board of trustees. “It turned out the flashing in that area wasn’t sufficient to handle the water load that was being directed to the garden,” he said.

    Luckily, the leaks have never caused damage to the library’s books, furniture, or copy machines. “One of the design features of the library is flexibility, so the spaces can be repurposed,” Alfano said. “Lots of things are on wheels. We managed to move everything out of the way.”

    Nevertheless, librarians couldn’t prevent damage to the wood floor and ceiling tiles near the circulation desk, caused both times the leak brought water into the building. This time, the leak also forced the library to temporarily close down the copy machines, which couldn’t find a home among the relocated shelves.

    Initial assessments of the cause were conducted in December 2019 and March 2020 by Waltham-based engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger. Because the parties couldn’t determine who was at fault — the contractors blamed the architects and the architects blamed the contractors, according to Beebe — the cost of the assessment and repairs were shared. Two-thirds of the assessment fee was covered by Oudens Ello Architecture and the rest was paid by the town; the repair work fell to the builder, Nauset Construction.

    “Nauset Construction was very confident they’d fixed it,” library director McKenzie said, “but the problem with a slow leak is that you don’t know it’s a problem until it becomes big.”

    Nauset Construction hadn’t been successful in stopping the leak after all. And by this fall, when library staff noticed staining on the ceiling again, the contractor’s five-year warranty on the building’s original 2016 completion date had expired.

    For Alfano, the return of the leak seemed like the result of a perfect storm: days after the staining had reappeared, the downpour revealed the failure of the previous repair.

    Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article, published in print on Nov. 21, incorrectly reported that contractors had completed installing a new seal on the leaking section of library roof. The installation was delayed and, according to Town Manager Jacqui Beebe, was expected to be completed on Nov, 25.

    PHOTOGRAPHY

    Eye on a Momentous Era

    Eastham library showcases Rowland Scherman’s photographs of the civil rights movement

    By

    In the multipurpose room at the Eastham library, a small group of Nauset High School students are organizing a gift-wrapping station to raise money for their prom. Business is slow, and the teenagers pass the time chatting around a folding table covered in rolls of wrapping paper and tape. Framed prints of Rowland Scherman’s black-and-white photographs from the civil rights movement in the 1960s hang on the walls behind them.

    Dr. Martin Luther King. (Photos by Rowland Scherman)

    Vivienne Talbot, a 16-year-old student from Orleans, expresses disbelief at the age of the photographs. “There’s no way those photos are that old,” she says, pointing at Scherman’s close-up of Martin Luther King during the monumental March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. “They’re too clear.” Talbot is right: Scherman’s photographs, taken more than half a century ago, are sharply in focus.

    Scherman captured the 1960s on 35-millimeter black-and-white film using handheld Nikon and Leica cameras. Affixed to the cameras were newly developed wide-aperture lenses that allowed more light to hit the film, enabling faster shutter speeds and sharper images of moving subjects. But it wasn’t just the technology that made Scherman’s photographs so vivid.

    Marchers on the Capitol Mall in Washington D.C.

    The photographer has a knack for placing himself right in the center of the action. Which, in this case, happened to be some of most historic and culturally significant moments of the era.

    Scherman was 24 when he heard President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address. He was inspired by the famous passage ending with “Ask what you can do for your country.”

    “Like thousands of other Americans, I responded,” he told documentary filmmaker Chris Szwedo.

    The young amateur photographer took a bus to Washington, D.C., showed up at Peace Corps headquarters, and asked for a job. “We don’t need a photographer, kid,” was the response. But Scherman persisted, and he started working as the agency’s first photographer a few days later.

    Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

    That job marked the beginning of a career that took him around the world, photographing cultural and political events for Life, Time, and National Geographic.

    In 1963, Scherman was hired as freelancer by the U.S. Information Agency. His assignment to photograph a civil rights march in Washington led him to capture some of the most iconic moments of one of the largest human rights rallies in U.S. history.

    These images, now displayed at the Eastham Public Library on loan from the Lighthouse Charter School in Harwich, were taken on that historic day.

    “I couldn’t be stymied from going anywhere,” said Scherman. “I was 26 or 27, and I was very spry and athletic. I worked pretty hard that day.” Unlike most photographers at the March on Washington, Scherman had unlimited access to the events because of his government agency credentials.

    Scherman’s lens intimately captured the essence of the ’60s in just one day. “A lot of my heroes were there,” said Scherman, “and I was among them, shooting their pictures.”

