Kathi Smith leads virtual “Artsy Craftsy Workshops” via the Truro Public Library on Wednesdays in February, 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. Projects include making mandalas, art journals, collages, and watercolor paintings. Email [email protected] for the link, and to pick up a craft kit.
Truro Public Library
Creative Spark
Kathi Smith leads virtual “Artsy Craftsy Workshops” via the Truro Public Library on Wednesdays in February, 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. Projects include making mandalas, art journals, collages, and watercolor paintings. Email [email protected] for the link, and to pick up a craft kit.
Lucky Streak
The Truro Public Library introduces “Book Bingo!” Drop by the library, at 7 Standish Way, to pick up your bingo card. On the back, write 24 book titles to be read in 2021; on the front, write the numbers 1-24 in random order. Every Friday, beginning January 1st (though you can start anytime), a number will be announced on Facebook. Once you’ve read the corresponding book, cross it off the card. Your first two bingos will enter you into a raffle for a book of your choice worth up to $50. More information on the Truro Public Library Facebook page.
Main Attraction
Join the Outer/Lower Cape Libraries for a meeting of the At Home Learner’s Group on Thursday, November 12th, at 3 p.m., led this week by the Truro Public Library. The topic: magnets. Register for this free virtual event by emailing [email protected]. Stick around until 5 p.m. and the CLAMS Libraries will be leading a virtual conversation with Amanda DelGiudice of the World Food Program USA. Email [email protected] for the Zoom link.
Up for Grabs
The Truro Public Library at 7 Standish Way is hosting a “Halloween Grab and Go” on Saturday, October 31st, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Get a free grab bag filled with books and other goodies. Call 508-487-1125 or email [email protected] to arrange a pick-up time.
Feel the Heal
“A Little Healing Concert and Conversation” will take place outdoors at the Truro Public Library, 7 Standish Way, on Saturday, October 10th (rain date: Sunday, October 11th), at 1 p.m., with Monika Woods and Michael Holt, followed by the Mommyheads at 1:30 p.m. and a circle discussion at 2 p.m. Bring your own chair. It’s free, but seating is limited: pre-register by emailing [email protected] or calling 508-349-2120.
Curious George
George Packer will speak about his book The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America in a free Zoom event hosted by the Truro Public Library on Wednesday, September 30th, at 2 p.m. Email [email protected] in advance for the Zoom link.
In Cold Blood
The Truro Public Library’s free online book group will discuss Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep, on Wednesday, August 26th at 2:00p.m. Email Maggie Hanelt at [email protected] for the Zoom link.
Virtual Shell Necklace-making Class with Sophie and Maggie Prickitt
The Truro Public Library is hosting a virtual shell necklace-making class with crafters Sophie and Maggie Prickitt on Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 10:30 a.m. Kits are available for curbside pickup; call 508-487-1125.
our picks for the week of July 30 through August 5
Indie’s Choice
Outer Cape Calendar
An Artist’s Lot
The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod is hosting an online silent auction starting on Thursday, July 23, at noon through Sunday, Aug. 9, at 9:30 p.m., featuring art by Traci Harmon-Hay, Sarah Lutz, Pete Hocking, and others. There will also be a live auction, streaming from the Chatham Bars Inn on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 6 p.m., with works by Donald Beal, Cynthia Packard, and more. Visit artsfoundation.org to register and bid.
Into the Woods
The Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary is offering a few socially distanced activities. Among them is a kayak trip through Nauset Marsh in Eastham on Friday, July 31, at 8:30 a.m., tickets $70-$85 (call 508-349-2615 to register); and a full moon hike on Monday, Aug. 3, at 7:30 p.m., tickets $14, children free (register at massaudubon.org).
Advice Versa
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown is hosting a virtual one-hour poetry workshop led by Nick Flynn that is designed to inspire unexpected and surprising new poems on Thursday, July 30, at 6 p.m. Registration is $10 at fawc.org.
Ukulele Lady
The Eastham Public Library is holding a virtual ukulele workshop with Julie Stepanek on Saturday, Aug. 1, at 1 p.m. Ages six and up are welcome. There is also a live-streaming animal show via Zoom on Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 5 p.m. Go to easthamlibrary.org to register; both events are free.
