Saturday Crafters

Saturday Crafters, a monthly craft group organized by Bernardsville Public Library, will meet on Saturday, May 17 at 3:00 pm.  Individuals are invited to bring their own handwork projects to the Library and work together in a comfortable, communal setting while enjoying the benefits of shared tips and conversation.  They can also take advantage of the many books available at the library on different types of crafts. 

Public Relations Assistant Evelyn Fischel will showcase project ideas and books at each meeting.  A long-time crafter, Ms. Fischel will encourage such interests as knitting, crocheting, paper arts, hand sewing, embroidery and other needlework, as well as any other craft the group wishes to cover.  

There is no charge to attend the meeting, and no sign-up is needed.  For more information, call the library at 908-766-0118.

Capture Your Kinfolk: A Poetry Workshop

Morristown poet Gail Fishman Gerwin returns to the Bernardsville Public Library on Thursday, May 15 at 10:00 am to lead a writing workshop titled "Capture Your Kinfolk."  

So many memories involve kin: perhaps feuding aunts, spouses (current, former, or fantasy), loving parents and grandparents, siblings, children, grandchildren, and even the animal kinfolk we love or have loved.  In a spirit of honoring family members, Ms. Gerwin will invite workshop participants to think of their kinfolk (by blood, marriage, friendship) and write narrative poetry about them.  If there is a photo—old or current—that prompts a memory, bring it along or tap your store of experiences and major or minor events that can lead to a poem.  The workshop will review the qualities of narrative poetry and new resources will be discussed.  There will be time to write, to share, and to discuss the process.

Ms. Gerwin, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, received her AB from Goucher College and thirty years later, her MA from NYU’s Gallatin School.  A former educator, in 1984 she founded inedit, a freelance writing/editing firm based in Morristown.  She is author of "Bella’s Family," a two-act play about a Jewish immigrant family in the early 20th century; "Dropping Names," a one-act play; and "Women in Motion," a monologue collection.  Her poems, book reviews, fiction, essays, and journalistic features appear in literary journals, anthologies, newspapers, and magazines, and her plays have enjoyed staged readings at varied venues.  Her first poetry collection, "Sugar and Sand," earned finalist designation for the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize.  Her second, "Dear Kinfolk," earned a 2013 Paterson Prize for Literary Excellence.  She presents readings and workshops at varied venues and is associate poetry editor of Tiferet, a journal of spiritual literature.  She and her husband Kenneth live in Morristown.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up. 

"Share the Keys"

Patrolman Paul Kelley of the Bernardsville Police Dept. will discuss New Jersey’s intricate and strict teen-driver probationary licensing rules and restrictions at Bernardsville Public Library on Wednesday, May 14 at 7:00 pm. The program is specifically designed to educate parents of teen drivers about the New Jersey Graduated Driver License program and their roles in the successful training of their inexperienced teen drivers. Sign up by calling 766-0037 or email police@bernardsvillepd.org.

Historic Somerset Hills: The Country Place Era

The Maples 

The "Somerset Hills Country Place Era" is a recent thematic type of historic register designation approved by the NJ State Historic Preservation Office in 2013.  It makes it possible for historic estate properties and structures built in the Bernardsville area between 1870 and 1940 to be listed on the NJ Register of Historic Places if desired by the current owners. On Thursday, May 8 at 7:00 pm, Bernardsville’s Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) will explain this listing and what possible historic designation means for your property.  Preservation professionals will be on hand to answer your questions and explain the benefits of listing in a historic district. 

Founded in 2002, Bernardsville's Historic Preservation Advisory Committee is dedicated to the promotion of historic preservation in the borough through planning, outreach, conservation, education, public programs and events.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested.  Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up. 

Photograph Exhibit: "Travels with the Maasai" by Douglas Munch

A Maasai warrior at sunrise
in the Ngorongoro Highlands.

Bernardsville Public Library is pleased to present "Travels with the Maasai" during the month of May, an exhibition of photographs by local entrepreneur and professional photographer Douglas Munch.  There will be an opening reception for the public on Saturday, May 10 from 12:00 to 2:30 pm.

The show will feature photographs from the Serengeti, including images of the ancient Hadzabe tribe, one of the last remaining hunter gatherers on earth and the Maasai people in Tanzania.  About this exhibition, Mr. Munch said, “My vision is to view the world through a prism of beauty, color, perspective, and geometry, leading to images with heart and sensitivity.  I hope this exhibition will project those qualities through my images.”  Hadzabe people number just under 2,000 today, living on the shore of Lake Eyasi.  Through DNA testing, the tribe has been traced back 2.2 million years old with origins in the Olduvai Gorge.  Maasai people are pastoral, herding goats and cattle.  As fierce warriors, the Maasai men are trained for battle.  

