The Westport Library invites you to immerse yourself in the perfect summer read as best-selling author Adriana Trigiani presents her newest release, The View From Lake Como. Trigiani will be in conversation with fellow author Christina Geist.
Signed books are included with the price of admission.
About The View From Lake Como
From beloved best seller Adriana Trigiani comes a novel about one woman’s quest to build her own life before it’s too late.
Jess Capodimonte Baratta is not living the life of her dreams. Not even close.
In blue-collar Lake Como, New Jersey, family comes first. Recently divorced from Bobby Bilancia, “the perfect husband,” Jess moves into her parents’ basement to hide and heal. Jess is the overlooked daughter, who dutifully takes care of her parents, cooks Sunday dinner, and puts herself last. Despite her role as the family handmaiden, Jess is also a talented draftswoman in the marble business run by her dapper uncle Louie, who believes she can do anything (once she invests in a better wardrobe.)
When the Capodimonte and Baratta families endure an unexpected loss, the shock unearths long-buried secrets that will force Jess to question her loyalty to those she trusted. Fueled by her lost dreams, Jess takes fate into her own hands and escapes to her ancestral home in Carrara, Italy.
From the shadows of the majestic marble-capped mountains of Tuscany, to the glittering streets of Milan, and on the shores of enchanting Lake Como (the other one), Jess begins to carve a place in this new/old world. When she meets Angelo Strazza, a passionate artist who works in gold, she discovers her own skills are priceless. But as Jess uncovers the truth about her family history, it will change the course of her life and those she loves the most forever. In love and work, in art and soul, Jess will need every tool she has mastered to reinvent her life.
Fed by the author’s cherished Italian roots comes a bighearted, hilarious novel of the moment: the story of one woman’s determination to live a creative life that matters, with enough room left over for love. With a one-way ticket to Italy, Jess is determined to write a new story on her own terms — this time, in stone.
About Adriana Trigiani
Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times best-selling author of 21 books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Good Left Undone, The Shoemaker's Wife, and Lucia, Lucia. Her work has been published in 38 languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer, and filmmaker, Trigiani wrote and directed the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, adapted her novel, Very Valentine, for television, and directed the award-winning documentary, Queens of the Big Time, among others.
Trigiani grew up in the mountains of southwest Virginia, where she co-founded The Origin Project, a year-round, in-school writing program that has served over 25,000 students since its inception in 2014. In 2023, Adriana Trigiani was named Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia by President Sergio Mattarella of Italy. In 2024, The Library of Virginia awarded her the Patron of Letters degree, their highest honor.
She has made regular appearances on NBC’s Today show and Good Day New York with Rosanna Scotto, and has been profiled by publications around the world, including The New York Times, Virginia Living, Publisher’s Weekly, and Writer’s Digest. Trigiani is also honored to serve on the New York State Council on the Arts. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.
About Christina Geist
Christina Geist is a writer, entrepreneur, and brand strategist who lives by a simple rule: Use Your Words. She is the author of the Growing with Buddy series of picture books from Random House Children's, including the beloved New York Times bestseller Sorry Grown-Ups, You Can't Go to School!. Her spirited storytelling connects with kids, families, and teachers as they navigate daily routines like bedtime, adjusting to school, and making new friends. Christina is also the co-founder of True Geist, a branding and design firm serving corporate and consumer brands around the world, and the founder and former CEO of Boombox Gifts. Geist lives in New York with her husband, Willie Geist, host of NBC's Sunday TODAY and MSNBC's Morning Joe, and their two children. For more info, visit christinageist.com.
Fiction and Non-Fiction We're Excited About
New York Times Best Sellers
Author Richard Russo is bringing his newest essay collection, Life and Art, to The Westport Library! Enjoy an insightful conversation between Russo and popular book reviewer Suzanne Leopold as they discuss his new release.
About Life and Art
Across his distinguished career as a writer, Russo's novels have intimately captured the human experience — and his newest essay collection Life and Art is no different.
Life and Art — these are the twin subjects considered in Richard Russo’s 12 masterful new essays — how they inform each other and how the stories we tell ourselves about both shape our understanding of the world around us. In The Lives of Others, he reflects on the implacable fact that writers use people, insisting that what matters, in the end, is how and for what purpose.
How do you bridge the gap between what you know and what you don’t, and sometimes can’t, know? Why tell a story in the first place? What we don’t understand, Russo opines, is in fact the very thing that beckons to us. In Stiff Neck, he writes of the exasperating fault lines exposed within his own family as his wife’s sister and her husband — proudly unvaccinated — develop COVID.
