Library News

Jacob Edwards Library

August 2025

Library Hours

Monday & Thursday 9 am - 8 pm

Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 9 am - 5 pm

Curbside pickup is available during library hours!

Mass Center for the Book 2025 Reading Challenge

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their 2025 Reading Challenge. Pick up cards and bookmarks at the Circulation Desk and participate by following the steps below.

Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme - or see the display on the main floor for monthly suggestions. NoveList Plus is a great resource to utilize, as well (library card required). Happy reading!

How it works:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge.
• After you read, fill out this form to tell them about the book. 
• Using the submission manager, you will be able to log in and access the entries you’ve logged throughout the year.
• Dedicated readers will be invited to a year-end celebration hosted by Mass Center for the Book.
• If you read a book in each of the 12 months, you will be entered in a drawing to win 1 of 2 totes filled with books. Additionally, they will be drawing two names on the last day of each month to win a free book!

hoopla Spotlight

Mindfulness Meditation

Fridays, August 1st, 8th & 22nd

2:00 - 3:00 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host Iris Vega, certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher and mentor, to present a series of sessions.

Inviting Mindfulness Meditation into your daily routine is an opportunity to cultivate awareness and presence.

You may bring your Yoga mat if you prefer doing the practice lying down.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

Gateway Players Theatre Exhibit

Meet & Greet

Thursday, August 7th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host an exhibit celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Gateway Players Theatre! Memorabilia will be on display throughout the month.

Gateway Players Theatre, Inc. is an all-volunteer community theater providing quality live theatre performances and workshops to Southbridge, Sturbridge, and Charlton, Massachusetts and surrounding areas.

Gateway Players Theatre, Inc. started in 1975, when a group of interested community members decided that Southbridge needed a theater group to bring live productions to the area. First using local schools and borrowed rehearsal and storage space, Gateway moved in 1978, when Ruth Wells (of the American Optical Company Wells family) donated her home on Main Street as a cultural center in Southbridge.

In 2017 after an inspection was done of the barn, we learned that it had become structurally unsound. Gateway Players Theater’s home was no longer at the barn. Elm Street Congregational Church was kind enough to open their hall to the group. They have been utilizing the hall at the church for all of their auditions, rehearsals and performances, with the exception of summer musicals which are performed at Southbridge Middle High School due to the access to air conditioning.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

Immigrants: The Facts, The Fiction

Monday, August 11th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host Grassroots Central Massachusetts for a presentation on immigration.

There is no doubt that immigration is complex and an issue of concern for many of us. This presentation will focus on some of the reasons why people immigrate to the US and many of the myths and misconceptions that surround this process. We hope to foster a fuller understanding of some of the struggles that prompt people to move from their home countries and also to make connections to the journey to the U.S. that many of our own family members made either recently or in the past. We plan to tell this story through music, poetry, and the voices of people who have made the long journey here along with the presentation of some historical facts. We hope to change the narrative that too often portrays newcomers to our nation as somehow a drain upon our resources or a threat to our safety by sharing research on how incorrect these myths are. We welcome you to join us for this interactive presentation.

For more information on Grassroots Central Mass please visit their website at https://grassrootscentralmass.org

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library and Grassroots Central Mass.

Badger & Nault Concert

Thursday, August 14th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host a concert by Badger & Nault.

Freddy Badger is an old-time banjo player, guitarist, and singer; in the American/Western European roots music tradition. He released his debut EP 'Good Time People' in the spring of 2022 and can be seen playing around central Massachusetts.

Bridget Nault is an accordion player, guitarist and singer out of Worcester, MA. She is a Berklee educated musician that can be seen all over the state (and beyond) playing both covers and her original songs.

Sponsored by the Southbridge Cultural Council. The Southbridge Cultural Council is a local agency funded by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

The French in New England

Thursday, August 21st

6:15 - 7:30 pm

Please note the earlier start time!

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host genealogist and researcher Jeanne Douillard, who will present a program on The French in New England.

Take the personal narrative of someone growing up French in New England. Take the relatively unknown story of a people. Weave these together and you have a most compelling tale.

For over 25 years Jeanne Douillard has probed the history of the French in the Americas. She began by researching her own family genealogy and discovered she had Québecois, Acadiens, Algonquin, and English roots. She wanted to find out more about these people. Her passion led her to delve deeply into the quagmire of conflicting historiographies. English, French and American historians of the past offered up irreconcilable views of La Nouvelle France [New France] and its people. She was intrigued. What is the truth and why have the French in particular been such a silent presence in New England?

The results of her research and personal reflections offer unique insights into the story of an “invisible” people. With compassion and understanding she unravels a long and complex history in an attempt to make it understandable for all. Even if you are not French, you are sure to gain greater understanding of the interesting tale she tells.