Feed Your Ears
The Wellfleet Pearl restaurant continues with live music daily (except Monday) from 3 to 5 p.m., no cover. Featured this week: Catie Flynn Band (Thursday, July 30), Boston Naturals (Friday, July 31), Pitchfork (Saturday, Aug. 1), Bruce Maclean (Sunday, Aug. 2), Brandon Manter (Tuesday, Aug. 4), and Jordan Renzi (Wednesday, Aug. 5).
World Tour
Great Music on Sundays @5 presents “Marimba and Piano Global Rhythms” on Sunday, Aug. 2 at 5 p.m. This free live-streaming concert, with Brian Calhoon on marimba, John Thomas on piano, and Chanthoeun Varon Collins on cello, includes music from Argentina, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, and the U.S. For details, go to ptownmusic.com.
For a Song
Steeple Street Music Academy in Mashpee is running a songwriting competition called Mash-ville. The entry deadline is Saturday, Aug. 1, and you must be at least 13 to enter. The fees: $25 for your first song, $10 for each additional song. The grand prize: two round-trip tickets to Nashville, Tenn. Winners will participate in a songwriting showcase on Aug. 15. Visit steeplestreetmusic.com for details.
Drag Picnic
Marti Gould Cummings in “Picnic in the Park” is coming to Pilgrim House’s outdoor stage from Tuesday, Aug. 4 to Saturday, Aug. 8. Tickets are $35 at pilgrimhouse.com.
Bracelets for BFFs
The Truro Public Library is hosting a virtual friendship bracelet-making class with Sophia and Maggie Prickitt on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. Call 508-487-1125 or email [email protected] to receive the link. Materials will be provided through curbside pickup.
Backyard Boogie
Wellfleet Preservation Hall is presenting a backyard concert series. First up is Zoë Lewis on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 7 p.m. (rain date Aug. 6). Tickets are $15 for adults, $7.50 for children 13 and under. Groups are limited to six people; bring a blanket or lawn chair. Reserve in advance at wellfleetpreservationhall.org.
Puppet Party
The Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet libraries are holding a virtual puppet show, “A Celebration of Imagination,” performed by Caravan Puppets, on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 10:30 a.m. For a Zoom link, email [email protected] with the names and ages of your viewing party.
Painting With Pete
One highlight of the online and on-campus classes offered at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill is “Making Pictures,” with Pete Hocking, which will be held live, from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday, Aug. 3, through Thursday, Aug. 6. The four sessions cost $455. Register at castlehill.org.
Young at Art
The Provincetown Art Association and Museum is offering several live outdoor classes for kids. Hannah Capra teaches “Little Artists Outdoors” on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. for children 4 to 7, and “Young Artists Outdoors” on Thursdays at 10 a.m. for children 8 to 10; both are $40 per session. Grace Emmet teaches “Plein Air Painting” on Fridays at 8:30 a.m. for children 10 to 15, $50 per session. Go to paam.org to register.
Hold the Mayo
The Wellfleet Recreation Dept. is hosting “Virtual Music at Mayo,” an online concert series. The Grab Brothers Band performs on Friday, July 31, at 6:30 p.m., and the Rip It Ups get in the groove on Thursday, Aug. 6, at 6:30 p.m. Visit the Wellfleet Rec’s Facebook page for details.
Virtual Friendship Bracelet-making Class
The Truro Public Library is hosting a virtual friendship bracelet-making class with Sophia and Maggie Prickitt on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 10:30 a.m. via Zoom. Call 508-487-1125 or email [email protected] to receive the link. Materials will be provided through curbside pickup.
LIBRARIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Print books return to circulation at Outer Cape libraries
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.
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.”
film
Movie Clock
Playing now on the Outer Cape
All movie theaters are closed in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
film
Movie Clock for April 16 through April 22
Playing now on the Outer Cape
All movie theaters are closed in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
film
Won’t it be great when we can all go to the movies again?
All movie theaters are closed in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