In Triage, he details with heartbreaking vividness the terror of seeing his seven-year-old grandson in critical condition. And in Ghosts, he revisits Gloversville, the town that gave rise to the now-legendary fictional town of North Bath, and confronts the specter of its richly populated past and its ghostly present.
Sharp, tender, extraordinarily intimate reflections on work, culture, love, and family from one of the great writers of our time.
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Richard Russo is the author of nine novels, most recently Somebody’s Fool, Chances Are..., Everybody’s Fool, and That Old Cape Magic; two collections of stories; and the memoir Elsewhere. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like Nobody’s Fool, won multiple awards for its screen adaptation, and in 2023 his novel Straight Man was adapted into the television series Lucky Hank. In 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine. He lives in Portland, Maine.
Suzanne Leopold is the creator of SuzyApproved.com, where she shares book reviews to an audience of over 10 thousand. She is also the founder of Suzy Approved Book Tours, where she aggregates her community of bloggers across social media platforms to support authors with book launches. She also served as a juror for the 2024 Westport Prize For Literature. A Westport resident for over 20 years, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons.
READ Like A Librarian
Award Winning Books!
Celebrate AAPI month with author Kevin Nguyen and his new book, Mỹ Documents. Nguyen will be in conversation with educator and AAPI activist Jennifer Heikkila Diaz.
This event is presented in partnership with AAPI Westport.
As an author, journalist, and editor at The Verge, Kevin Nguyen’s work often explores what happens at the intersection of technology, humanity, and culture. His incisive and darkly satirical new novel, Mỹ Documents, couldn’t be timelier—or more engrossing.
A moving speculative novel about a Vietnamese American family confronting ambition and assimilation during exceptionally troubled times, Mỹ Documents gives a version of reality only a few degrees away from our own. Nguyen, whose work grew from extensive research on the incarceration of Japanese citizens in the U.S. during the 1940s, imagines what a mass detention program might look like in the age of the internet.
When the U.S. government begins detaining Vietnamese Americans amid a wave of national panic, half-siblings Ursula, Alvin, Jen, and Duncan find themselves coming of age during a harsh new reality. While Ursula fosters a nascent career in journalism and Alvin interns at Google, Jen and Duncan are forced into the unforgiving confines of Camp Tacoma, a chilling echo of America’s internment camps. When Ursula begins to use her detained siblings as a rare source of insider information about the camps, her career skyrockets and she is forced to contend with what it means that her success has come at the cost of her own family. As all four siblings have their lives upended, they must adapt to their strained realities and search for a way back to each other.
Mỹ Documents offers a striking commentary on the profound personal impact of political upheaval and tangles with the ethics of journalism and the uncomfortable boundaries of representation and solidarity within a community. Ultimately, this is a story of resilience and how we return to each other — and to ourselves — after tragedy. Nguyen deftly channels the uncanny worlds and emotional heft of some of other haunting contemporary novelists — Kazuo Ishiguro, Emily St. John Mandel, Ling Ma — while writing with alluring humor distinctly his own. (The title itself is a sly joke, with Mỹ being the Vietnamese word for “America.”)
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Kevin Nguyen is features editor of The Verge, and was previously a senior editor at GQ. He has edited stories that have been finalists for the National Magazine Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His debut novel, New Waves (2020, One World), was one of NPR’s Best Books of the Year in 2020, and was widely celebrated for its mordant humor, fierce intelligence, and stylish prose. Author Bryan Washington called it “a delight and a gamble and a treasure and a miracle.”
Jennifer (JHD/Jenny) Heikkila Díaz (they/she) is a professional learning coordinator for the Connecticut Council for the Social Studies and a facilitator of statewide teacher communities as a member of the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective Steering Committee and as a UConn AAASI Activist in Residence. For nearly 25 years, JHD has worked as a K-12 public school teacher, school administrator, and educator coach in Baltimore, South Central Los Angeles, Long Beach, Echo Park, Queens, and across Connecticut. They are a New Havener and co-chair of the Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT (APAC). Their lifelong commitment is to backing youth, who envision an even more joyful and just world than they do.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Reading and Learning about Anti-Racism
Own Voices
Fans of thriller and historical fiction will be excited to learn that best-selling author David Baldacci will be coming to The Westport Library to launch and discuss his newest book, Strangers in Time, on its release date: Tuesday, April 15.