Jeanne has put together a talk accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation in which she distills the complex narrative of the French in the Americas. Her discourse brings a unique, fresh look at the story of this people.

Her book, "I Remember…Je Me Souviens…" will be available at the presentation.

Sponsored by Friends of Jacob Edwards Library.

In August the group will be discussing The Magic All Around by Jennifer Moorman. Copies of the book will be available to borrow in advance of the event.

Summary:

"Discover a story about how one woman's treasure hunt through the past reveals her extraordinary gift for arranging the future.

The Russell women have always lived in a house that is as special as they are--a century-old Victorian with a radio that tunes itself to the listener's mood and a pantry that rearranges to provide just the right ingredients for any baking need. Lilith Russell was the exception. She left the family home in Ivy Ridge, Georgia, and has been flitting like a hummingbird from place to place with her daughter, Mattie, in the decades since, only returning each summer to drop Mattie off with Lilith's sister, Penelope.

When Lilith dies suddenly, Mattie is left without her sole companion and the captain who steered her ship. That is, until she visits Ivy Ridge and learns Lilith charted one last course for Mattie: a series of tasks that she must complete to earn her inheritance, with Penelope overseeing the process.

Both Mattie and Penelope are outraged by Lilith's seemingly random stipulations: throw a Halloween party, take a local pizza cooking class, share secrets with someone . . . But Mattie soon realizes that if she completes the tasks, she may unearth her mother's secrets, including the identity of Mattie's father. She may also discover more about the Russell family "gifts" and why Lilith chose Penelope's former love to be the executor of the will. She may even learn how and why Jonathan Carlisle, the boy who stole her heart ten summers ago, also happens to be back in town.

Mattie can only hope that Lilith's final map will finally point her home."

Quintessential Brass Concert

Thursday, August 28th

6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Jacob Edwards Library is pleased to host a concert by Quintessential Brass.

Quintessential Brass takes the role of the brass quintet to the limit and beyond, playing Classical, jazz, rock, funk, and pop hits, as well as music from movies, video games, TV, Broadway, and the Big Band Era. This brass quintet consists of five full-time professional musicians who have, individually, performed with groups all over the world, recorded CDs and movie soundtracks, performed for Presidents, and at venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Quintessential Brass has recorded two CDs: “Miscellenea” and “A Quintessential Christmas."

Members of Quintessential Brass:

Liz Jewell (Trumpet) of Boston, MA received a Master of Music from the Indiana University School of Music, and a BA in Music from Western Carolina University. She is a freelance trumpeter and instructor. As an orchestral musician, Ms. Jewell has performed with regional orchestras across New England, including Vermont Symphony, Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, Cape Symphony, as well the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and Bach Beethoven and Brahms Society. As an educator, Ms. Jewell teaches trumpet lessons throughout Greater Boston. She serves as trumpet instructor at the Middlesex School in Concord and for the Concord Carlisle Schools and coaches the brass section of the Tufts Youth Philharmonic.



Adam Mejaour (Trumpet) of Sutton, MA holds a double Bachelor’s in Music Education and Trumpet Performance from UMASS Amherst (Class of 2015) where he studied with musical mentors Bill Fanning (classical, jazz, lead trumpet), Eric Berlin (classical trumpet), and Jeff Holmes (lead and jazz trumpet) and founded the group Amity Street Brass Quintet. By day, he is the head technician and repair department manager at David French Music Company in Westborough, MA, specializing in wind instrument repair. He has an active private trumpet studio with students ranging from 10 to 76 years of age. You can catch him playing with Dan Gabel and the Abletones, Dan Gabel’s High Society Orchestra, the Worcester Jazz Orchestra as well as other chamber ensembles, pit orchestras, jazz bands and wind ensembles. Other recent and notable performances have been with Gunhild Carling, the late BJ Thomas, and NYC’s 8-Bit Big Band.

Robin Milinazzo (Horn) of Wakefield, MA, received a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and a Master of Music in Performance from The New England Conservatory, where she studied with Richard Mackey. She also studied with Rebecca Root at the Chautauqua Institute. Robin has taught privately in the greater Boston area, in Bedford, Ipswich, and a the Winchester Community Music School. She is an adjunct teacher in the music department of Phillips Andover teaching horn, coaching chamber music and helping with large ensembles. As a performer, Robin has toured the United States and Japan with the New Sousa Band, and performed under the direction of Zubin Mehta with the International Orchestra, a project bringing young professionals from Israel, Europe and America together for a series of concerts in and around Jerusalem. She freelances with regional orchestras, opera and choral groups throughout New England, most regularly with The Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

