On Tuesday, April 21, The Westport Library welcomes NYU researcher Dr. Matthias Becker to reveal how hate, bias, and hidden messaging spreads across social media — often in ways you don't recognize.
Presented by the Library's Common Ground Initiative, this informative seminar invites participants of all ages to Decode Hate by providing the tools they need to identify harmful discourse and recognize how it shapes our worldview online and offline.
A consistent link between Dr. Becker's research activities is the question of how implicit hate speech is constructed and what conditions its production is subject to. He recently shared some insight with us that gives important context to his work.
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Common Ground Q&A
Westport Library: What is the work you are currently doing?
Matthias Becker: Think about the last time you scrolled through your feed and something made you uneasy — a comment that seemed off, a meme that landed wrong, a phrase you couldn't quite place but felt was doing something. Maybe it was about the war in Iran. Maybe it was about an election. You probably kept scrolling. That moment — that flicker of recognition before you moved on — is exactly where my research begins.
I lead a research project called Decoding Hate at New York University's Center for the Study of Antisemitism, where I study how hate speech, conspiracy narratives, and mis- and disinformation spread on social media — and how we can detect and counter them. We use a combination of linguistic analysis and AI-supported tools to examine hundreds of thousands of online comments, looking at not just what people say, but how they say it: the coded language, the irony, the strategic ambiguity that allows hateful ideas to circulate without ever sounding overtly extreme. Together with AddressHate, we're building detection systems that don't just flag risky content but identify what kind of harm is present and why — in language that's legible to educators, policymakers, and courts.
Westport Library: Why is it such important work?
Matthias Becker: Because hate doesn't announce itself — and neither does the AI that's spreading it.
Most of what circulates online doesn't look like the crude hatred of decades past. It looks like irony, insinuation, strategic ambiguity — ideas traveling in plain sight, just below the threshold of what most people would call extreme. The distinction between free speech and hate speech matters enormously here — and it's precisely this coded, ambiguous nature of modern hate that makes drawing that line so difficult, and so consequential. That also makes these expressions extraordinarily hard to detect, for humans and AI systems alike.
My research addresses three interconnected drivers of this problem. First, coordinated bad actors who deliberately exploit divisive issues and manufacture disinformation at scale. Second, platform algorithms that reward outrage and amplify the most emotionally charged content, regardless of whether it's true or harmful. Third, the conditions of online communication itself — anonymity, mutual reinforcement, constant exposure to extremity — which turn ordinary users into unwitting amplifiers of hate. If we don't understand these mechanics, we can't build tools that actually work — and communities, educators, and platforms remain one step behind.
And here's the deeper problem: most public debate about AI and hate focuses on what AI produces — offensive outputs, extremist content. That's real. But it's downstream of a harder issue: what AI absorbs. Every major model shows consistent bias toward hateful associations — not because engineers are hateful, but because models were trained on centuries of human text in which those associations are already embedded. You can add guardrails. The underlying associations remain.
Westport Library: How does this work affect those who come to the talk?
Matthias Becker: Everyone in that room uses social media — or lives with someone who does. The talk is designed to give people practical insight into what's actually happening in the digital spaces they inhabit every day: why certain content keeps showing up in their feeds, how ordinary-seeming posts can normalize extreme ideas over time, and what they can do about it.
But it goes further than awareness. We'll look closely at how irony, coded language, and strategic ambiguity allow hate speech, conspiracy narratives, and disinformation to spread while evading both human recognition and automated detection — and how algorithms and coordinated actors actively accelerate that process. You'll leave with a sharper eye for what you're seeing online, a clearer understanding of the structural forces shaping it, and concrete tools to act — because recognizing how manipulation works is the first step toward refusing it.
The talk is designed for a general adult audience, but the core questions — why do people share harmful content, how do algorithms shape what we see, what does coded language actually do — translate directly into a school-facing format as well. I'd be delighted to work with the library on a version tailored for students, whether as a classroom visit, a youth program, or a separate evening event. Digital literacy around hate, disinformation, and algorithmic influence is arguably most urgent for the generation that has grown up entirely inside these systems — and there is no more important investment we can make than equipping young people to see clearly, think critically, and push back.
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Tuesday, April 21, 6 pm
Decode Hate Video Challenge for Teens
Calling all teens — Make the internet a better place, one video at a time! Join us in Brooks Place before Dr. Becker's seminar to find out how you can win up to $1000 by creating a compelling video that challenges hate and bias on social media.
Tuesday, April 21, 7 pm
Decode Hate on Social Media with Matthias J. Becker
As social media transcends the boundaries of the digital world, how do we differentiate between free speech and hate speech online — and how do we combat its harmful effects? Dr. Becker will deliver an informative seminar for an intergenerational audience that emphasizes practical, research-informed insight into understanding and navigating contemporary online discourse and its real-world consequences.
