Fall 2024: Creativity
Copies of all books will be available in the library. Registration is highly encouraged. Click on the blue hyperlinks for each date to register.
Creating the perfect surprise vacation for a loved one, painting a room so it becomes a light and bright space, teaching a reluctant reader to find joy between the pages of a book, designing a garden, building a bookcase for a difficult corner; these are just some examples of how all of us use creativity in our daily lives. Those who become famous for their creativity may paint the Sistine Chapel, discover cures for cancer, write the great American novel or sing in a way that brings tears to our eyes.
This year, we will encounter creative people and characters whose creativity changes their world and ours.
On Thursday, September 26 at 10:30 in the library, Dr. Suzanne Brown will lead a discussion of Hidden Figures by Margaret Lee Shetterly. Dr. Brown is an insightful and gifted literary scholar who will lead us in an exploration of the lives and creative work of several Black women mathematicians and scientists who worked at NASA during a time of extreme gender and racial discrimination. One of these women calculated rocket projections for the Mercury and Apollo missions.
On Monday, October 28 at 10:30, Mr. Will Speers will explore Virginia Woolf’s classic, A Room of One’s Own. Written a century ago, this extended essay answers the eternal question of why there has never been a female Shakespeare. When thinking of women and creativity, this is a short book that packs a big punch.
On Thursday, November 21 at 11:00, Dr. Suzanne Brown will continue to pursue creative ideas about William Shakespeare with her exploration of the award-winning historical fiction, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. This is a fictional account of the effect of the death of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet on both his life and his work, particularly Hamlet. The novel itself is a work of creative genius.