    In one shot, civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph stands contemplatively in front of an out-of-focus Lincoln Memorial. In another, Bob Dylan strums his guitar and plays the harmonica, accompanying Joan Baez.

    A. Philip Randolph.

    By the reflecting pool, Burt Lancaster takes a swig of Coca-Cola as Sidney Poitier watches. The shared moment of respite reveals the personal within the public, a quiet connection between two people amid the hundreds of thousands.

    On Constitution Avenue, Martin Luther King marches with civil rights and union leaders. King, leading the way, gazes forward with determination. The others follow. Scherman’s wider establishing shots of the march are dense with detail — he rarely leaves empty space.

    On the Mall, scores of hands and excited faces pool around rows of placards with calls to action: “We Demand Decent Housing Now!” By the obelisk, a mass of bodies is packed together in anticipation of the speakers.

    What stands out about the photos isn’t the framing; it’s the tens of thousands of subjects, both white and black, marching peacefully for social and economic equality.

    “I don’t think anyone in America had seen that big a crowd before,” said Scherman. “It was awe-inspiring.”

    Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster.

    In 2013, Scherman’s story and imagery were the subject of a 90-minute documentary, Eye on the 60s, directed by Eastham resident Chris Szwedo. It offers a glimpse into the events that shaped Scherman’s life and his approach to photography.

    A special screening of the film will take place at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 6 in the multipurpose room where Scherman’s photographs are on display. The showing will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Szwedo.

    In the documentary, Scherman offers a piece of advice to fellow photographers that sums up his attitude: “If you don’t carry your camera with you, a flying saucer is going to fly over you, and you’re not going to be able to capture it.”

    ‘Eye on the 60s’

    The event: Documentary film on the photography of Rowland Scherman, directed by Chris Szwedo
    The time: Saturday, Jan. 6, 1 p.m.; exhibit of Scherman’s photographs continues through January.
    The place: Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Road
    The cost: Free

    RUMINANTS

    Four-Legged Friends of Eastham Library Are on the Job

    Goats are eating poison ivy and bittersweet, but they’re eschewing knotweed

    By

    EASTHAM — Dragon, Wizard, Myles, and little Bleu have spent the last two weeks eating invasive poison ivy, bittersweet, and autumn olive behind the Eastham Public Library on Samoset Road. The quartet of male goats, like any contractors worth their salt, won’t leave until the job is completed, which will likely be by the end of this week.

    The goats at the Eastham library are nearly finished with their two-week invasive vegetation removal gig. (Photos by Marcia Geier)

    On the gentle slope between the library’s newly renovated building and the shores of neighboring Depot Pond, Goat Green Cape Cod owner Stacey Greaves has set up an electric fence around an area measuring roughly 50 by 150 feet. Inside their enclosure, the goats are hard at work clearing leafy treats. All they need from human caretakers is daily water, Greaves said.

    “Some of the plants encroach on the library land where children play,” Greaves said. The goats will push the growth back and “take off some of the overwhelmingness” for the library’s volunteer gardeners, who have been managing the vegetation by hand since the new building opened in 2016.

    Light-footed and strong of stomach, goats can be effectively deployed as an alternative to using chemical herbicides on brush, though given the location of the overgrown area next to the pond, herbicides were never on the table, said Library Director Melanie McKenzie.

    Goats’ grazing radius is higher off the ground than sheep and cows, making them adaptable to steep and uneven terrain. And their intestines break down unwanted seeds like nobody’s business. Their overall clearing speed depends on the weather, Greaves said. On beautiful days, the workday sails by, while rain and scorching heat both slow down the munching.

    Goats can graze on bittersweet that has grown high into trees.

    “The Friends of the Eastham Library are thrilled to be sponsoring this unique project,” McKenzie wrote to the Independent. “They are not especially interested in knotweed, unfortunately,” she added. A ground-cover solution for the library’s invasive knotweed is still being discussed by the open space committee. Greaves said goats prefer knotweed in “earlier stages of growth.”

    Greaves has 20 goats on staff at her company, which she founded in 2015. She was inspired by her love of animals but also by the idea of “helping keep herbicides off the ground in Cape Cod,” she said. Last season, Greaves said, she had approximately 40 clients during the season from mid-May through October and 80 projects on the goat waiting list.

    At the library, she’s made sure to personally visit the four goats or have a volunteer go every day since they arrived on May 15. “I make sure they’re okay before the library opens.”