Thursday, May 28, 6 pm
Teens' Decode Hate Video Challenge Awards Ceremony & Follow-Up Discussion
Join the top five finalists of our Decode Hate Video Challenge for a LIVE judging panel and awards ceremony to celebrate the winners with cash prizes! Dr. Matthias Becker will be attendance as one of the judges and will hold a public Q&A forum for participants who would like to debrief regarding his April 21st event.
If you weren’t at The Westport Library last week, you missed out on something truly special.
Co-presented with the Y’s Men of Westport/Weston and moderated by former First Selectman Jim Marpe, the Library served as the community centerpiece for an evening with Westport’s own Craig Melvin, who delivered no shortage of humor and honesty to a sold-out room of 400 community members — and neighbors to the congenial Today Show host.
Marpe set the tone as they took the stage, joking about interviewing someone who interviews others for a living. Melvin picked it up and ran with it.
“I feel like I’ve been set up,” he said, observing the packed room. “I was told this was going to be small.”
In that moment, he instantly captured them — not as an audience, but as friends.
Melvin was sharp, funny, and completely at ease on the stage of the Trefz Forum. He opened with stories about being “strong-armed” into coming, drawing laughter from the crowd as he called out colleagues for keeping a running archive of his on-air moments.
What made the evening special was not just Melvin’s trademark humor — it was how personal it felt. He spoke from the heart; not as a broadcast journalist, but as a father, friend, and fellow Westport resident.
He told his story of landing in Westport almost by accident, getting off exit 17 without much of a plan. Before he knew it, he and his wife, sports broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak, were building a life here, raising kids, and coaching rec basketball.
“I take it way more seriously than they do,” he said in a candid moment that resonated with fellow parents in the audience.
He spoke about how quickly a place can become home. “You think you’re just passing through, and then it becomes your life.”
The tone of the evening shifted into something real — a profound truth in a life of storytelling. Melvin shared his journey from South Carolina to national television, the pressure of live broadcasting, and his responsibility to tell stories without becoming the story himself.
“This is not the life I imagined,” he said, “but it’s a life I’m grateful for.”
Upfront, honest, and heartfelt — just what you’d expect from someone who prides himself on community and family life just as much as his accomplished career.
The conversation naturally circled back to more laughter and deeper connection, an easygoing back-and-forth that livened up the night and lit up the room with smiles.
More than just a talk, it was a shared experience: authentic, unscripted, and synergetic. A celebration of someone who calls this place home, a celebration of the community itself, and a reflection of the very heart of The Westport Library.
Jesup Gallery
April 9 through May 31
Reception: Wednesday, May 27, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between Markowitz, fellow featured artist Mari Gyorgyey, and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Willful Alchemy is a collection of lumen prints, most of which were created during my September 2022 artist residency at the Weir Farm National Park in Wilton. For 21 days I had the freedom to research and experiment with several camera-less, experimental photographic processes, as well as photograph freely around the farm. I lived in the old caretaker's house, rising early to set out my lumen compositions in the sun, take long walks along the forest trails, and build a new body of work.
Every day I made at least one lumen print, gradually creating a visual diary of my time at the farm. Lumens are photographic images made on classic analog black and white darkroom paper. I used the naturally growing plant life on the farm to create my daily compositions by layering the botanical matter on top of the paper, covering with a sheet of glass, and leaving them to expose outdoors for several hours. The fantastical colors are made as the chemicals inherent in each brand of manufactured paper are activated by the sun combined with the bleeding of the plants' own phytochemicals into the paper as they are heated up by the sun. The resulting images are magical, unexpected, and often quite abstract.
While there I also photographed John Weir’s barn studio and home with the intention of one day creating a handmade artist book, combining his work and mine as two artists having a relationship — engaged with an identical landscape, albeit separated by both process and time. Willful Alchemy is the commencement of this work. It is the ecological foundation upon which more complex images will follow.
Fruma Markowitz’s photography practice focuses on historical, experimental, and hand-made processes, with an emphasis on cyanotype and lumen photography, textile-based mixed-media collage, and most recently one-of-a-kind photobooks. Family life, womanhood, cultural histories with shared legacies, and environmental concerns are where she mostly draws inspiration for making images.
A resident of Connecticut since 2003, she belongs to local artist organizations such as The Artists’ Collective of Westport and the Ridgefield Guild of Artists. Fruma’s work has been shown nationally at the SoHo Photo Gallery in New York, the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts, The Halide Project in Philadelphia, RICPA in Providence, and she is represented by the CAMP Gallery in Miami. A full portfolio publication and review of her work was featured in DekUnu Arts (2023), FLOAT Magazine (2024), and Lenscratch (Oct. 2024). She had a solo show featuring her cyanotype and lumen work at the Grover Gallery in Port Townsend, Washington in September, 2025.
