Programs for Adults

We are once again teaming-up with The Yarmouth History Center to bring you selections from Kinonik’s collection of 16mm films. Though this time, the movies will be screened here at the library! This series of films will run through April, with a different film featured each month. Keep an eye on the lookout for each date and time!

Oct. 11 @ 7 pm, The Haunting

Our first selection is 1963’s The Haunting which was adapted from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and has been called one of the scariest films ever made by a wide variety of people including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and many, many film critics. The film has a G rating but still manages to generate frights sixty years later. A true masterpiece!

Oct. 10 @ 7 pm, Camden Conference Event: Bollywood: An Introduction.

In collaboration with the Camden Conference, MML welcomes Jon Cavallero, Associate Professor and Chair of Rhetoric, Film and Screen Studies at Bates College to the library to give a talk on the world’s largest film industry: Bollywood. Why do Bollywood films have such tremendous global reach? What makes them popular at home and abroad? Attendees will learn about the history of Bollywood but also about the specific style of Bollywood films as well as the scope of those films as an international industry.

For more information, check out the Camden Conference’s website.

Are you an aspiring writer seeking community and support as you work on your projects whether they are short stories, creative nonfiction, or even a novel? 

Do you wish you could gather once a month with fellow writers seeking feedback and moral support?

Consider joining MML’s new Writing Group facilitated by Courtney Kleftis, Adult Services Librarian. Please contact Courtney if you’re interested OR have questions: ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org. The group will be capped at 15 people in order to ensure the culture is intimate and everyone feels they have opportunities to discuss and share their own writing.

What?

• An intimate writing group (15 people) that gathers once a month for writing workshops, readings, guest presentations on topics ranging from outlining and drafting to editing and publishing. 
• A day-long writing retreat on a Saturday (TBD) held twice a year.

When?

• First Fridays from 4-5pm.
• The first meeting will be on Friday, November 3, 2023

Where?

• Trustees’ Room on the 3rd floor of MML

Thursday, October 5th @ 7 pm

Join us at the library to hear Edward Herrick-Gleason, Director of USM’s Southworth Planetarium and writer of the Wandering Astronomer blog, for a presentation about the James Webb Telescope and modern space exploration.

On November 15 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, the Casco Bay Writers invite you to Lewis Hall (3rd floor) to celebrate the release of their newly published anthology: WRITE-REWRITE.

As well as a celebration of the book’s release, this event is also a gesture of gratitude for the use of the Merrill Memorial Library as the meetup location for their writers’ group over the past few years. During the event several members will share snippets from the anthology, which will be available for purchase. Proceeds will be donated to the library.

Refreshments will be provided.

We hope you can attend!

This 2 hour in-person program will be an interactive experience to engage in the story of particular events in the history of 400 years of colonization of Wabanaki people by Europeans in this territory we now called the state of Maine. This highly engaging experience will increase our awareness and understanding of colonization, and what it means for current descendants and future generations so that we can reflect on what story we are writing for our grandchildren.

Registration is required for this program. Email ckleftis@yarmouthlibrary.org to reserve your seat.

There will be two opportunities to attend this program:

Tuesday, October 17th, 5:30 – 7:30pm, at the Merrill Memorial Library

Thursday, October 19th, 10am – 12pm, at the Yarmouth History Center, 118 East Elm Street

This program is facilitated by Wabanaki REACH (www.wabanakireach.org) and being organized by YCARE (www.ycarequity.org)

Sponsoring organizations include: First Parish, First UU, Merrill Memorial Library, Royal River Conservation Trust St. Bart’s, and Yarmouth Historical Society

Need help with technology issues? MML librarians are here to save the day!

Contact the circulation desk to schedule a 15 minute appointment between 2 and 3:30 PM to learn how to live with all this ever changing technology just a little bit better.

The Nature Journaling group meets seasonally to discuss the beauty of Maine’s changing seasons and come together for a group journaling session.

Whether you have never journaled or journal every day, people of all ages are welcome to join this intergenerational gathering to start the new season with fresh perspectives and a renewed appreciation for nature. Newcomers and all ages are welcome.

Upcoming dates:

Monday, September 18th @3pm
Monday, December 18th @3pm
Monday, March 18th @3pm
Monday, June 17th @3pm

Seasonal plants and objects, related reading, and seasonal prompts will be brought in for inspiration.

Paper, pens, and some crafting materials will be provided, but feel free to bring your own journaling supplies.

Registration is required. Contact Ivy (iburns@yarmouthlibrary.org) for additional information.

Poet Wesley McNair will be joining us at the library on Wednesday, November 1st at 7 pm for an evening of readings from his latest work: Late Wonders: New and Selected Poems. 