    The library’s gardening volunteers first brought the idea of using goats for vegetation management to McKenzie. After Greaves came to the library for a site visit in late January, McKenzie filed for approval from the conservation commission.

    At a March 28 meeting, someone raised a question about goat poop: would it run into the pond? But Conservation Agent Keith Johnson explained that the goats’ veggie-heavy fecal matter was “almost essentially pre-composted vegetative material” — essentially, a natural fertilizer. The request was approved unanimously.

    According to McKenzie, the library’s contract with Greaves cost $1,450.

    Although it seems they’ll eat anything, the goats do not like mature knotweed, according to their wrangler, Stacey Greaves.

    This is not the first time that Greaves’s goats have managed vegetation on the Outer Cape. In June 2021, they were deployed in Provincetown at the behest of the open space committee to clean up the overgrown community garden in the West End. But two days after their arrival, the six goats on the job escaped. A spontaneous herding effort ensued, and after the fracas, Greaves returned the naughty flock to Barnstable.

    A fence failure was the cause of that breakout, Greaves said. “It doesn’t happen often, but they know when the fence is off, for starters,” she said. That’s part of why people are not allowed to enter the enclosure and pet the goats while they’re on a job, she said.

    Eastham has hired a goat quartet before. In 2011, the dept. of public works adopted four goats to help clear invasive plants around Wiley Pond and other areas. But a year later, the goats were returned to the Cape and Islands Farm Bureau, according to news reports at the time.

    Using freelance goats seems easier. Goat vegetation management operations need to be carefully managed to incite heavy trampling and consumption in the areas you want to clear. But once these master mowers finish the job, they get antsy.

    “In the event they finish up before I get there, volunteers are instructed to give them grain and hay,” Greaves said. “I don’t want them ever to be hungry.”

    AMONG THE STACKS

    A New Library Director for Eastham

    Melanie McKenzie will help you overcome your fear of technology

    By

    EASTHAM — Library Director Debra Dejonker-Berry announced in the spring that she would be retiring after seven years here and more than 15 years in the same job in Provincetown. Melanie McKenzie, who has been the access and technology services librarian since 2019, became the director on Sept. 13.

    “I’m taking a bit of a break and going to spend time with family,” said Dejonker-Berry, 60, adding that she plans to “stay in touch and help when I’m needed.”

    Melanie McKenzie at the Eastham Public Library. (Photo Cam Blair)

    At 27, McKenzie is one of the youngest town department heads on the Outer Cape. She has been working at the library since 2017. Al Alfano, chair of the library trustees, said McKenzie has shown both “familiarity with our community, staff, and the strengths and needs of the Eastham library” and “adaptability and a capacity to learn.”

    Originally from New Jersey, she and her husband moved to West Yarmouth — his family had spent summers there — which for two years meant commuting to Eastham for work and to Boston for library science classes at Simmons University.

    The technology job at the library involved a lot of one-on-one work with people needing help, McKenzie said, not so much with information, but with logistics — connecting to the internet, downloading e-books, printing documents. It’s work that McKenzie said she tried to do “with a clear head and a smile.”

    The director is not only in charge of I.T., McKenzie said, but also oversees four full-time and five part-time staff and is responsible for programing, developing library policy with the trustees, and making decisions on how the library manages its collection.

    The promotion comes with an increase in salary from $44,475 to $78,187. According to the job posting, the library director makes between $78,183 and $98,589. Dejonker-Berry made $78,832 in 2020, according to the town report.

    McKenzie applied for the director job in July and was one of three highly qualified finalists, Alfano said. The town administrator hires the library director, according to the town charter.

    Part of the attraction of the job was the library’s reputation. “You can really feel it when you’re in town,” McKenzie said. “The library is beloved here.”

    After stepping into the role of director, McKenzie found herself caring for the library in ways she hadn’t expected. On the first day, she got an email from a staff member saying that a woodpecker was boring holes in the building’s cedar exterior. She called the DPW, which installed a balloon deterrent. “They always say a good librarian knows where to go to ask questions,” McKenzie said.

    In addition to her role as library director, McKenzie is also a local business owner. Along with three other women, she runs Cape Cod Pole Fitness in West Harwich. The joy of helping people at the library overcome their fears of technology, she said, is not unlike the thrill of helping someone do a spin on the pole. Both jobs, she said, “are tied to education and personal empowerment.”

