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In our historic Art Gallery, enjoy music played by the Kingdom Mountain Dulcimers and poetry read by Reeve Lindbergh.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Julie Pellissier-Lush, the first Indigenous Poet Laureate for Prince Edward Island, relates some of the “Seven Generations” stories about how the Mi’kmaq People came into being. Woven into these stories are songs accompanied with drumming and poetry that might inspire creative energy to start your own work in getting to know who you are and where you come from.
Come for the stories, drumming and the fun, learn in a safe place, and take away with you anything that resonates in your heart, your mind and your spirit.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Check with the Good Living Senior Center or 2nd floor desk at the Athenaeum for available books. First come, first served.
April book selection: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Questions? Contact Adele West-Fisher, 802-745-1392 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org
Everyone Welcome! This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Come join us for the NEK Poetry Readings in the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum's beautiful Art Gallery in celebration of Poem Town and National Poetry month!
Northeast Kingdom poets Louise Rader, Judy Janoo, and Scudder Parker will be reading selections from their new and published works.
A wine and cheese reception will follow the reading.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Join the Athenaeum Film Fan Club for our monthly movie with free popcorn and soft drinks.
“Woman of the Year” is a 1942 American romantic comedy drama film directed by George Stevens and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. The film is about the relationship between journalist Tess Harding and her husband, sports writer Sam Craig, who encounter problems as a result of her unflinching commitment to her work.
With an introduction by Damian Ryan.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Come join Dr. Alan Berolzheimer, Vermont Humanities scholar, as he leads us in a community book discussion of the Vermont Reads book Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow. Cadow tells a story about a boy and his dog and finding value in what and who might be easily overlooked. This event is at The St. Johnsbury Community Hub, 438 Railroad St, Suite 2. St. Johnsbury. Pizza at 6:00 pm, discussion at 6:30 pm.
Copies of the book are available at the HUB and the Athenaeum circulation desks to read before the discussion. Finishing the book is not required.
Contact Adele West-Fisher at awestfiser@stjathenaeum.org or
802-745-1392 for more information.
This event is free and open to the public.
You are invited to join The Friends of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum monthly meetings! We generally meet on the last Thursday of each month at 9:30 am.
We are a volunteer group involved in promoting the resources and services of the Athenaeum, providing hospitality at programs and events, and fundraising for the benefit of the Athenaeum. Friends strive to improve, advocate for and make resources and services of the Athenaeum more widely known in the community.
Friends may volunteer at the Secondhand Prose Bookstore, organize pie sales, or assist with various Friends-sponsored programs and events.
If you have questions about the Friends of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, contact Adele West-Fisher at awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org or 802-745-1391
The meetings are free, ADA accessible, and open to the public
Enjoy reading and chatting about books? Join the Inquisitive Readers Book Club!
Additional information is available at the 2nd floor desk.
Contact Maurine Hennings, Book Club facilitator at Henningsmh@yahoo.com to indicate your interest.
April Book Selection - The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
WE seeks what unites us, how to change our perceptions to heal families, friendships, and country of incivility and villainization by practicing greater compassion, by seeing past egos to souls. April will read from WE and share stories of being a bridge. She will invite the audience to share personal stories of positive interactions with people you know or have met, whose politics may differ from yours, but with whom you shared a moment of mutual humanity.
April Ossmann is the author of We (Red Hen Press), Event Boundaries (a Vermont Book Award finalist), and Anxious Music (both Four Way Books), and recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Creation Grant. She has published her poems widely, and is an independent editor at www.aprilossmann.com She has taught at the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Sierra Nevada College, was executive director of Alice James Books from 2000 – 2008, and lives in White River Junction, VT.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Do you live off the grid? Do you have experience setting up your own off-grid systems? Do you need advice from someone who does?
Come check out the Off-Grid Roundtable! It is held the first Saturday of every month in the upstairs gallery at the St Johnsbury Athenaeum at 1pm. Current off-gridders, people who are thinking about off-grid living or homesteading, or people who are just interested in learning more are welcome.