With a plain-spoken tenderness, Wesley McNair’s story-like poems celebrate the dreamers and the misfits, the small but hard-earned triumphs of everyday life. Since the publication of his first book nearly forty years ago, McNair has earned a reputation as an intimate observer and a poet of place—in these lucid, far-ranging poems, he proves his empathy and sense of place are endless. “Whole lives,” wrote Donald Hall of McNair’s work, “fill small lines.” This career-spanning collection gathers the poet’s very best work from the past four decades alongside his newest poems.

Late Wonders includes McNair’s masterful trilogy “The Long Dream of Home,” three long narrative poems written over the course of thirty years: “My Brother Running,” “Fire,” and “Dwellers in the House of the Lord.”

The 2024 Camden Conference will be held February 16-18. In support of this year’s topic, “INDIA: Rising Ambitions, Challenges at Home,” Merrill Memorial library will be collaborating with The Camden Conference to offer several programs this fall in preparation for the Conference in the coming months. As part of that effort, the Merrill Film Society will be exhibiting and discussing a slate of films that relate to India.

Sept. 13 @ 7 pm: Slumdog Millionaire

Our first look at “India on film” will be Danny Boyle’s 2008 Best Picture Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Controversial for its depiction of poverty in India (among other topics), the film stars Dev Patel as a young man who is arrested under suspicion of cheating on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. The man must convince the police of his innocence by explaining how he knew each answer, and, as a result, he takes them and us on a tour of his life story. Come join us, watch, and discuss!

Sept. 27 @ 7 pm: Monsoon Wedding

Less controversial upon its release than Slumdog Millionaire, is Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, a film that depicts the complicated emotions that clash among family and friends during a traditional Punjabi Hindu wedding. Nair wrote the script while attending Columbia University’s MFA Film program and was able to produce with as part of a multi-national co-production involving backers from India, the US, France, and Germany. The film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 and put Nair on the map as a serious filmmaker.
Oct. 10 @ 7 pm, Camden Conference Event: Bollywood: An Introduction.

Also in collaboration with the Camden Conference, MML welcomes Jon Cavallero, Associate Professor and Chair of Rhetoric, Film and Screen Studies at Bates College to the library to give a talk on the world’s largest film industry: Bollywood. Why do Bollywood films have such tremendous global reach? What makes them popular at home and abroad? Attendees will learn about the history of Bollywood but also about the specific style of Bollywood films as well as the scope of those films as an international industry.

Oct. 25 @ 7 pm, Devdas

This month we will be watching Devdas which stars the world’s biggest movie star, Shah Rukh Khan, as a wealthy young law grad who spirals into depression when his hopes of marrying a woman he has known since childhood are dashed by his family. The most expensive Indian film ever made up to that point, Devdas was hugely successful financially and ultimately won a slew of awards in India (over 60!). It currently holds a 90% critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes which only slightly beats out the 88% audience approval rating it holds on the same site. The scale of Devdas’s performance as a film is truly huge which matches its equally huge running time of nearly 3 hours. As such, we will be pausing the film for a 5 minute intermission.

Stay for the discussion following each film!

For more information, check out the Camden Conference’s website.

This Fall the Readers’ Circle will embark on our next “literal” voyage with Around the World in Books!

Thursday, September 28th @ 7 pm

Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup (2018)

“…follows the interconnected lives of characters searching for true intimacy. The novel sweeps across India, from an island, to a valley, a city, and a snow desert to tell a love story of epic proportions… Latitudes of Longing offers a soaring view of humanity: our beauty and ugliness, our capacity to harm and love each other, and our mysterious and sacred relationship with nature.”- provided by publisher.

Thursday, October 26th @ 7 pm

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (2010)

“In the village of al-Awafi in Oman live three sisters. Mayya Marries after a heartbreak. Asma marries from a sense of duty. Khawla rejects all offers while waiting for her beloved, who has emigrated to Canada. Celestial Bodies is the story of the history and people of modern Oman told through one family’s losses and loves.” – from the catalog record

Thursday, November 30th @ 7 pm

Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge (2020)

“In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is tasked with uncovering the stories of its fabled beasts, which draws her deep within a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.” – from the catalog record

Thursday, January 25th @ 7 pm

Transatlantic by Colum McCann (2013)

“A tale spanning 150 years and two continents reimagines the peace efforts of democracy champion Frederick Douglass, Senator George Mitchell and World War I airmen John Alcock and Teddy Brown through the experiences of four generations of women from a matriarchal clan.” – from the catalog record

Signup for this club’s mailing list to receive club updates and important announcements.