Fruma won Honorable Mentions from the Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers (2022, 2023). She has received three materials grants (2020, 2022, 2024) through the Drew Friedman Fund. In July 2025, she won the Arthur Griffin Legacy Award at the Griffin Museum Juried Members Exhibition. She completed an Artist Residency at the Weir Farm Nature Preserve in September 2022.
Fruma taught photography to women in crisis at the Project Return home in Westport and to cancer survivors at The Creative Center in New York, and more recently at her private home studio, The Carriage Barn Art Center, and the Five Points Art Center. In July 2022, she participated in a panel at the Exp22 FotoFest in Barcelona, Spain, on cyanotype in contemporary art practice. In July, 2025, Fruma was invited to return to the Experimental FotoFest to lead two workshops and participate in a panel on artist hand-made books. In September 2024 Fruma led a cyanotype workshop at the Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend, WA, and will return to the area in June, 2026 to teach cyanotype for textile artists at NorthWest Arts Center, on Whidbey Island, WA. Fruma was a member of the first graduating class (1984) to earn a BFA in photography at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design in Jerusalem, Israel, where she was the recipient of the Agfa Award, the Jerusalem Student Award and numerous merit scholarships.
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For more about the Library's art exhibits, visit the Art at the Library page.
South Gallery
April 9 through May 31
Reception: Wednesday, May 27, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between Gyorgyey, fellow featured artist Fruma Markowitz, and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Flowers, like the figure, have historically been the standard of beauty that artists use to showcase their styles. My interest in flowers and furniture is not the beauty of them but the contrast of their characters against the environments that they are in.
How does their character effect their space, how does it effect themselves — these are the issues which define the success of these paintings.
Every flower I make has an attitude and a reason behind it.
Mari Gyorgyey is best known for her narrative art which flows into book arts, drawings, paintings, computer imagery, and printmaking. She is not afraid to mix all of these techniques to communicate her themes.
Since earning her BFA from RISD, and MFA from UPENN, Gyorgyey has shown her work domestically and internationally with solo shows in Budapest, Hungary, New York, and places in Connecticut. She has won printmaking awards from UPENN, Dharma Silk Company, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking.
Some of Gyorgyey’s unorthodox themes are Dogs in Dresses, Tweens in Weight Loss Camp, and Snippets of the Lives of the Romanov's.
Mari’s artwork is influenced by living in communist Hungary, and suburban America. Her work has the passion of European Expressionism with the visual superficiality of Technicolor films. Her work seems offbeat...but at closer glance is strangely approachable and empathetic to our human condition.
Mari currently teaches mixed media, printmaking and the artists book as well as Procreate for Artists at the Rowayton Arts center.
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For more about the Library's art exhibits, visit the Art at the Library page.
Sheffer Gallery
April 8 through May 31
Reception: Wednesday, April 22, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by a conversation between kHyal and Miggs Burroughs at 7 pm.)
Signs of the Times is an ongoing series by kHyal. Complex, and unclassifiable, kHyal’s mixed media work riffs off of pop culture icons and performs like a Rorschach Test in a behavioral science lab, tugging at the neurons of each viewer, and born to challenge perceptions. Using ordinary objects snatched from dumpsters, recycle centers, flea markets, tag sales, thrift stores, the ocean, and the street — assembled with raw precision in a dazzling cacophony of visual clutter — each piece decidedly explodes the human-centric flaws, foibles, and sometimes tragic outcomes of a plastic society.
The work speaks to our imperfections and glazed ideals, actions taken on that which we once professed to love. What we aspired to yesterday is what we throw away today — leaving our emotional bonds, saliva, bite marks, and fingerprints behind — often on objects made from materials that will never decompose, and would otherwise be left to the landfills, in shapes we form attachments to, then get bored with because they have no real meaning. Glitter, rhinestones, rainbows, and unicorns. Overused clichés and superficial samenesses. A vernacular of nothingness.
kHyal’s work is an archeological dig, an observation of the mess we call mankind, in a rearrangement of the discarded ordinary into an awkward form of self-portraiture through vignettes of childhood memory, sometimes blended with current events. Via a highly personal saga, the past is unearthed and merged with the future in stories told through the immediacy of quickly juxtaposed objects, much like when children who suffer trauma are asked by psychologists to visualize their experience through puppets or drawings. Through each story, obscurity surfaces in a remix of the banal malaise of society at large into a contemporary primordial ooze. Here, we journey into microcosms where what was unwanted, rejected and discarded becomes elevated and seen anew — bringing with it an awareness of the urgency for action.