    Root Causes

    By

    The Eastham Turnip Festival and Eastham Library have created a handy resource for holiday shopping this year. Visit easthamturnipfestival.com for a “Virtual Holiday Marketplace.” You’ll find local foodstuffs, books, crafts, and more. This event is ongoing.

    LIBRARIES

    Curb Your Enthusiasm

    Print books return to circulation at Outer Cape libraries

    By

    All four Outer Cape libraries began curbside services last week, although Provincetown library staff are calling it “street-side,” because they don’t have a curb.

    Directors Amy Raff of the Provincetown Public Library, Tricia Ford of the Truro Public Library, Jennifer Wertkin of the Wellfleet Public Library, and Debra DeJonker-Berry of the Eastham Public Library have been meeting weekly via Zoom to coordinate their curbside services. “We’re acting in concert with each other,” Ford says, “that way one library isn’t overwhelmed.” They released a video with instructions on the Wellfleet Public Library YouTube channel on June 1.

    Eastham Library
    Books and materials are packaged and prepared for pickup at the Eastham Public Library. (Photo courtesy Eastham Public Library)

    Here’s how it works: Patrons may order materials through clamsnet.org, email, or phone and arrange a time for a pickup. Unfortunately, delivery between libraries, which is a statewide service, hasn’t started back up yet, so if you want a volume unique to the Wellfleet library, you’ll have to make the trek there to get it.

    Materials are quarantined for 72 hours between patrons and sanitized. For pickup, in Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Eastham, they are placed in labeled bags and left for masked patrons to pick up from a table, bin, or book truck.

    Truro, on the other hand, is doing curbside delivery straight to your car. Ford says that Truro is also splitting its six employees into two groups that work on alternate days, so not all staff have to self-isolate in the case of an outbreak.

    The 72-hour quarantine for books is a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Mass. Library Association. “Most reports say that the virus will last on paper for 24 hours,” Raff says, “but pretty much everything in the library is covered in plastic.” Studies suggest that Covid-19 can survive on plastic for up to 72 hours.

    While bibliophiles are unable to peruse the shelves in person, all libraries are offering a “reader’s advisory,” which allows patrons to call and ask for recommendations. “I think in this culture of Covid, we’re missing browsing,” Wertkin says, “We don’t have the luxury of lingering anywhere, even at the grocery store.” The Provincetown library is also doing a reader’s advisory blog series.

    Wertkin says that on the first day of curbside, over 50 people used the service at the Wellfleet library. The other libraries reported smaller but promising numbers. While all of the libraries have seen an uptick in their digital services, including e-books, it seems that people are missing the tangible quality of print books.

    What are they reading? According to the librarians, a little bit of everything. Cookbooks, best-sellers from back in March, biographies, mysteries. They are also checking out CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks.

    Libraries were permitted to open for curbside services as part of phase one of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan. Though browsing inside the library, with restrictions, is allowed in phase two (begun on Monday), it is unlikely that the libraries will reopen this summer.

    “The nature of a library is touching everything,” Wertkin says. Disinfection would be a monumental task.

    And because they are in seasonal communities, Cape libraries have unique conditions. In the summer, the Provincetown library, for instance, would normally have 650 visitors per day. DeJonker-Berry of the Eastham library says, “With populations changing on a weekly basis, and the many uncertainties surrounding us, erring on the side of caution is not erring at all, because the risk is too high.”

    Though curbside services may satisfy a book fix, the libraries themselves are prized destinations on the Outer Cape that are missed by many. Raff says the library is “the place you can go that is not home and not work.”

    That said, all four libraries are doing a virtual summer reading program, as well as other online events. And DeJonker-Berry, for one, hopes some virtual substitutes might survive the pandemic. “There’s lemonade here,” she says. “One of the things that is lemonade is that the skills we’re learning in terms of providing virtual programming are going to allow us to reach people who, for whatever reason, could not come out physically to library programs.”

     

    AT THE LIBRARY

    Curbside Pickup for Books Is Coming

    Eastham Public Library gears up for an online summer

    By

    EASTHAM — The town’s library closed to the public exactly two months ago, but staff have been busy providing online options for patrons and planning for the day when the doors open again.

    The first stage of a multi-part reopening will involve a “piggyback” collaboration with the Council on Aging to deliver books and DVDs along with the council’s lunches to homebound residents. That will be followed by curbside delivery outside the library of materials ordered by phone or online.