David Lindsey (Trombone) of Randolph, MA, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from New Mexico State University, and a Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Music from Northeast Missouri State University. He has toured as a trombonist with bands led by Buddy Rich and Louis Bellson, and served as contractor/bandleader for many shows, including Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Eddie Fisher, the Temptations, Rita Moreno, Maureen McGovern, Johnny Mathis and Marvin Hamlisch. Formerly a teacher at Berklee College of Music, David now teaches piano and brass at his home and at the Dedham Country Day School. In addition with his involvement with Quintessential Brass, he leads the David Lindsey Quintet (party band), Basin Street Dixieland Band, and One O’clock Jump (swing band). He owns Royal Entertainment, an entertainment agency that represents all types of musical groups.

Leslie Havens (Bass Trombone and Tuba) of Waltham, MA, is a member of many groups, including the Diva Jazz Orchestra, with whom she’s recorded ten CDs and performed concerts and jazz festivals in Austria, Canada, Columbia, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Holland, Jamaica, Switzerland and all over the U.S. She just finished the 50th anniversary tour with the Manhattan Transfer and Diva. She has performed at Carnegie Hall with Arturo Sandoval, with Aretha Franklin at the Newport Jazz Festival and has toured Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and South America with Paul Anka. A member of the Boston-based Artie Shaw Orchestra for ten years, she has toured the US, Brazil and Taiwan and is on the band’s only CD. She has performed with many groups, including Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, Big Apple Circus, the Boston Brass Ensemble, the Monarch Brass Ensemble, the Tommy Dorsey Band, and has recorded CDs with the Jeff Holmes Big Band, Artie Barsamian’s Boston Big Band, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, the Abletones, and singer Ann Hampton Calloway (with Diva). She has also performed with Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Natalie Cole, Jack Jones, Lorrie Morgan, the O’Jays, Bernadette Peters, Kenny Rogers, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and other popular artists. Leslie teaches private brass lessons for Bedford, Sudbury and Worcester Public Schools.

Sponsored by the Southbridge Cultural Council. The Southbridge Cultural Council is a local agency funded by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

A Clean Mess

Tiffany Jenkins

"After a brutal struggle with opioid addiction that landed her four months in prison, Tiffany was ready for a fresh start. What she didn't expect was just how fast life would happen once she was out of prison. She went from felon to married, sober mom of three in just two years. But life doesn't stop happening; her marriage collapsed a few years later, a crisis that forced her reckoning with the foundations of her mental health and sobriety. As she forged her future, Tiffany learned to feel emotions and live life without numbing herself with drugs. She had to figure out how to be a mom, how to have a career, how to be married, how to get divorced, how to be an adult, and how to have feelings all at the same time. With dark humor and page-turning storytelling, she shows how she learned to survive when her crutches and band aids were taken away from her, and the gratitude and peace she found on the other side of addiction."

- Provided by publisher.

Mass Center for the Book

Student Reading Challenge

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their Student Reading Challenge. Pick up your passport at either the Reference or Circulation Desk or at the display in the Teen area and participate by following the steps below:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge prompt. Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme - or see the display in the Teen area for monthly suggestions.
• Once you have read your book, bring your Passport to the Reference or Circulation Desk and tell them what you read. They will give you a sticker for that month.
• Each month, the student (and a parent/guardian if the student is under 13) can fill out a short form to tell us about the book and enter into a raffle. Mass Center for the Book will run drawings for prizes. Monthly participation determines eligibility.

Have fun and happy reading!

Mass Center for the Book

Student Reading Challenge

June 2025 - May 2026

The Jacob Edwards Library is thrilled to be partnering with Mass Center for the Book to promote their Student Reading Challenge. Pick up your passport in the Children's Room and participate by following the steps below:

• Choose a book that fits the monthly challenge prompt. Library staff will happily help you find a book that fits the monthly theme.
• Once you have read your book, bring your Passport to the Children's Room Circulation Desk and tell them what you read. They will give you a sticker for that month.
• Each month, the student (and a parent/guardian if the student is under 13) can fill out a short form to tell us about the book and enter into a raffle. Mass Center for the Book will run drawings for prizes. Monthly participation determines eligibility.

Have fun and happy reading!



Board of Trustees Meeting

The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for

August 26th at 12 pm.

Details will be available on the Town of Southbridge website, under Public Meetings Calendar, for all public meetings.

All meetings are open to the public.

The mission of the Friends of the Jacob Edwards Library is to be the advocacy and fundraising arm of the Library. We raise money for items such as library programs, books, subscriptions, museum pass memberships, and other materials, as needed. 

New members are always welcome!

See you at the library and keep reading!

Jacob Edwards Library

508.764.5426

jelibrary@cwmars.org