Sustainability has always been a center point for kHyal. She is a member of Beyond Plastics, Clean Creatives, and Break Free from Plastic, and is a Certified Climate Reality Leader. From 2022–23, she was part of the team invited by best-selling author Seth Godin to rally for climate action. As a cross-functional collaborator, writer and strategist, her work included spearheading the online Sustainable Fashion Resource Guide, contributing to the LinkedIn Learning course “34 Things to Know About Carbon and Climate,” creating content for “The Daily Difference,” and producing a standalone event as part of the global book signing event for The Carbon Almanac. (Which won the “Most Insightful Data Book” award for Data Literacy). She has been an invited speaker at the Yale School of Sustainability, a featured guest on the Climate Gist, EarthWork Collective, and Salvage podcasts, and received a CoA Artists Respond grant for an environmental justice project. In 2025, she completed the Sanitation Foundation’s NYC Trash Academy certification program.
The history of my work evolves with time, although shaped primarily through childhood experiences in the physical world, which were mapped by psychological mysteries. My obsession with the ecosystem of the ocean tidal pools while summering on Money Island, one of the Thimble Islands off the coast of Stony Creek, Connecticut. Endless hours of observing the sun glinting refractions across the skin of the water, sea glass, bits of mica, barnacle-adorned shell fragments, miniature fish babies, tiny crabs, anemones, star fish, tangled seaweed shaped in jello molds, like chunky Lucite souvenir paper weights, dense collages of constant change metered by my own internal complexities and shifts of mood. A sense of wonder, magnetized toward found objects and how relationships form in color, juxtaposition, emotion – a private world where I am continuously lost.
kHyal is a self-taught environmental activist and digital art pioneer who has worked with recycled materials since the early 1980s. She created street art and found-object sculpture in Los Angeles before moving to New Haven, where she was among the first wave of self-taught artists to use personal computers to create immersive multimedia installations and live MIDI performances incorporating video and computer animation. She was a member of the Amiga Users Group at Yale University.
Her analog collage and assemblage work was first exhibited in the early years of the Outsider Art Fair through Henry Boxer Gallery, London, and was featured in Raw Vision magazine. This work has been shown by Margaret Bodell, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, The Folk Art Society, and the American Visionary Art Museum.
Simultaneously, through her digital work, she was featured in Rhizome (now part of the New Museum), became active in Manhattan’s nascent Silicon Alley scene, and cofounded an Internet users group at a time when professional creatives working with computers were rare. She also cofounded blowtorch, a women-owned digital agency and software development firm based in New Haven. Her simulated AI-based sculpture was included in Ricco/Maresca’s 1994 exhibition CODE, an international digital art exhibition sponsored by Microsoft and Softimage, and her work was shown at 55 Broad Street, Manhattan’s first wired network building. She appeared on Cherry Bomb, Art Dirt, and The Silicon Alley Reporter through the livestreaming arts and technology network Pseudo, and in 1997 launched her own pilot livestreaming show at the New York Film Academy in partnership with OnlineTV.
Working fluidly between analog and digital media, kHyal continues to explore identity, technology, and material reuse. Under the registered trademark MegaGlam, she creates mixed-media art, wearables, illustration, and character design. She is the creator of The Weather sKwirl™, an alter ego for which she produced an original cartoon daily for 730 consecutive days between 2010 and 2012. This project led to media attention, inclusion in art books, public art commissions, private sales, and a product line featured in stores, galleries, art fairs, and street art venues internationally. Her original art and product designs were featured in dedicated branded sections at P!Q locations in Grand Central Terminal and Rockefeller Center.
Her sustainable fashion–based work examines body image and the artist as a kinetic sculpture. Built around the performance of everyday actions, this evolving practice uses color, pattern, messaging, and movement as tools for personal and collective social engagement. Current iterations focus on activism and advocacy related to human rights, climate action, plastic pollution reduction, and nature conservation.