The event will take place at 7 pm in the Library’s Trefz Forum, with a keynote presentation by Baldacci followed by a book signing. Click here to register.
For this premier event, the Library will be including one copy of Strangers in Time with each ticket option. One seat with one copy of the book is priced at $40, and the option for two seats with one copy is priced at $50. Extra copies are also available on-site for $30 each.
Additionally, there will be a special opportunity to meet Baldacci one-on-one, with one copy of the book included, for $150 per ticket.
Strangers in Time tells the story of a bereaved bookshop owner and two teenagers scarred by the Second World War in 1944 London — and the healing and hope they find in one another.
Streetwise Blitz survivor Charlie Matters steals to get by, knowing any day could be his last. Uprooted by a large-scale evacuation, Molly Wakefield returns to a shattered London, only to discover her parents are gone. Their paths cross at The Book Keep, a literary sanctuary run by Ignatius Oliver, who, despite his own loss, offers them refuge. Together they form a kinship in each other, and as secrets surface and the perils of war rage on, they discover that their united trust in each other may be the only way for them to survive.
Early reviews for the book rave about Baldacci’s foray into historical fiction.
New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult called it “a meticulously precise account of what it was like to live through the Blitz in London — a visceral reminder that war not only levels social classes, but creates the most unlikely and indefatigable bonds between unlikely souls.”
And best-selling author Mitch Albom wrote: “A riveting story of secrets, betrayals, and unlikely friendships during World War II. An emotional web that keeps spinning — and keeps you guessing — right until the startling finish.”
For nearly 30 years, Baldacci’s novels have captivated readers with gripping narratives that blend political intrigue, espionage, and courtroom suspense. He has published more than 50 novels, all of which have been national and international best-sellers, and five of which have been adapted for film and television. His 1996 debut novel, Absolute Power, was an instant best-seller, adapted as a 1997 feature film starring and directed by Clint Eastwood. Other novels made into films include Wish You Well (2013) and The Christmas Train (2017).
Baldacci’s vast collection of published legal dramas can be attributed to his years practicing law in Washington, D.C. Published in more than 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide, Baldacci’s works span numerous best-selling series, including the legal-driven John Puller and Amos Decker thrillers, the action-packed Will Robie and Atlee Pine series, and the beloved King & Maxwell books. In addition to his adult thrillers, Baldacci has also expanded his reach across generations of readers with seven middle-grade novels, denoted by his entry into the fantasy genre with the Vega Jane series.
A lifelong writer, Baldacci credits his mother’s gift of a lined notebook as the spark for his literary ventures in childhood, later igniting his writing career — even if she later reported that her purpose was to keep him occupied, “because every mom needs a break now and then.”
With such an extensive anthology of works traversing many diverse genres, Baldacci doesn’t have to go out of his way to look for new story ideas — inspiration finds him in his everyday life.
“As a writer, you can never ‘turn off’ your passion for the written word and love of a great story,” Baldacci said. “So I watch life, listen intently, and basically drive everyone around me a bit crazy as I absorb my environment. When you’re naturally curious, you uncover storylines everywhere.”
Join a vital, enlightening conversation with celebrated filmmaker and writer Mo Ogrodnik as she launches her debut novel Gulf in conversation with fellow author Charlotte Rogan.
Copies of Gulf will be available for sale at this event.
About Gulf
Told through a prism of female voices, this cinematic debut follows five women with vastly different origins — from the Philippines, to Ethiopia, to New York City — whose lives bring them to the Arabian Gulf, where they collide with devastating and profound consequences.
Dounia, a young Saudi mother, finds herself alienated in a desolate, post-weather, air-conditioned modernist box and decides to rebel against all forms of domesticity. Flora, a Filipina domestic worker haunted by the flood that claimed her infant’s life, navigates the perils of her boss’s insurrection. Zeinah, a Syrian woman, seeks love within the confines of her arranged marriage to a jihadist and finds herself joining the female morality police. Justine, a white American curator, reckons with her own violence and ethical limitations when her life intersects with Eskedare, a spirited and defiant Ethiopian teenager whose dreams have dead-ended in the Gulf. Bold moves unlock vital consequences, each woman’s journey confronting us with our own capacity for cruelty, rebellion, resilience—and hope.
Written with unsettling intimacy and determined empathy, Gulf exposes the stark realities of what happens when a woman’s agency is stripped away and asks how far we will go in order to survive.