On April 5 the focus topic will be on off-grid water systems. If you have related books or other materials to share or swap, please feel free to bring them!
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
It’s time to think about starting your seeds for that summer garden! We have a varied selection of vegetable and flower seeds from the Seed Library. Bring seeds you have saved or seed packets of non-hybrid, non-GMO seeds to swap.
Come anytime between 11 am and 1 pm. Free gardening resources will be available. For more information, contact Adele West-Fisher at 802-745-1392 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Vermont’s Writers for Recovery offers a unique outlet for people with substance use disorder to share their stories and heal. In this engaging participatory workshop, you’ll hear the powerful stories of people in recovery. You’ll learn how and why the writing techniques used in Writers for Recovery enable people to ease their emotional pain, reduce their feelings of shame, and move forward toward recovery. You’ll even develop new tools for managing stress and difficult situations in your own life.
After this workshop, you’ll look at substance use disorder and people in recovery through a more positive and productive lens. And you’ll discover how the simple act of writing and sharing stories can help us all lead better, more connected lives.
This Vermont Humanities Council event is hosted by the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum.For more information, contact Adele West-Fisher at (802) 748-8291 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
You are invited to join The Friends of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum monthly meetings! We generally meet on the last Thursday of each month at 9:30 am.
We are a volunteer group involved in promoting the resources and services of the Athenaeum, providing hospitality at programs and events, and fundraising for the benefit of the Athenaeum. Friends strive to improve, advocate for and make resources and services of the Athenaeum more widely known in the community.
Friends may volunteer at the Secondhand Prose Bookstore, organize pie sales, or assist with various Friends-sponsored programs and events.
If you have questions about the Friends of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, contact Adele West-Fisher at awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org or 802-745-1391
The meetings are free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Drop in at the Athenaeum to wish Bob Joly a happy retirement. Refreshments, beer and wine will be served.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Come by the second floor circulation desk and browse the cookbooks for recipes. Copies of recipes are free of charge.
In March everyone attending should sign up to bring an appetizer, main dish, side dish, or dessert.
March Cookbooks: Foods of Ireland
To save your seat at the table and sign up with what you plan to bring, contact Adele West-Fisher at 802-748-8291or email awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org.
This event is free, accessible and open to the public.
Enjoy reading and chatting about books? Join the Inquisitive Readers Book Club!
Additional information is available at the 2nd floor desk.
March Book Selection: Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Contact Maurine Hennings, Book Club facilitator at Henningsmh@yahoo.com to indicate your interest.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Join us for this screwball comedy/mystery with William Powell and Myrna Loy. Powell plays a retired detective who is asked to follow the trail of a missing inventor. He is persuaded to investigate by his wife (Loy), who is craving for adventure. Together they embark on a case that leads to the disclosure of deception and murder.
Free popcorn and soft drinks.
With an introduction by Damien Ryan.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Drop in at the Athenaeum to meet our new Director Kacy Guill. Refreshments will be served.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Good Living Book Club
2nd Friday of the month at 10:30 am
Dining area of the St. Johnsbury House
Good Reading is Good Living!
Upcoming Book Selections
Mar. 14 Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
Apr. 11 A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
Check with the 2nd floor desk at the Athenaeum for available books, first come, first served.
Contact Adele West-Fisher, 802-745-1392 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org for more information.
Everyone Welcome!
Children's book author David Martin of Lyndon has just released a collection of five non-fiction stories for grown ups in a book called David's Stories which feature stories he's written about real things that happened in Vermont, and one piece about his travels to Africa.
“David’s Stories, unlike my picture books for young children, is a collection of true stories. Some are funny - like why would some people want to beat us after they stole our truck - and some - like my encounter with a fisher cat, are just magical and mysterious.”