Sustainability has long been central to kHyal’s practice. She is a Certified Climate Reality Leader, a Beyond Plastics advocate trained by former EPA administrator Judith Enck, and a Project Limulus Beach Captain conducting horseshoe crab conservation as a citizen scientist along the Connecticut coast. She is a graduate of the NYC Department of Sanitation’s Trash Academy and a Save the Sound Cleanup Captain, and is a member of Clean Creatives, Break Free from Plastic, and the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
From 2022–23, kHyal was part of the global team invited by Seth Godin to support climate action through The Carbon Almanac. She spearheaded the online sustainable fashion resource guide, contributed to the LinkedIn Learning course 34 Things to Know About Carbon and Climate, created content for The Daily Difference, and produced a standalone event as part of the worldwide book signing. The Carbon Almanac received the “Most Insightful Data Book” award for Data Literacy.
kHyal has been an invited speaker at the Yale School of Sustainability, a featured guest on the Climate Gist and EarthWork Collective podcasts, and a recipient of a Connecticut Office of the Arts Artists Respond grant for an environmental justice project. She has also spoken on climate and plastic pollution at NYPL, MoCA CT, the School of Visual Arts, the Connecticut Art Directors Club’s As We Create podcast, and Earthworks: Unhurried Conversations.
Her fine art and design work has appeared in Raw Vision, Artforum, ARTnews, ArtSlant, Flavorpill, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Culture, Fashion, Gothamist, Nylon, Time Out New York, La Gazette Drouot, and Whitehot, and on CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, HBO, and Vice News. Her work has been exhibited at the American Visionary Art Museum, Pictoplasma (Berlin), the New Britain Museum of American Art, La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris), the Outsider Art Fair, Intuit (Chicago), EGGO Arte (Buenos Aires), Cooper Union, Henry Boxer (London), City Museum (DC), Miami Art Week, La Luz de Jesus (Los Angeles), and the Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in association with the Smithsonian Institution.
kHyal has served as Chief Creative Officer on experiential design for digital projects for the Whitney Museum of American Art, Lincoln Center, BRIC Arts Media, BAM, and the New York Public Library. She continues to work with emerging technologies and currently writes about AI for leading cybersecurity companies, while just as readily creates analog sculptures from ocean and landfill plastics and writes poetry by hand on vintage paper.
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For more about the Library's art exhibits, visit the Art at the Library page.
Reading happens across mediums, in many different forms, and it brings us together at The Westport Library. That’s why we’re excited to present We Read, a new initiative that integrates all of the Library’s diverse literary offerings into one accessible space — making it easier than ever to connect with each other through the magic of reading.
Together, we build community one book at a time.
Books are the heartbeat of the Library, standing at the very core of who we are and what we do — and they’re more than just physical objects. They have the power to transport, to inform, and to connect a community through the shared power of a story.
In the South and Jesup Galleries
March 20 through April 5
Reception and Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 25, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by an artist talk at 7 pm with Williams, Westport artist Miggs Burroughs, and fellow VersoFest 2026 artist Holly Danger.)
About the Exhibit
In The Westport Library's South and Jesup Galleries, Sean "Opus 1" Williams presents The SneakerVangelisT, an exhibit named after his self-proclaimed moniker in the sneaker world. These works are presented as part of VersoFest 2026, the Library's annual music and media festival and conference.
Sneakers are wearable art that serve both self expression and function simultaneously. Some sneaker models offer an ideal canvas for artistic expression, while others make the perfect muse.
This exhibit provides examples for both of these roles by showcasing unique “one of one” pieces. Some of sneaker culture’s most iconic and classic models are featured in an array of digital graphic-based works. Each piece is a statement piece that declares a love and appreciation for kicks.
About the Artist
Sean “Opus 1” Williams (also known as the SneakerVangelisT) is a multi-hyphenate creative born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is most notably known worldwide in the sneaker world as a consultant, teacher, and exhibition curator. He has curated exhibitions in partnership with organizations such as The Mana Contemporary in New Jersey, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He has even curated a sneaker exhibition for the Congressional Sneaker Caucus on Capital Hill. Since 2013, Williams has curated or co-curated exhibitions that have been experienced by over 13 million people worldwide.
In the Sheffer Gallery
March 20 through April 5
Reception and Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 25, 6-8 pm, in the Trefz Forum; click here for more information.
(Reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by an artist talk at 7 pm with Danger, Westport artist Miggs Burroughs, and fellow VersoFest 2026 artist Sean Williams.)
About the Exhibit
Stamford-based video artist Holly Danger presents Lighthouse, an immersive art experience on display in the Sheffer Gallery as part of VersoFest 2026, The Westport Library's annual music and media festival and conference.
Lighthouse is a video art installation that reminds us that we project light into the world for ourselves and each other. As you move through this exhibit, you’ll be surrounded by thousands of colorful strings lining the perimeter of gallery. These soft, polyester strings are illuminated by projections and synchronized to an original soundscape, featuring a 10 minute original art piece.
The strings create a magical atmosphere as they dance with the natural airflow, abstracting the projections and spilling shadows and light around the room. The projected imagery is mostly abstract, featuring slow movement, vibrant colors, nature scenes, and original drawings from Danger, which offer uplifting messages.
