BOLLI members and Staff met this week to conduct the Course Lottery. The results will be sent via email on Monday, February 6. | |
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Special Interest Group: Arts and Culture Excursions
This new SIG was formed to plan group visits by BOLLI members to museums and cultural institutions, defined broadly. All trips include lunch or refreshments with other BOLLI members. In some cases, spouses and partners are also eligible. The purpose is to broaden our horizons by visiting sites that are beloved or are novel experiences and to provide an opportunity for BOLLI members to meet each other and interact in a small group. Our SIG now has a website, where you can check out information about upcoming trips and see our ideas about trips in the planning stages. We welcome your input for possible future excursions.
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Boston Atheneum and the Massachusetts State House on February 21
Join fellow BOLLI members on Tuesday, February 21 for tours of these two buildings, followed by lunch at Carrie Nation, and, for those with extra energy, a short walk to view The Embrace on Boston Common. Cost is $15 for the tours, with lunch paid individually. Click here to find out how to reserve and pay for your spot, directions and parking, and more information about the day.
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Rose Art Museum on March 31
We are visiting the Rose Art Museum on the Brandeis campus for a private tour of their new exhibition featuring Lyle Ashton Harris. Cost is $15. Tour participants are invited to gather afterwards for light refreshments. Click here to learn how to reserve and pay for the tour and for information about parking.
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Symphony Tour, Concert and Pre-Concert Talk on
Friday, April 14
Participants will be treated to a concert conducted by Andris Nelsons, preceded by a private tour of the BSO and a pre-concert talk. The BSO has reserved a block of discounted tickets at a per person cost of $40.50. To find out how to pay for your ticket, register for the tour and to see information on parking and transportation, please click here.
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Distinguished Speaker Series this spring
The BOLLI Distinguished Speakers Series will resume the first week of classes on March 3, with former United States Congressman Mickey Edwards speaking on "The Parties versus the People: How to change Republicans and Democrats into Americans." For a full schedule of speakers, click here.
All talks in this series will take place on Zoom from 1:00 to 2:00pm ET, usually – but not always - on Fridays. There is no need to RSVP - a link will be sent out the morning of the talk.
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Dates for Spring 2023 Term at BOLLI
Monday, February 6, 9:00am - Study group assignments to be sent out via email
February 27 - Spring term classes start. Click here for a full Spring 2023 course schedule.
(5a classes end on March 30 and 5b classes start on April 10 - No courses during Spring Break April 3-7)
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BOLLI Virtual Meetings in Upcoming Weeks | |
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BOLLI Book Group
Friday, February 3 from 9:30 to 11:00
The book we will discuss is The Furrows by Namwali Serpell: When Cassandra is twelve years old, her younger brother disappears on her watch. The family is torn apart by grief and doubt and as she gets older, Cassandra is haunted by her lost brother. In lyrical prose, the novel takes unexpected twists and turns as it explores memory and mourning.
If you haven't previously attended a BOLLI Book Group meeting and would like to receive the Zoom link, contact Abby Pinard and she will add you to the mailing list.
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Writers Guild
Friday, February 3 from 9:30 to 11:00
February 3 prompt: A story or memoir about confusion or inconsistencies
February 10 prompt: Chopped Writing
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3 Objects in a Bag: large piece of Roquefort cheese, abandoned checkbook belonging to a person of your choice, a copy of Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- 2 People: Herchel Walker, Stephen King
- 1 Place: The north rim of the Grand Canyon
Due to time constraints, writing should be limited to 500 words max. If you're not a writer but want to share a photograph with a lighthearted caption, please do so.
A Zoom link will be sent to those on the Writers Guild mailing list prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the mailing list, please contact Larry Schwirian to be added to it.
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The Constitution is Broken and What We Can Do About It with Ryan Doerfler
Monday, February 6 from 10:30 to noon
This lecture is complimentary for BOLLI members. For detailed information and to RSVP, click here.
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New Yorker Fiction Salon
Wednesday, February 8, at 10:30am
Note the time this week
A Zoom link will be sent to those on the New Yorker mailing list prior to the meeting. If you are not already on the mailing list, please contact Aaron Goldberg to be added to it.
For details of the story please scroll down to the NEW YORKER FICTION SALON section below.
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Current Events Discussion
Wednesday, February 8 from 1:00 to 2:30
We will meet each Wednesday through Feb 22. The format for each session will try to feature discussions of international, national/ domestic, and local news.
Come and participate in what is certain to be lively and informative debate. We welcome all points of view. This is a drop-in program which does not require attendance at every meeting.
For more information and/or to register and receive the zoom link, contact Beth Davis, [email protected].
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Poetry Circle
Thursday, February 9, 3:45 - 5:15
We will discuss the poetry of Charles Simic, Serbian-American poet, who died on January 9th at the age of 84. Simic was a prolific poet, critic, essayist, and translator who won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 1984 and a Pulitzer Prize in 1990. He served as poet laureate of the United States from 2007-2008.
