Mar
29
Wed
Tech Help with Elli
Mar 29 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Tech Help with Elli

Request an appointment at tinyurl.com/epl-tech-help

We offer 30 minute sessions Wednesdays from 1:30 – 3:30 pm Read more about it at ewmlibrary.org/tech-help/.

Virtual: Wildflower Alliance Info Session
Mar 29 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Register at tinyurl.com/ewml-wa-info

Liz will give a brief overview of the Wildflower Alliance with a focus on local in person spaces and online supports. Q&A and conversation to follow.

The Wildflower Alliance supports healing and empowerment for our broader communities and people who have been impacted by psychiatric diagnosis, trauma, extreme states, homelessness, problems with substances and other life-interrupting challenges. Learn more about the Wildflower Alliance at wildfloweralliance.org.

Closed captioning will be available. This presentation contains slides that will be made available after the session.

Presenter Bio: Liz Mombourquette is a queer trauma survivor who grew up in Central Massachusetts and has navigated self-injury and thoughts of suicide from an early age. She brings these and other challenging life experiences to her work bridging people from psychiatric hospitals, advocating for people’s rights in restrictive settings, and pushing for system change. In addition to her work as a bridger, Liz is involved in statewide advocacy for the integrity of peer roles within the state of Massachusetts. She has offered open testimony against discriminatory legislation, facilitated statewide meetings, and worked on subcommittees dedicated to defending peer roles from co-optation. Liz is a Certified Peer Specialist and a trainer in the Wildflower Alliance’s Alternatives to Suicide, When Conversation Turns to Suicide, and Self-Injury curricula and is currently studying to be an Intentional Peer Support Trainer.

Apr
5
Wed
Tech Help with Elli
Apr 5 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Tech Help with Elli

Request an appointment at tinyurl.com/epl-tech-help

We offer 30 minute sessions Wednesdays from 1:30 – 3:30 pm Read more about it at ewmlibrary.org/tech-help/.

Valley Bloomers Meetup: Garden Design for Pollinators, Climate Change, and Aesthetics
Apr 5 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Join the Valley Bloomers garden club for a talk with Larri Cochran of the Western MA Master Gardeners Association
If the weather is favorable, this event will take place outside at the Northampton Community Gardens.

Virtual: Rock Your LinkedIn Profile with Alyssa Pratt
Apr 5 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Virtual: Rock Your LinkedIn Profile with Alyssa Pratt

Register at tinyurl.com/ewml-4523

Explore how to create a LinkedIn profile that brings your personal career story to life, whether you’re just starting out, seeking to advance, or making a career change. You’ll learn tips on tailoring each section, starting with the key insight that a LinkedIn profile is unique and shouldn’t be approached exactly like a resume. This session will cover ways to add media to a profile, methods for showcasing your career accomplishments and aspirations, and how to grow your thought leadership on LinkedIn.

Learning objectives

  • Profile photo best practices
  • Creating a custom LinkedIn headline
  • Updating your industry
  • Introducing yourself in the summary section
  • Adding work experience
  • Adding skills
  • Getting endorsements
  • Requesting recommendations

Alyssa Pratt is a Senior Content Manager at LinkedIn and focuses on content strategy for LinkedIn Learning. She lives in Easthampton with her husband and three boys.

Apr
11
Tue
Office Hours with Councilmember Owen Zaret
Apr 11 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Office Hours with Councilmember Owen Zaret

Join City Council Member Owen Zaret for Office Hours in the first alcove of the Library.

Graphic Novel Book Club
Apr 11 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Our Graphic Novel Book Club meets monthly, on the second Tuesday, from 6:30 – 8 PM. All are welcome to join! Email Anastasia at bookclubs@ewmlibrary.org if you are interested in joining and to request the next book title.

Apr
12
Wed
Tech Help with Elli
Apr 12 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Tech Help with Elli

Request an appointment at tinyurl.com/epl-tech-help

We offer 30 minute sessions Wednesdays from 1:30 – 3:30 pm Read more about it at ewmlibrary.org/tech-help/.

Building Local Solutions to Biodiversity Loss: One Pollinator Pathway at a Time!
Apr 12 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Building Local Solutions to Biodiversity Loss: One Pollinator Pathway at a Time!

Communities serious about creating a resilient future need to include strategies for reversing the critical loss of biodiversity.  Why is biodiversity so important, what are the threats it faces, and what can we do?  In this talk Peggy MacLeod describes successful, collaborative approaches to reversing biodiversity loss while addressing the urgency of the climate crisis.  Learn about a movement across Massachusetts to start projects that expand pollinator habitat using important native trees, shrubs, and plants.  Local Easthampton City Councilor, Owen Zaret, will share the progress he’s made to encourage native pollinator plantings on municipal property and to apply for “Bee City USA” status for the City.

Presenter Bios:
Peggy MacLeod – After a 30 year career promoting clean energy and green building, Peggy MacLeod co-founded Western Mass Pollinator Networks and more recently the Massachusetts Pollinator Network.  Peggy’s passion is educating the public about biodiversity loss and stimulating local communities to build hopeful, collaborative solutions; for example, encouraging towns and residents to greatly expand the use of native trees, shrubs, and flowers to form pollinator pathways.
Owen Zaret – Owen is an Easthampton resident of 22 years.  He is currently in his third term as a city councilor at-large for the city.  He has particular interest in biodiversity, ecology, and environmental sustainablity.  He was the sponsor of the city’s single use plastics ordinance, which went into effect in 2022.  He is currently pursuing policies that would make the city an official Xerxes Society Bee City.  Owen is involved in clean up events with the Easthampton Beautification team, and started a campaign to collect nip liquor bottles, of which the city has collected nearly 12,500.  He is a full time health care provider and enjoys hiking, singing, cooking, and time with his family, dog, and cat in his spare time.
Apr
18
Tue
“Women in Clothes” Discussion with Susan Berry
Apr 18 @ 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
"Women in Clothes" Discussion with Susan Berry

Pick up a copy of the book at the Library. Please RSVP at tinyurl.com/ewml-women-clothes

Join us for an informal discussion about how women use fashion/clothing as a means of self-expression, self-care, as armor or disguise, to reinvent themselves, to transform how others see them, to communicate, or to enhance confidence and individuality. Please book-mark your favorite sections of “Women in Clothes,” and share your thoughts about your relationship with clothing, shopping, and what influences your daily ritual of getting dressed.

“Women in Clothes,” the 2014 book edited by the ­novelist-critics Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits and the artist Leanne Shapton, is a compilation of lessons, fears and wishes. It pushes against the prevailing rules that have governed women’s self-presentation for thousands of years.

As mentioned in this 2014 New York Times article, Sheila Weiss writes, “The book began as a survey consisting of an “ever-evolving” list of questions that the editors sent out to more than 600 women… The questions are provocative and psychological. They suggest that a closet is an archive of emotion. The questions also resist the idea, commonly held, that paying too much attention to dress is frivolous… Clothing is as much a means for defiance and privacy as it is a vehicle for pleasing self-presentation.”

Susan W. Berry MS, MFA, CHC, CIC is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and Certified Personal Style, Wardrobe and Image Consultant. She resides in Easthampton, MA.