This installation naturally invites participation — Viewers are invited to touch, interact, and take photos with the string. There will also be faux fur rugs and floor pillows for lounging and comfortably observing the artwork in a relaxing, inspirational space. We do kindly ask that viewers refrain from spinning, hanging, or running through the strings to ensure everyone’s safety and preserve the artwork’s integrity.
About the Artist
The project is created and produced by husband and wife team, artist Holly Danger and Jeff Schram. Together, they form a two-person collaborative team that create bespoke immersive experiences around the world.
Holly leads the visual design, while Jeff runs tech and composes original music that synchronizes seamlessly with the visuals. With years of experience working together on immersive installations, performances, and projection-based artworks, they bring a shared vision and passion to every project.
Danger's art combines motion, light, and sound to create joyful, immersive experiences, that invite you to step into and become a part of the art.
Some of her favorite projects to date have been creating an immersive art experience for the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, performing at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, her first international exhibit at the K Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and creating large scale string projection installations at the Ignite Light + Art Festival in Ft. Lauderdale and at the MAD Arts Museum at Dania Beach.
Danger was honored to receive an award for Most Innovative at the Digital Graffiti Festival and most recently received the Connecticut Artist Fellowship Award.
On January 17, 2026, Jelani Cobb — renowned journalist, scholar, and dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism — spoke at The Westport Library for Westport’s 20th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.
380 community members braved the snow to gather in honor and reflection of the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., resonating with the speakers’ insights on history’s present relevance, truth as key to the survival of democracy, and what is asked of us as a community as we engage with these vital ideas.
Click here to read the full interactive story, featuring photos and videos from the event.
This winter, The Westport Library is featuring Building Bridges Through Storytelling, a multi-gallery quilting exhibition currently spanning the Library’s Sheffer, South, and Jesup Galleries now through March 17, 2026. Like a patchwork quilt itself, the show weaves together three distinct yet interconnected exhibits — each exploring how art, memory, and narrative bind communities across generations and geographies.
In the Sheffer Gallery, the Southern Connecticut Modern Quilt Guild (SCTMQG) presents original quilts inspired by the exhibition’s theme. Building Bridges Through Storytelling highlights quilting as both a creative practice and a powerful storytelling medium. These works reflect shared experiences with a modern sensibility, from the pandemic to everyday acts of resilience.
A reception and artist talk for the exhibit will be held Thursday, January 15, from 6 to 8 pm. The reception kicks off at 6 pm, followed by an artist talk at 7 pm with Westport artist Miggs Burroughs and a panel of quilters featured in the exhibit.
Founded more than a decade ago, SCTMQG is dedicated to advancing modern quilting through art, education, and community engagement. The Guild also supports regional nonprofits, creating and donating quilts and pillowcases to organizations including Homes with Hope, Susie’s House, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and others.
The Guild’s first connection with author, educator, and quilting expert Tangular Irby laid the foundation for the interwoven saga of this three-part exhibition. At a SCTMQG meeting in 2023, Irby shared her family’s quilting traditions rooted in Gee’s Bend, Alabama, which migrated north as members of the Gee’s Bend community settled in Bridgeport, carrying their craft with them.
“While our footprints may fade, our stories can live on,” Irby said of her work in sharing and celebrating her quilting heritage.
This exchange between Irby and SCTMQG sparked a beautiful collaboration honoring the enduring journey of Gee’s Bend quilting across generations and geography. The resulting exhibit, A Traveling Legacy: From Gee’s Bend to the Nutmeg State, is now on display in the South Gallery. It showcases quilts crafted by Gee’s Bend descendants now residing in Connecticut.
This textile anthology traces the enduring legacy of Dinah Miller, one of the first documented Gee’s Bend quilters who was captured and brought to America from Benin, Africa. Her lasting impact lives in the patterned similarities these quilts share with traditional Benin weaving, preserving a storied history branching from Africa to Alabama to Bridgeport.
A reception and community talk with Irby and her fellow Gee’s Bend descendants, Eula Pettway and Sandra Juliet Pettway, will take place on Saturday, January 31, from 1 to 3 pm. A quilt sale will also take place from 12 to 5 pm that same day, offering a chance for Westport’s vibrant art community to participate in the interconnected narrative.
Described by the New York Times as “some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,” Gee’s Bend quilts are celebrated worldwide and held in major museum collections. Known for their bold, abstract designs and vivid cultural expression, these quilts tell stories of faith, strength, and creativity that span generations. Their patterns and piecing styles have been enduringly passed down, surviving slavery and Jim Crow. They are a testament to the power of storytelling, expanding the realm of Black visual culture and opening doors to new understandings of American art and history.