Please come to the Athenaeum on Wednesday, March 12 at 6 pm for a reading along with an extra added something. Books will be for sale and there will be refreshments including beer and wine.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Join the Northeast Kingdom Council on Aging in the Art Gallery for an engaging presentation to learn about who they are, what they offer, and how they support older adults in our community.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Born and raised in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Vermont’s Northland Journal publisher Scott Wheeler is on a 23-year mission to preserve the history and culture of the land of his birth. He writes about the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful, all which make the Kingdom the amazing place it is today. He sees no reason to sanitize its history to portray the Northeast Kingdom as something it isn’t, or to bend reality a bit to entice visitors. Instead, he insists the beauty of the working landscape, its history and culture, and the people speak loud enough to attract visitors from every corner of the world.
Scott, a Johnson State College graduate and a former Vermont legislator, hosts a weekly television show on NEK-TV called The Northeast Kingdom Voice and a weekly radio show on WJJZ Country called The Vermont Voice. Each program is designed to serve as a forum for people to tell their stories and/or to promote community events.
Scott is also the author of six regional history books: “Rumrunners and Revenuers: Prohibition in Vermont”; “When Salmon was King: Voices from the Clyde River”; “Don ‘Sleepy’ McNally: From Vaudeville to Drive-In Pioneer”; “Newport’s Centennial: Voices from a Lakeside Community”; “Jay Peak: Voices from the Mountain”; and “Booze in the Kingdom: Voices from Prohibition”.
All of Scott’s books are in the Athenaeum’s NEK Authors Collection.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Do you live off the grid? Do you have experience setting up your own off-grid systems? Do you need advice from someone who does?
Come check out the Off-Grid Roundtable at our interest meeting on March 8, in the upstairs gallery at the St Johnsbury Athenaeum. Current off-gridders, people who are thinking about off-grid living or homesteading, or people who are just interested in learning more are welcome.
Bring your know-how, stories to share, and questions, and we will provide the snacks!
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Vermont historian J. Kevin Graffagnino discusses his new biography on Ira Allen, brother of Ethan Allen.
Land speculator, revolutionary, pamphleteer, politician, and empire-builder, Ira Allen was a key figure on the late eighteenth-century Green Mountain frontier. Based on his new book Ira Allen: A Biography, J. Kevin Graffagnino’s lively talk evaluates Allen’s checkered career and makes the case for including him in our picture of Vermont’s formative decades.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
(Rescheduled from February 6)
Northeast Kingdom resident Bob Amos explores his ancestors' multi-generational relationship with historical icon Harriet Tubman. Well known as a musician and songwriter, Bob has also pursued a passionate interest in family history. Bob's Auburn, New York ancestors were instrumental in preserving Tubman's legacy, writing the first biography and multiple articles about her during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Bob rediscovered some photographs of Tubman taken by his great aunt that had never been seen outside the family. In 2020 Bob's research on his family's connection to Harriet Tubman was published as a feature article in the national history and genealogy magazine American Ancestors. The photographs of Harriet Tubman are being donated to the Library of Congress.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Enjoy reading and chatting about books? Join the Inquisitive Readers Book Club!
Additional information is available at the 2nd floor desk.
Upcoming Book Selections:
Feb. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
Mar. Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Contact Maurine Hennings, Book Club facilitator at Henningsmh@yahoo.com to indicate your interest.
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Come to the Athenaeum for a festive, cabaret-style musical evening with Ed Morgan’s One-Man Band. Using sequencers, synthesizers and other electronic and acoustic equipment, Ed creates a full-band sound. Ed will perform a mix of current and classic hits tailored for Valentine’s Day.
We’ll have table seating to watch the show and enjoy some fine refreshments. or you can dance the night away! This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Good Reading is Good Living! 2nd Friday of the month at 10:30 am, in the dining area of the St. Johnsbury House.
Check with the Good Living Senior Center or 2nd floor desk at the Athenaeum for available books, first come, first served.
Questions? Contact Adele West-Fisher, 802-745-1392 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org
Everyone Welcome!
February - April Book Selections
Feb. 14 At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon
Mar. 14 Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
Apr. 11 A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
This event is free, ADA compliant and open to the public.
