Wellesley is fortunate enough to draw multiple authors and speakers to town each month who are knowledgable across a wide range of subjects, and who visit to connect with audiences and promote their work. Attending such an event is a great way to meet the current stars of the literary and lecture scene. Here are just a few events happening soon.
We Are Wellesley: Beyond White Picket Fences, book talk and reception
DATE/TIME: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 6:30pm
LOCATION: Wellesley Free Library
DESCRIPTION: WHS advanced photography students and their teacher, Doug Johnson, will present We Are Wellesley: Beyond White Picket Fences. The exhibit highlights the often-unrecognized demographic richness of Wellesley. Through portraits and visual storytelling, students explore the many faces and experiences that shape our town today. Co-sponsored by the Wellesley Free Library, the Mass Cultural Council and the League of Women Voters.
Book-related art exhibit at Babson College
EVENT: Artist talk and opening reception, and exhibit
EXHIBIT: Take Cover, artwork by Robert Tomlinson
RECEPTION DATE/TIME: Thursday, January 22, 5pm
EXHIBIT ON VIEW: January 22– March 6, M-F 9am 5pm
LOCATION: Hollister Gallery, Babson College
DESCRIPTION: Books are more than the stories they tell. They reveal something about the people who created them. Take Cover is inspired by the private notations and drawings made by previous, now anonymous book owners. Robert Tomlinson’s work has been featured in 35 solo shows and over 60 group exhibitions. Tomlinson has been awarded several artist’s residencies, most recently in 2023 at Monson Arts in Monson, Maine.
Friends of the Morse Institute Library book and bake sale, Natick
DATES/TIMES: Jan. 24, 8:30am-4:30pm
LOCATION: Morse Institute Library, 14 E. Central St., Natick
DESCRIPTION: Banish the winter doldrums with a selection of books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles and more. The snack table will feature an assortment of homemade goodies, including brownies and cookies. No strollers or scanners will be allowed on Jan. 24.
Plans to hold the book and bake sale on Sunday, Jan. 25, have been scrapped due to the predicted snowstorm.
Kids’ story time at Ten Trees Books
DATE/TIME: Saturday, Jan. 31, 11am-11:30am
LOCATION: Ten Trees Books, 29 Main St., Natick, MA
COST: Free, but please reserve a spot.
DESCRIPTION: Storytime with author Katherine Picarde, reading her book Ollie & Stella. Get ready for a golden adventure with equal parts cuteness and fluff.
Authors at Wellesley Books
AUTHORS: Dan Chiasson, Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician; and Kellie Carter Jackson, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
DATE: Friday, February 6, 7pm
LOCATION: Wellesley Books, 82 Central Street
TICKETS here
DESCRIPTION: Bernie for Burlington is a look at the early days and inexorable rise of the young Bernie Sanders, the one-of-a-kind visionary who changed American politics forever, told by a son of the People’s Republic of Burlington, Vermont. We Refuse is an “unsparing, erudite, and incisive” (Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker) reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to white supremacy. The event will be moderated by Wellesley College dean Michael Jeffries, Class of 1949 Chair in Ethics and Professor of American Studies.