    “We’re going to be in a very good position to start, when we’re allowed to start, not to reopen but to provide services,” Library Director Debra DeJonker-Berry told the board of trustees during a virtual meeting Saturday. “Staff just started to check in books that have been in quarantine.”

    When curbside pickup becomes a reality, patrons will be able to order materials in the Eastham collection only, as it will take some time for the state’s inter-library loan system to begin deliveries again. The due date for books taken out before the shutdown has been extended to June 30, and donations of books are not being accepted.

    “I don’t know how far we’re going to get in terms of opening services more than curbside in the short term, which could be right through the summer,” DeJonker-Berry said. “The last thing we want is for the library to be the source of the spread of infection.” Eastham’s draft reopening plan is being coordinated with those of other libraries on the Cape and will be implemented in consultation with town public health officials.

    Eastham Library
    You’ll be able to order and pick up a bag of books outside the Eastham Public Library when it starts its curbside delivery service. (Photo Ed Maroney)

    Staff members are working hard to provide a vital online experience in the meanwhile, according to DeJonker-Berry. “You can see story hours on Instagram and Facebook,” she said. And Assistant Library Director Karen MacDonald is putting together a low-tech, conference call-based book discussion on Ian Saxine’s book, The Story of the First Encounter.

    Youth Services Librarian Fran McLoughlin is setting up an online summer reading program with Access & Technology Services Librarian Melanie Fernandes and Outreach Librarian Marianne Sinopoli. Technical Services Assistant Connie Wells and McLoughlin are reorganizing the children’s collection. The phones are still being answered, and Fernandes has been helping callers with technology questions.

    “We’re not happy we’re in this situation, but we’re taking advantage of the opportunity,” DeJonker-Berry said.

    “Right now, the Children’s Room looks like a movie set,” the director wrote in her May 9 report to the trustees. “The long-term goal is to have performers use the Turner Room as a studio with live broadcasting.” The library’s website lists upcoming performances as well as all the services that can be accessed by cardholders.

    If you’ve just got to get your hands on a book, the Friends of Eastham Public Library continues to stock a cart outside the library with fiction, some nonfiction, children’s books, and large-print editions.

    As for the library building itself, being closed will turn out to be an advantage in rescheduling work to track down the source of a persistent leak that has required placing buckets near bookshelves. “The people that built it are addressing it, and not charging the town,” DeJonker-Berry said. “We were really close before everything shut down.”

    Arts Briefs

    Arts Briefs & Listings for Dec. 26 through Jan. 2

    By

    Marti Gould Cummings Is Done With 2019

    Marti Gould Cummings
    Marti Gould Cummings returns to Provincetown to light up New Year’s weekend at Pilgrim House. (Photo courtesy Marti Gould Cummings)

    Enjoy “2019 Is So Over!” — an evening of stories, songs, and drag with Marti Gould Cummings and Blake Allen on piano on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 27-28, at 7 p.m. at Pilgrim House at 336 Commercial St. in Provincetown. Tickets are $30 at pilgrimhouseptown.com.

    Cummings is more than just a pretty face: she’s the founding president of Hell’s Kitchen Democrats in Manhattan, where she’s a member of the local community board. And she made OUT Magazine’s Out 100 list in 2018. An activist with a sense of humor: who’d-a thunk it?

    Well-Strung for the Holidays

    Well Strung
    Well-Strung (from left, Daniel Shevlin, Chris Marchant, Trevor Wadleigh, and Edmund Bagnell) will play Provincetown Town Hall on Sunday night. (Photo courtesy the Art House)

    Well-Strung, the buff, young, all-male, pop-classical string ensemble, will perform a concert of Christmas music, “Home for the Holidays,” on Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Provincetown Town Hall at 260 Commercial St. Tickets are $35-$75 at provincetownarthouse.com.

    The group is “a cross between boy band and string quartet,” said the New York Daily News, “the hottest things with a bow since Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games.” The players are Chris Marchant (second violin) and Trevor Wadleigh (viola), who were contestants together on the 30th season of TV’s Amazing Race; Edmund Bagnell (first violin), who was in Provincetown a few weeks ago as a solo act; and Daniel Shevlin (cello).

     

    Music and Theater Highlights

    CONCERTS

    Julie Stepanik: a family concert and sing-along, on Thursday, Dec. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Road. Free.