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Mo Ogrodnik is a filmmaker, writer, and professor in the film department at NYU. She was the associate dean of the arts for NYU in Abu Dhabi and the director of FIND, a creative lab exploring the transnational heritage of the UAE. She’s served as a mentor for the Sundance Labs in Jordan and received fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell.
Charlotte Rogan spent 25 years as a closet writer before her first novel was published in 2012. The Lifeboat was nominated for The Guardian first book award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Goldsboro Books and Historical Writers Association debut historical fiction prize. It was included on The Huffington Post’s 2015 list of “21 books from the last 5 years that every woman should read” and has been translated into 26 languages. Her second novel,Now and Again, continued to explore issues of morality and justice. Rogan attended Greens Farms Academy back when it was a tiny girls’ school, studied architecture at Princeton University, and worked for a large construction firm before turning her creative energies to writing.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Authors & Literature (Adult)
READ Like A Librarian
The Westport Library welcomes best-selling thriller author David Baldacci to discuss his illustrious career and launch his newest book, Strangers in Time.
Ticket prices include one copy of Strangers in Time:
One seat with one copy of the book: $40
Two seats with one copy of the book: $50
One extra copy: $30 each
One special opportunity to meet David Baldacci, with one copy of the book included: $150
About Strangers in Time:
Baldacci’s newest novel, set in London in 1944, tells the story of a bereaved bookshop owner and two teenagers scarred by the Second World War, and the healing and hope they find in one another.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.
Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via “Operation Pied Piper,” Molly has been away from her parents—from her home—for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: both her parents are gone.
Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where a book a day keeps the bombs away. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other—over the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seen—they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.
But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone’s been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is still reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she was alive—something so shocking it resulted in her death, and his life being turned upside down.
As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.
About David Baldacci
Baldacci has been writing since childhood, when his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories. (Much later, when he thanked her for being the spark that ignited his writing career, she revealed that she’d given him the notebook to keep him quiet, “because every mom needs a break now and then.”)
Baldacci published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996. The feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. In total, Baldacci has published 50 novels for adults; all have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His novels are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. He has also published seven novels for young readers.
A lifelong Virginian, Baldacci received his Bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law in Washington, D.C.
Authors & Literature
READ Like A Librarian
Join us for the release of chef Alison Milwe Grace's first cookbook, Savor: Recipes to Celebrate. Savor is a carefully curated collection of favorite recipes, themed classes, and menus for enthusiastic home cooks to create festive gatherings for friends and family.
Milwe Grace grew up in Westport, Connecticut where she began her lifelong love affair with food and cooking. After working in restaurants throughout her college years at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Hotel & Restaurant School, she attended the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in New York City, where she earned a degree in Baking & Pastry Arts and a certificate in French Cooking Technique. She went on to enjoy a successful run as Executive Chef at an Award-winning Fairfield County restaurant, and soon started her own catering company, AMG Catering & Events.
With 30 years of food industry experience, including 20 years teaching cooking and culinary arts to students of all ages, Milwe Grace decided it was time to add "cookbook author" to her career accomplishments.
“Every day could and should be treated like a special occasion – a reason to celebrate another day of living!” Milwe Grace said, “And what better way to bring people together than with food?”
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Chef Alison Milwe Grace is a lifelong Connecticut resident, and the owner of AMG Catering and Events. In addition to teaching adults in her Wilton-based catering kitchen, she is the culinary arts teacher at Staples High School. Milwe Grace is a James Beard Scholarship recipient, has appeared on the Food Network’s Kitchen Casino and Supermarket Steakout, and her recipes have appeared in numerous publications. She says she is her “best self” in the kitchen and that she “loves through food.”
She currently lives in Weston with her husband, her three children, and their two rescue dogs.
Cooking & Baking
Food & Drink Hobbies
New Cookbooks
In anticipation of the Big Game (Super Bowl LIX), The Westport Library welcomes best-selling author Jeff Benedict to talk football and discuss his definitive book on the New England Patriots, The Dynasty.
This conversation will have something for every football fan, with Benedict discussing the inner workings of one of the great dynasties in football history as well as the two epic Patriots-Giants Super Bowls, including how the Patriots bounced back from losing their undefeated season to the Giants in 2008.
Books are available for purchase at registration and also on the night of the event. Benedict will be signing copies after his talk.
Invite your friends and enjoy some delicious baked treats from Cobs Bread of Westport.
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As an author, producer, and commentator, Benedict is the ultimate cultural authority on the most dominant sports dynasty of the 21st century, the New England Patriots, as featured at Nasdaq in Times Square. With unprecedented access inside the organization for five years, Benedict provides the definitive inside story of the team.