While the respective work of SCTMQG and the Gee’s Bend quilters is showcased individually in the other galleries, their artistry comes together in the final piece in this exhibition. Uniting both exhibits is the Jesup Gallery’s centerpiece quilt, Building Bridges, collaboratively created by members of SCTMQG, the Bridgeport Gee’s Bend community, and quilters from Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Each community offers their own stories stitched into every seam.
Excitingly, the collaborative quilt will enter a new chapter when it finds a home in The Westport Library’s permanent art collection. This honored exchange will take place before the Building Bridges artist talk at 7 pm on Thursday, January 15.
Through striking designs and thoughtfully layered textiles, Building Bridges Through Storytelling invites viewers to reflect on how art preserves heritage and creates new narratives. Woven throughout this exhibition are stories of life, love, resilience, and community — a powerful reminder that storytelling, like quilting itself, continues to build bridges of understanding across generations.
For more information about the exhibition and related programs, visit the Art at the Library page.
As winter settles in, The Westport Library is once again turning the colder months into a season of connection, imagination, and discovery with its Children’s Winter Reading Program and Adult Winter Reading Challenge. These engaging initiatives are designed to spice up your winter and remind the community that reading doesn’t just enrich lives — it creates joy!
Running December 19, 2025, through February 23, 2026, the Children’s Winter Reading Program invites readers and non-readers alike to warm up with a good book. Open to all children and families, this program celebrates reading in every form: reading independently, being read to, or even deciphering the cereal box at breakfast. No matter how kids choose to participate, time spent reading is never wasted.
Because reading is tracked by minutes, every moment counts. Children can log time spent reading novels, picture books, graphic novels, comics, newspapers, magazines, and more. They can also log time spent listening to stories read aloud by caregivers, librarians, or teachers as well. Get creative with your reading material!
After signing up online, participants can visit the Library to receive an activity sheet and nine color-coded stickers. Completing 10 activities earns a book from the Library’s prize cart, while every additional 50 minutes of reading unlocks more stickers that will contribute to a collaborative community artwork on display at the Library. Children who are up to the challenge of reading 500 minutes will get to take home another book of their choice, giving them the chance to start building their own personal collection.
Interactive reading programs like this transform reading from an assignment into an experience. They help children maintain and strengthen literacy skills during school breaks, keep young minds curious and engaged, and create meaningful moments for families to read together. Most importantly, they help children associate reading with enjoyment, curiosity, and personal discovery — a connection that research shows is key to developing lifelong readers.
“This program offers a chance for families to build shared reading habits,” said the Library’s director of youth services, Mary Parmelee. “Parents who read inspire kids to read, and best of all, they get to share the joy of reading together.”
Luckily, there’s plenty of joy to go around with the return of the Library’s Adult Winter Reading Challenge, running December 22, 2025, through February 2, 2026. All kinds of readers are invited to rise to the challenge this season, from bookworms who can knock back a stack, to those embarking on a new journey to discover stories that speak to them.
After a highly successful inaugural 2024-25 campaign, the Library’s reference team has once again put together 10 thoughtfully curated categories designed to spark curiosity, encourage exploration across genres, and make reading feel playful rather than prescriptive. These top-secret categories will be revealed on December 22, when the challenge goes live.
Participants may complete as many categories as they wish, as long as they follow two simple rules: each category can only be used once, and each book counts toward a single category. Readers can log their completed books online and track their progress on the challenge leaderboard, sharing their momentum with other readers throughout the season.
Last winter’s challenge brought 44 readers who collectively read 272 books, with nearly one-third of participants completing all 10 challenges — a testament to the power of community motivation.
That sense of community extends beyond the page through the Westport Reading Challenge Facebook Group, where readers swap recommendations, celebrate milestones, participate in weekly giveaways, and cheer one another on.
Past participants rave about their delightful experiences with the Library’s adult reading challenges (there is also a longstanding Summer Reading Challenge), reveling in the chance to check books off their to-read lists and explore new kinds of stories they might not otherwise have considered before.
“I am always amazed by everything I read and the discovery of new genres,” said Norma H.
“I'm looking forward to reading these books cuddled up on the sofa in a warm blanket and a hot tea by my side,” said past Summer Reading Challenge frontrunner Amy S. in response to the teaser announcement for this winter’s challenge. In 2024, she held the top spot on the summer leaderboard among the Library’s most voracious readers, including head of adult reference services and collection curation Melanie Kelly.
Kelly offered her own insight into the fun of reading and engaging with other readers. “Whether you read for entertainment or self-care, or you’re motivated by friendly competition, or you enjoy sharing your love of books with your community, this challenge has something for everyone,” she said.