    Michael Holt Ensemble: Original classical or “chamber pop” songs by a septet of musicians, on Friday, Dec. 27, at 7:30 p.m. at Wellfleet Public Library, 55 W. Main St. Free will donation.

    Rachel Bay Jones: Broadway star sings and chats with host Seth Rudetsky, on Monday-Tuesday, Dec. 30-31, at 7 p.m. at the Art House, 214 Commercial St., in Provincetown. $50-$100 at provincetownarthouse.com.

    Suede: Monday, Dec. 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Crown & Anchor Paramount, 247 Commercial St., Provincetown. $34-$54 at onlyatthecrown.com.

    Well-Strung: “Home for the Holidays,” Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St. $35-$75 at provincetownarthouse.com

    PIANO BARS

    Crown & Anchor Dive Bar, 247 Commercial St., in Provincetown: Jon Richardson, Friday-Saturday, Dec. 27-28, from 9 p.m.; Bobby Wetherbee, Sunday-Tuesday, Dec. 29-31, from 9 p.m. No cover.

    Tin Pan Alley, 269 Commercial St., in Provincetown: Dawn Derow, Friday-Saturday, Dec. 27-28, 8-11 p.m.; Terri Conti, Sunday, Dec. 29, 7-10 p.m.; John Cornett and Terri Conti, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 6-9 p.m.; Cassandra Marsh, Tuesday, Dec. 31, from 9:30 p.m. No cover.

    THEATER

    Elf: The Musical, songs by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin: Shows Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday-Sunday at 2 p.m. (also Thursday, Dec. 26, at 7 p.m.), through Jan. 5 at Cape Cod Theatre Company/Harwich Junior Theatre, 105 Division St., Harwich. Tickets $27, students $15, seniors $25, at capecodtheatrecompany.org.

    DRAG

    Drag Bingo with Tiki Bronstein: Saturday, Dec. 28, 2-4 p.m. at Crown & Anchor Paramount, 2347 Commercial St. in Provincetown. $25 for six rounds at onlyatthecrown.com.

    Drag Bingo with Mackensie: Monday, Dec. 30, 2-4 p.m. at Crown & Anchor Paramount, 2347 Commercial St. in Provincetown. $25 for six rounds at onlyatthecrown.com.

    Drag Karaoke at Governor Bradford, 312 Commercial St., Provincetown: Dana Danzel, Friday-Saturday, 9:30 p.m. No cover.

    Illusions Drag Review: Saturday, Dec. 28, at 7:30 p.m. at Crown & Anchor Paramount, 247 Commercial St., in Provincetown. $29 at onlyatthecrown.com.

    Marti Gould Cummings: “2019 Is So Over!” with Blake Allen on piano on Friday-Saturday, Dec. 27-28, at 7 p.m., at Pilgrim House, 336 Commercial St., in Provincetown. $30 at pilgrimhouseptown.com.

    Thirsty Burlington Holiday Spectacular: Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. at Crown & Anchor Paramount, 247 Commercial St., in Provincetown. $29 at onlyatthecrown.com.

     

    SCREENINGS

    How the Wampanoags Brought Their Language Back to Life

    The film 'We Still Live Here' documents the effort

    By

    The story of the Wampanoag nation, the confederation of Native American tribes who lived in what is now Cape Cod and the Islands, southeastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, is a constellation of tragedies, first among many in the English colonization of North America. But there is an uplifting thread to that history that is recounted in Anne Makepeace’s documentary film We Still Live Here, which she will screen at the Eastham Public Library on Saturday: it’s the revival of the Wampanoag language a century after it was considered dead — no longer spoken and essentially lost. This tale combines dreams and ancient tradition with science, history, technology, and community organizing, and it’s a tale that is still unfolding.

    Wampanoag filmmakers
    Allie Humanek (with camera, left) and Anne Makepeace (in white) film We Still Live Here with members of the Wampanoag tribe. The film will screen at the Eastham library on Saturday. (Photo Jonathan Reed)

    In an interview by email with the Independent, Makepeace disputes summing up the Wampanoag saga as tragic. “This is a story of a Native American community taking agency in reclaiming their language and reviving their culture after 400 years of a deeply challenging history,” she says. The film tells of “the indomitable character of Jesse Little Doe Baird, whose passion, intelligence, commitment, determination, and vision brought her community together in their amazing 20-year effort to unearth clues to the language and bring it back as a living language.”