Sports Illustrated’s Gary Smith said, “Benedict slips inside, lowers the drawbridge, and waves us in to see the ramparts, towers, turrets, and castle keep where the Brady-Belichick-Kraft trinity ruled.”
Benedict’s retelling of this iconic sports story inspires audiences to look to the Patriots as a case study on teamwork, overcoming adversity, consistency, and the momentum of success.
The eponymous 10-part docuseries, The Dynasty: New England Patriots, was produced with Imagine Documentaries in cooperation with the New England Patriots for Apple TV+. This intimate portrait capturing the human drama of enduring success is a byproduct of access, exhaustive research, engaging storytelling, and humanity. Benedict gives insight not only into the success of the New England Patriots, but the true meaning of greatness.
About Jeff Benedict
Benedict is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and an Emmy Award-winning producer whose storytelling power has captivated audiences across mediums. Benedict has written 17 nonfiction books and many feature stories about some of the most iconic figures in sports history. He has been tapped as executive producer and writer for documentary adaptations of his books, including a 10-part series based on his bestseller The Dynasty, the definitive inside story of the New England Patriots, with Imagine Entertainment for Apple TV+ in 2024.
Benedict wrote and produced the Emmy Award-winning Netflix documentary Poisoned, which was based on his book of the same title. In 2023, he wrote the biography of LeBron James, an instant New York Times bestseller that critics called “masterful” and “propulsive.” In 2021, Benedict co-produced the HBO documentary Tiger, based on his #1 bestselling biography Tiger Woods. Jeff also wrote Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young’s autobiography QB. A former special features writer for Sports Illustrated and the Los Angeles Times, Benedict is a sought-after commentator for his unmatched ability to get to the heart of a historic moment or figure, sculpt a narrative, and look for the untold story.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
Note to patrons and registered guests: Due to inclement weather, this program will be moved to a digital event. Click the link below to watch live at 7 pm.
In conjunction with Black History Month, The Westport Library invites you to celebrate the life and achievements of pivotal American abolitionist Harriet Tubman with author Jean Marie Wiesen and great-great-great grandniece of Harriet Tubman, Rita Daniels, as they speak on their new book, Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary. This talk will be moderated by TEAM Westport chair Harold Bailey Jr.
For all Harriet Tubman’s accomplishments and the myriad books written about her, many gaps, errors, and misconceptions of her legendary life persist. Harriet Tubman: Military Scout and Tenacious Visionary sets out to rectify these omissions and many others. As recognition and tributes to Tubman’s remarkable contributions to American history and civil liberty continues to grow, the time is right for a new biography with the involvement of her family, who have been the caretakers and stewards of her legacy for generations.
Just who was this remarkable woman? We might know the outlines of her story, but the deep research of Wiesen and rich family memory of Daniels combine to form a nuanced and vibrant portrait of a historic figure we all thought we knew. Uncovering Harriet's ancestral roots in Ghana and exploring her time on the underground railroad, as a military scout, suffragette, and more, Harriet Tubman is an inspiring and illuminating narrative about a key figure in our history.
Books will be available for purchase and signing.
This author talk is presented in partnership with TEAM Westport, the Friends of the Weston Public Library, and the Westport Museum for History & Culture.
Rita Daniels, the great-great-great grandniece of Harriet Tubman, is the President and Founder of the Harriet Tubman Learning Center (HTLC) based in Powder Springs, Georgia. She earned her Master’s Degree in Education and Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resources (Cum Laude) at Trident University International. Rita’s mission is to promote the education of underserved children, so no child suffers the humiliation of illiteracy, as Harriet did.
Jean Marie Wiesen, a noted investigative author and mystery crime writer, is author of Case of the Missing Look Alikes and Case of the Mouse Trap Legend. She attended Art Center College of Design in Southern California, where she majored in Still Photography and minored in Creative Writing. The author continued polishing her writing craft under the tutelage of British author Robert Pollock.