The 2025-26 Adult Winter Reading Challenge also connects with WestportREADS 2026, the Library’s annual community-wide reading initiative featuring immersive programming running January through March. Coinciding with the Adult Winter Reading Challenge, both opportunities reinforce the idea that reading is both a personal pleasure and a joyful shared experience. Excitingly, the Library’s reference team is also offering a hint that WestportREADS may play a part in one of the challenge’s categories…but you’ll have to stay tuned for the reveal on December 22!
From quiet moments of escape to lively online conversations, from picture books to page-turners, The Westport Library’s winter reading challenges invite readers of all ages to reignite their love of reading. Take part in one of life’s simplest and greatest pleasures by cozying up with a book this winter season!
Once again, WestportREADS returns to unite Westport’s community through the impact of a great book that sparks imagination, invites conversation, and resonates long after the last page is turned. As the 2026 WestportREADS selection, All the Water in the World by Whiting Award-winning author Eiren Caffall does all of this and more.
The Westport Library is thrilled to announce an exciting lineup of thematic programming that promises to enhance readers’ immersion — culminating on Thursday, February 19, in the Library’s Trefz Forum as Caffall joins the community for a keynote conversation on her debut novel with moderator Catherine Shen, host of CT Public’s Where We Live.
The full collection of copies of All the Water in the World will be available for borrowing Wednesday, December 10 (including as an e-book and an audiobook).
Launched in 2002, WestportREADS remains one of the Library’s most cherished annual traditions: a chance for neighbors to meet over a shared reading experience, for new and old friends to delight in discussion, and for the entire community to reflect together on literature that challenges, inspires, and stays with us.
From January through March, there will be discussion groups, including a lively Book Pub at Walrus Alley; screenings of thematically resonant films; an expert environmental talk that will connect the novel to our own lives; and even more communal happenings in the WestportREADS 2026 run of events.
In true community spirit, more than 550 attended the 2025 WestportREADS keynote address with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz, and in 2024 Michael Finkel drew almost 400 for his keynote conversation about The Art Thief.
Selected for its masterful storytelling that speaks to the enduring human condition in the face of disaster, All the Water in the World follows the journey of Nonie, a girl with an intuitive connection to water, in a flooded future New York where a small group of families have built a makeshift settlement atop the American Museum of Natural History. As the group works to safeguard the remnants of humanity’s stories and knowledge, a catastrophic storm forces them north up the Hudson River in search of safety, community, and the possibility of a life rebuilt.
“Eiren Caffall created a fully imaginable world within a horrific new future that wasn’t all doom and gloom within a flooded city," said Jennifer Keller, one of the members of the WestportREADS 2026 selection committee. "All the Water in the World explores family and climate change in a rich coming-of-age story that we can all relate to in some way.”
Released in January 2025, this captivating literary thriller blends climate fiction, adventure, and family drama with stunning prose poignant as it is hopeful. By drawing parallels to real-life stories of curators in Iraq and Leningrad who protected their cultural collections during times of war, Caffall asks the reader to consider how we endure, what we value, and how we care for one another in uncertain times.
Best-selling author Rene Denfield praised the novel, urging, “Each sentence is a treasure. Read this and be changed.”
From a PageTurners discussion group to weekly Tell a Yarn… read-aloud crafting circle sessions to a conversation at the Westport Center for Senior Activities, WestportREADers will have several opportunities to read and discuss the book with others at the Library and around town.
A complementary film series offers a cinematic interpretation of the novel’s shared themes, exploring stories of climate, family, and adaptation with screenings of The Day After Tomorrow (2004), 2040 (2019), Waterworld (1995), and Night at the Museum (2006).
Prefacing Caffall’s keynote conversation is a special talk on Thursday, February 12 with executive director of CIRCA (the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation) James O’Donnell, who will bring local context to the global themes woven throughout the novel. Using calculated projections, O’Donnell will share the real impact of rising sea levels and offer practical changes we can make to offset the effects of climate change on Connecticut’s shoreline and the Long Island Sound — areas that Caffall herself has a long history with, outlined in her award-winning 2024 memoir The Mourner's Bestiary.
All the Water in the World promises to take the reader on a journey that offers hope in the survival of what matters most — love, community, and knowledge. These themes speak to the true mission behind WestportREADS: to share a love of reading and connect with your fellow readers.
Cozy up with your community and enjoy a good book with us this winter!
Past WestportREADS selections include Diaz’s In the Distance, Finkel’s The Art Thief, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, Towards a More Perfect Union: Confronting Racism by Layla Saad, and Exit West by Moshin Hamid, among others.
For more past WestportREADS selections, and to learn more about the annual event, visit the WestportREADS homepage on The Westport Library website.
WestportREADS is supported through a generous bequest by the estate of Jerry A. Tishman.