    The screening is part of a weekend of events that kick off Eastham’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival in Massachusetts in 1620. The film is not new — it was released in 2011 — but recent efforts to include the Native Americans’ side of the story of colonization gives it a new context and relevance.

    When the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic, their first sight of land in the New World was Cape Cod. They were bound for Virginia, but when they turned south, the wintry seas and shoals around Chatham proved too challenging. They sought safe harbor in Provincetown for a few weeks before settling in Plymouth. A foraging party of colonists skirmished in Eastham with the indigenous Nauset (a Wampanoag tribe), an event known as the “First Encounter.” Shots were fired. No blood was shed.

    In the first decades after the English colonists established themselves in Massachusetts, they saw it as their mission to convert Native Americans to Christianity. For that purpose, shortly after the 1636 founding of Harvard University, the Indian College was established there. The Indian College had a press, imported from England, which was used to produce the first Bible printed in the Western Hemisphere — the Eliot Indian Bible — in the Natick dialect of the Massachusett language. When the Wampanoag language eventually died out, this Bible would be instrumental in bringing it back to life.

    Another important set of texts were handwritten deeds to lands throughout southeastern Massachusetts, dating from the 17th through the 19th centuries, many of which were signed by Wampanoag elders and included Wampanoag-language entries written in the Roman alphabet. One such document is the original deed to the town of Eastham, an 18th-century copy of which hangs today in the town administrator’s office.

    In the 1990s, Jesse Little Doe Baird, who is a Mashpee Wampanoag, worked with linguists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the support of Noam Chomsky, to reconstruct the language, based on the old Wampanoag texts, supplemented by other indigenous languages that are still spoken. The film adroitly shows how she and other members of the Wampanoag tribe in Mashpee and Martha’s Vineyard worked assiduously to develop instructional materials, learn the language, and bring it back into common use in the community. Baird’s daughter, Mae, is the first native speaker of the language in the new generation, and Baird and others have been teaching other children of the tribe as well.

    Jessie Little Doe Baird and daughter
    Jessie Little Doe Baird (left), a Mashpee Wampanoag who worked with linguists at M.I.T., including Noam Chomsky, to reconstruct the Wampanoag language, chats with her daughter, Mae, the first Wampanoag of her generation to be a native speaker. (Photo courtesy CulturalSurvival.org)

    Baird earned a master’s degree from M.I.T. and was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010 and an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 2017.

    Makepeace is not Native American. In fact, her direct ancestors were among the early inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who fought against the Wampanoag in King Philip’s War, including at the 1675 battle known as the Great Swamp Massacre. (The war wiped out 40 percent of the Wampanoag population.) Makepeace says that when she confessed this to Baird, Baird responded, “You’re closing the circle.”

    As the towns of Eastham, Provincetown, and Plymouth gear up to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival, they are making special efforts to include the Native American perspective. Eastham will get things started with the screening of We Still Live Here on Dec. 7. The following day, there will be a sunrise service at First Encounter Beach, and an afternoon presentation at the library — “Eastham, Beyond the First Encounter” — featuring Native American drummers and storytellers.

    “Eastham 400 has made every effort to put forward an inclusive and historically accurate series of events that will take place in 2020,” says Eastham Select Board member Jamie Rivers. “History is often a one-sided report, and the best we can do now is help paint a broader picture of that historic day from as many perspectives as possible.”

    Rivers was instrumental in setting aside two of the eight positions on the Eastham 400 Commemoration Committee for Native Americans. No members of the modern Wampanoag tribe are known to live in the town, and, so far, the seats are unfilled.

    Words to the Wampanoag
    The event: Screening of the documentary We Still Live Here, with filmmaker Anne Makepeace
    The time: Saturday, Dec. 7, at 1 p.m.
    The place: Eastham Public Library, 220 Samoset Road
    The cost: Free

    ROOTS

    All Eastham Turns Out for Turnips

    The 16th annual turnip festival is at Nauset High on Saturday

    By

    EASTHAM — By the time this story goes live, the library’s countdown clock for the Eastham Turnip Festival will reach two days, eight hours, and counting. You can watch the Festival tick closer by the second on the library website.

    It’s almost as if the turnip festival, now in its 16th year, were Eastham’s New Year’s Eve. Seemingly everyone in town anxiously awaits it and people turn out for it faithfully, year after year.

    The showcase of turnipdom is a one-day affair, held at Nauset High School on Saturday, Nov. 23 from 1 to 4 p.m. And this year being the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the theme is a nod to that legacy — Rock ’n’ Turnip Roll.