Harold Bailey, Jr. is Executive Vice President of McLeod Associates, Inc. Prior to his retirement as Vice President, he was on the leading edge of IBM’s transition from hardware centricity into the software and services businesses. He has been Chair of TEAM Westport (the Town of Westport, CT’s Council on Diversity) since its inception in 2003. He is a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Distinguished Community Leadership Award for Upper Fairfield County, the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County’s ACE Award, and the Westport Country Playhouse’s 2024 Leadership Award. He is a graduate of Brown University from which he received undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Applied Math as well as an Honorary Doctorate for alumni service. He is an alumnus and trustee of the Tilton School (NH) from which he received the George L. Plimpton Award for outstanding contribution to society.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
African American History
Enslaved Stories
Join author Nikkya Hargrove in conversation on her searing and uplifting memoir, Mama: A Queer Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found. In it, Hargrove recounts the events of her life as a young black woman fresh out of college, determined to create the kind of family she never had by adopting her baby brother following the death of her incarcerated mother. Mama is an ode to motherhood and identity, and to finding strength in family and community. Nikkya will be in conversation with Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries.
Nikkya Hargrove is a graduate of Bard College and currently serves as a member of the school’s Board of Governors and chair of the alumni/ae Diversity Committee. A LAMBDA Literary Nonfiction Fellow, she has written about adoption, marriage, motherhood, and the prison system for The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times, Scary Mommy, and Shondaland. She has worked for social impact nonprofits providing support to underserved communities throughout her professional career. She lives in Connecticut with her wife and three children.
Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an award-winning librarian, archivist, writer, editor, mother, and resident of Fairfield County in East Norwalk. She is managing editor for Sinister Wisdom: A Lesbian Literary and Art Journal, and Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Engagement at New York University Division of Libraries. She teaches Reference and Instruction to graduate students learning to become librarians and archivists at Pratt School of Information. Her recent publications include Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations in Identity and Libraries and Grabbing Tea: Queer Conversations in Archives and Practice each published in 2024 by Litwin Books. During the pride events at Westport and Norwalk, find Shawn on a blanket giving away new queer fiction or find her writings at: https://shawntasmithcruz.com
Still mourning the end of Spooky Season? Well, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered with a little late December creepiness. The days are short, the nights are long, and we invite you to join founders of Oddities Flea Market and world-renowned collectors of the macabre, Ryan Matthew Cohn and Regina M. Rossi, for an insider’s tour of bizarre artifacts, their histories; and their new book, The Witch's Door.
An engaging mix of memoir, exposé, how-to guide, and curated journey, The Witch's Door is filled with jaw-dropping photographs and unbelievable-but-true stories of exploded skulls, haunted mirrors, and other eccentricities aplenty.
Ryan Matthew Cohn is an artist, curator, art collector, and co-founder of the Oddities Flea Market. His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts and Design, Armour-Stiner Octagon House, Copro Gallery, Last Rites Gallery, Morbid Anatomy Museum, Roq La Rue Gallery, and more. His curatorial work has appeared in Playboy, Revolver, and The New York Times, as well as in films such as Wonderstruck and The Greatest Showman. Between 2010 and 2014, Ryan was featured as one of the stars on the Discovery Channel show Oddities, and he currently appears on the web series Antiques and Their Afterlives on Atlas Obscura.
Regina Marie Rossi is the co-founder and producer of the Oddities Flea Market, a traveling high-end art market, which expanded from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Manhattan, and beyond under her leadership. In 2016, she collaborated with her husband, Ryan, to curate Brooklyn’s House of Wax: a bar, museum, and event space like no other. With a background in high-end fashion, Regina brings glamour and elegance to her exhibits and events.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
NoveList Plus
READ Like A Librarian
Drawing upon wisdom, leadership, parenthood, and a 35-year career as a sports marketing executive, author/speaker and local Southporter Stephen Panus shares his journey of turning pain into purpose, overcoming adversity and finding strength in vulnerability as chronicled in his highly acclaimed memoir, Walk On.
Joining Panus for a conversation about Walk On is Westport's own Lindsay Czarniak of Fox Sports, who will lead the program and entertain questions from the audience.
Panus suffered through every parent's most horrific nightmare — the loss of a child. On August 9, 2020, his 16-year-old son, Jake, was a passenger killed in a reckless and senseless crash on Block Island while away with his girlfriend and her family.
Walk On is an inspiring and emotionally powerful story which transcends grief, loss, and love, and provides hope for anyone suffering from any form of adversity, struggle, or hardship. Moreover, it's an authentic story of a father who honors that "our vulnerability is our strength" and therefore takes the reader where few men have gone — to the raw underbelly of surviving the sudden and tragic loss of his beloved son.
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The Library is pleased to be able to offer free programs and events through the generous donations of patrons like you. Please consider giving to the Library so that we can continue to offer events like this one. Your donation is tax deductible. Donate Now!