Rescheduled from Wednesday, Jan. 29)
Join the Athenaeum Film Fan Club for our first ever movie: “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which was partially filmed in East Corinth, VT! We’d like to establish a new film club at the Athenaeum, so come to this showing and bring ideas for future movies.
Popcorn provided free!
This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
On Wednesday, February 5 at 5:30 pm, the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum will host one of five regional community forums about the Civic Health Index held at libraries across the state.
The Office of Civic and Voter Engagement in the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office is releasing Vermont’s first Civic Health Index. Communities are gathering to discuss our civic health and how we can strengthen it.
The report looks at Vermont’s Civic Health across six domains: Volunteerism and Donating, Political Engagement, Social and Community Context, Cultural Access and Engagement, Media Trust and Access, and Government Trust and Access. It also highlights results from the Vermont Youth Civic Health Survey. Project partners include the Center for Rural Studies at UVM, SerVermont, Vermont Humanities, and Up for Learning.
This forum will include Civic Health Index findings and a review of the process; a panel discussion; and small group discussion. Read the Civic Health Index here.
If you plan to attend the event at the Athenaeum, please RSVP at this link.
Refreshments will be provided. This event is free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Additional information is available at the 2nd floor desk.
Contact Maurine Hennings, Book Club facilitator at Henningsmh@yahoo.com to indicate your interest.
Book selections:
Jan. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Feb. Contact by Carl Sagan
Mar. Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Apr. The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
This event is free ADA accessible, and open to the public.
PUZZLE CHALLENGE
We challenge you to show off your puzzling skills!
Eight teams of 3-6 people will be given the same 500-piece puzzle to assemble. First team done wins! When the clock rings, if no one is finished, the team with the fewest remaining pieces wins.
Interested participants can form their own team OR we can create a team for you.
We’ll supply snacks & drinks.
Registration required. Sign up by January 11th.
For more information and registration, contact Becky Hatfield or Adele West-Fisher at 802-748-8291.
PUZZLE SWAP
Got a puzzle you've completed? Need a new challenge?
Bring an old puzzle to second floor and exchange for a different one.
For more information and registration, contact Becky Hatfield or Adele West-Fisher at 802-748-8291.
These events are free, ADA accessible, and open to the public. Snow date: 2/8
In January our theme is German cuisine. Everyone attending should sign up to bring an appetizer, main dish, side dish, or dessert.
Come by the second floor circulation desk and browse the cookbooks for recipes. Copies of recipes are free of charge.
To save your seat at the table and sign up with what you plan to bring, contact Adele West-Fisher at 802-748-8291or email awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org.
This event is free, accessible and open to the public.
Good Reading is Good Living! 2nd Friday of the month at 10:30 am, in the dining area of the St. Johnsbury House.
Check with the Good Living Senior Center or 2nd floor desk at the Athenaeum for available books, first come, first served.
Questions? Contact Adele West-Fisher, 802-745-1392 or awestfisher@stjathenaeum.org
Everyone Welcome!
January’s book selection: Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland.
This event is free, ADA compliant and open to the public.
Join us in Athenaeum Hall for our traditional holiday music get-together. Cookies and other holiday treats and beverages by the Friends of the Athenaeum.
This event is free ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Bring your wish list of book genres, authors, titles, and topics to Secondhand Prose. Our volunteers will help children select books for friends and family members. Visit our wrapping station and have our volunteers wrap your book purchases!
Come by and have a tasty holiday treat and drink, chat with friends, and enjoy some holiday background music by the Kingdom Dulcimers.
Free, ADA accessible, and open to the public.
Additional information is available at the 2nd floor desk.
Contact Maurine Hennings, Book Club facilitator at Henningsmh@yahoo.com to indicate your interest.
Dec. 19: Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
This event is free ADA compliant, and open to the public.
Join us in Athenaeum Hall for our traditional holiday get-together. With the Hill Tones, North Country Youth Chorus, harpist Bill Tobin, and Nat Tripp reading Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales. Cookies and other holiday treats and beverages by the Friends of the Athenaeum.
This event is free ADA accessible, and open to the public.