To read his poems, please click here. They are short, provocative, and even if not always easy to understand, they communicate consistently a rather dark, surreal, history-infused, and often comic perspective or sensibility.
Click here to read his biography from the Poetry Foundation, and here and to see his obituary from the New York Times,
For questions, or to be added to the mailing list for this group, contact Charlie Marz at [email protected].
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Aging with Resilience and Enthusiasm
Friday, February 10 from 10:00 to 11:30
Please note that we will now be meeting on the 2nd Friday of the month.
February is the center of winter. We all see through the windows of our homes. The trees are bare; the ground is cold; the snow, when it arrives, shows us the gentleness of the flakes as they float down to the ground. We look around at our homes. What appeals to us? What are the things in our home that make us smile?
Let’s discuss the small things that can change our environment just by moving things around. Can we show our appreciation for our home and our gratitude for our space, our things and our favorite areas?
For questions, please contact Linda Wolfson [email protected]
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BOLLI Play Reading Group
Friday, February 10 from 3:00pm to 4:30
On February 10, we’ll read the second act of “Broadway Bound,” the last installment in Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical comedy trilogy. The first two plays were “Brighton Beach Memoir” and “Biloxi Blues.” In this final play in the series, we find Simon’s alter ego, Eugene Jerome, all grown up and on the cusp of becoming a writer for TV shows and then, maybe, for Broadway!
We’re a group of people who love reading plays out loud. We meet via Zoom on the second Friday of the month at 3:00 p.m. The play's script is displayed on the screen, and we take turns reading the various parts. No auditions or previous play reading experience is necessary! All are welcome. To receive the Zoom link, please contact Bonnie Alpert at [email protected]
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Is the Constitution Really Broken? The Will of the People after Dobbs with Sam Moyn
Monday, February 13 from 10:30 to noon
This lecture is complimentary for BOLLI members. For more information and to RSVP, click here.
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In Memoriam - Robert Read | |
It is with sadness that we note the passing of BOLLI member Robert Read. May his memory be a blessing. | |
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The BOLLI BANNER:
Click here to read the BOLLI Banner, the source for news about BOLLI and Brandeis people and activities, as well as places and events in the surrounding communities that are likely to be of interest to members.
To subscribe, look for the SUBSCRIBE box on the BOLLI Banner page.
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New Yorker Fiction Salon and BOLLI Book Group Selections | |
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New Yorker Fiction Salon
Wednesday, February 8 from 10:30 to noon
Note the time this week
The story we will discuss on Wednesday, February 8 at 10:30 is “A Sackful of Seeds” by Salman Rushdie. It appears in the December 12, 2022 issue of the New Yorker magazine.
To read the story, please click here, and to read a recent update on the health of our author after his knife attack, click here.
For further information, please contact Aaron Goldberg at [email protected].
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BOLLI Book Group
We love to read! And we love to talk about the books that entertain, inspire, and inform us!
We meet once a month for a lively discussion of a work of contemporary literary fiction. We are a “drop-in” group: All BOLLI members are invited to join us every month or once in a while, no registration required.
All meetings are via Zoom.
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Friday, March 3 at 9:30am | Lessons by Ian McEwan: Over more than seventy years, from after World War II to the Cuban Missile Crisis to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the current pandemic, Roland Baines, scarred by the effects of childhood abuse, is buffeted by both personal and global crises. Lessons is a remarkable demonstration of superlative storytelling by a prolific author at the height of his powers. | | |
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Friday, April 7 at 9:30am | |
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood: As a woman who has recently become a social media star grapples with the impersonal cacophony of the virtual world, a family crisis forces her back to a reality in which empathy and human connection are brought to the fore. The novel was one of the New York Times ten best books of 2021.
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My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley: This novel by a writer who is celebrated in the U.K. but not well known here, brings humor and clarity to the portrayal of a frayed mother-daughter bond. “Eloquent and compelling reading…We are fortunate when so gifted a writer illuminates, with such nuance, what life is like." -- Claire Messud, Harpers | | |
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This Other Eden by Paul Harding was inspired by the true story of an isolated island off the coast of Maine that became one of the first racially integrated towns in the Northeast only to be threatened with destruction a century later. Paul Harding, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for the luminous Tinkers, writes powerfully of resistance and survival in the face of injustice. | |
For more information contact Charlie Marz. ([email protected]) or Abby Pinard ([email protected]). If you haven't previously attended a BOLLI Book Group meeting and would like to receive the Zoom link, contact Abby Pinard and she will add you to the mailing list.
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Rose Art Museum: Click here for a preview of events at the Rose in 2023.
Brandeis Arts Engagement: Click here for offerings. This week, we invite Brandeis staff, faculty, students and alumni to take advantage of discount tickets to see Professor Adrianne Krstansky in the Huntington's new play The Art of Burning. Other events and performances are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
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Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02454
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