    Festival organizers at the library have invited would-be songwriters to enter a song lyric contest. Entrants selected their favorite Woodstock-era tunes and replaced the original song with their own turnip-inspired verses. The winner will be announced at the fest and the Higher Ground String Band will perform the prize-winning tune.

    The three hours of turnip fun will be kicked off by the Blessing of the Turnips. Other events include the crowning of this year’s Turnip King and Turnip Queen, a turnip shuck-off, and a turnip weight-guessing contest. Admission is free for all.

    A harvest marketplace will fill the gymnasium with locally designed and produced handcrafts, books written by local authors, and locally grown produce for sale. Yes, there will be turnips.

    “This is the largest gathering of local vendors on the Outer Cape so it’s a great place to get a head start on holiday shopping,” said organizer Marianne Sinopoli, perhaps thinking more of the artisanal goods than the turnips.

    Activities for children include a juggler, face painter, balloon artist, temporary tattoos, make & take crafts, and a Mr. Turnip Head decorating contest. The Turnip Game Zone will be abuzz with turnip bowling and other lawn-sized turnip games.

    There’s always plenty to eat at the festival, and just in case there is anyone out there who is not interested in a turnip-infused repast, it’s good to know there are options. New this year is a raw bar featuring Eastham-raised oysters and wild quahogs. Lunch concessions run the gamut from pulled pork to grilled cheese to locally made confections. According to the event organizers, neither vegans nor the gluten-averse will go hungry.

    Love these root vegetables or not, the most popular event of the day is the turnip cookoff in which 12 local food establishments vie for top honors by getting creative with turnip fare.

    The 2019 entrants are Brine Restaurant, C-Shore Kitchen + Bar, Corner Store, Fairway Restaurant & Pizzeria, Good Eats on 6, Jailhouse Tavern, Karma Foods, Mac’s Seafood, Sam’s Deli, The Local Scoop, The Optimal Kitchen, and Whale Walk Inn.

    They’ll make appetizers, entrees, or desserts that the public can sample, free of charge, to inform their People’s Choice Award decisions. But things get judgmental too, with a panel selecting first, second, and third place winners.

    A number of enduring specialties have been invented by cooks at the fest. Who could forget the harvest turnip slaw from Corner Store that took first place in 2018, the turnip pulled pork au gratin with turnip cream from Big Dog’s BBQ that won in 2017, or the turnip puff casserole from Mac’s Parties & Provisions that blue-ribboned it in 2016?

    Then there are the turnip whoopee pies made by Eastham resident Georgia Hawko. They took the People’s Choice prize in 2015, and just in case you’ve been craving them ever since, we’re including a recipe for them here.

    The day serves as a festive kind of open house at the library. There, representatives from Aldrich Astronomical Society will be on hand to demonstrate how to use the library’s telescope, available for library patrons to borrow.

    The festival is organized by the Eastham Library, led by Marianne Sinopoli, and sponsored by the Friends of the Eastham Library, Seamen’s Bank, Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, and the Eastham Cultural Council. For more information visit easthamturnipfestival.com.

    Because the People Say So

    Georgia Hawko’s Turnip Whoopee Pies
    Makes 50 small whoopee pies

     For the pastries:
    3 cups cooked, well drained, and mashed Eastham Turnips
    2 cups packed brown sugar
    1 cup butter (2 sticks)
    2 eggs
    3 cups flour
    1 tsp. baking soda
    1 tsp. baking powder
    1 tsp. nutmeg
    1 tsp. ground cloves
    1 tsp cinnamon
    1 tsp. ginger
    1 tsp. vanilla

    • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Mix in Eastham turnips and eggs; beat well.
    • In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mixture. Add vanilla and stir well. If mixture is too sticky, add a little more flour.
    • Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Let cool completely before filling with the recipe below or with your favorite cream cheese frosting.

    For the filling:
    1 cup milk
    4 Tbsp. flour
    ½ cup butter (1 stick)
    ½ vegetable shortening (Crisco)
    1 cup granulated sugar
    1 tsp. vanilla

    Cook milk and flour until thick; set aside to cool. In a large bowl combine butter and Crisco and beat 4 minutes. Add sugar and beat another 4 minutes. Add milk-flour mixture and vanilla and beat until thick. Once pastries have cooled, spread filling over the flat side of one, then top with another.

     

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