Mr. Munch has been creating photographic images since the age of eleven when he won his first "open" contest in as a young student in Japan.  Since that time, photography has been a creative outlet for him, primarily as a serious avocation.  He has said about his work, "I love this medium.  Our world has so much color and beauty in it.  Photography helps me to enjoy that beauty and express my vision of it through photographic images that others may also enjoy.”

Over the years, he has won numerous contests and has published photographs in books, journals, and calendars, most recently for Barnes and Nobel's 2010 mid-year and 2011 engagement calendars.  Munch has had several photographic exhibitions including a curated one man show in New Jersey, “Colors of the World,” which featured images from ten countries and five US states.  Another one man show in Toronto, Canada, “Colors of Macedonia,” featured images of antiquity and modernity in the Republic of Macedonia, part of the former Yugoslav Republic.  In 2011, he was invited to exhibit several images as part of another curated photo exhibition in New Jersey and also exhibited a number of photographs that were coordinated with a "Photoshop® Lightroom" class he taught at Calumet Photographic in Cambridge, MA.  Most recently, he has been on two different expeditions with National Geographic photographers, one in Tanzania and another in Tibet.  The Tanzania journey is the subject of this exhibition.

Mr. Munch had a long career in medicine and business consulting with pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical device companies.  He also worked for companies such as Johnson and Johnson, Sphinx Pharmaceuticals, and Kimberley Clark Corporation.  Munch attended Villanova University, The University of California and received his doctorate in Medicine and Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine.

This exhibition will be on view in the library’s Community Room during regular library hours unless a meeting is in progress.  For further information, please call the library at 908-766-0118.

Yoga Basics Classes

In a partnership of Bernardsville Library and Bernardsville Recreation, another six-session course on yoga basics will be offered in the library's Community Room on Tuesdays, May 6 to June 17 at 1:00 pm (no class on June 3).  Taught by Julie Shaw of Lotus Mind and Body, the total cost for the 6-week session is $30.00.  Registration is required through Bernardsville Recreation’s Community Pass portal, https://register.communitypass.net/bernardsville.  Students should bring a yoga mat or towel with them to class.
  
Suitable for all students, the classes will offer an integrated sequence of poses designed to warm up the body and then work toward a specific intention within the natural movements of the spine.  Students are encouraged throughout the entire practice to link their awareness of breath to the movements of the body.  This awareness is the single most important key to a Hatha yoga practice because it serves to keep the practitioner in the present movement, observing and accepting what is.  Pranayama (breath work) and a final deep relaxation are integral to every class.

Some twenty-five years ago, Instructor Shaw's long commute in a car with a cranky clutch resulted in back pain.  She looked up “yoga” in the yellow pages and stepped into so much more than an exercise class.  Fourteen years later she completed her first level Yoga Alliance-approved teacher training, followed six years later by her second level training.   She began teaching more than 10 years ago and has studied several primary forms of yoga, including Iyengar, Kripalu and Viniyoga.  Currently, she is studying to become a certified yoga therapist in the Viniyoga tradition, which is one of the remaining truly authentic yoga traditions.  She teaches group classes and works privately with individuals, developing a yoga practice which can best serve their needs, whatever their condition may be.  Ms. Shaw has had the privilege of experiencing the cumulative effects of decades of yoga, and she uses that awareness to encourage all students, beginners or veterans, to be open to what yoga can offer in this moment of their lives.  

For further information, call Bernardsville Library at 908-766-0118 or Bernardsville Recreation at 908-766-2546.

Saturday Samplers Book Group to Meet

Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, May 3 at 3:30 pm to discuss “Open Secrets,” a short story collection (1994) by Alice Munro, the renowned Canadian short-story writer who won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. [The author will not be present.]

In these eight tales, Ms. Munro evokes the devastating power of old love suddenly recollected. She tells of vanished schoolgirls and indentured frontier brides and an eccentric recluse who, in the course of one surpassingly odd dinner party, inadvertently lands herself a wealthy suitor from exotic Australia. And she shows us how one woman's romantic tale of capture and escape in the high Balkans may end up inspiring another woman who is fleeing a husband and lover in present-day Canada.  The New York Times Book reviewer wrote, "Open Secrets is a book that dazzles with its faith in language and in life.”  

The author grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario.  During her distinguished career, she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the W.H. Smith Prize, the National Book Circle Critics Award, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction, the Lannan Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Rea Award for the Short Story.  In Canada, she has won the Governor General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Award, and the Libris Award.  Alice Munro and her husband divide their time between Clinton, Ontario, and Comox, British Columbia.

Led by Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction.  Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books.  Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com.  No sign-up is needed to join the discussion.  Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.