Director's College 
At the Barney Branch Library
CURRENT SEASON
"Gray Wolves and White Doves" A chat with an author
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 @ 7pm
John D. Balian, will discuss his first self-published novel "Gray Wolves and White Doves" here on Wednesday March 28th @ 7:00 pm. Dr. Balian was born in a small village in Anatolia Turkey and grew up in several Middle Eastern and European countries prior to his emigration to to United States. Grey Wolves and White Doves relates his personal experiences as a young Armenian boy in modern Turkey and the Middle East. He will discuss the process of writing his book and answer questions regarding his experiences.
Dr. Balian is a graduate of Columbia and Tufts University School of Medicine, and currently a senior executive of a US-based global corporation.
Register here>>
PREVIOUS SEASONS - SPRING 2011
Touring Europe by Bicycle
Wed., January 26, 2011 at 7pm
Not everyone who tours Europe does it in a bus or rented car. Veteran cyclists Joan and Charlie Leach have toured four countries on two wheels and would like to show share with you what it’s like, what it costs and how to do it.
Images From Nepal: 21 Days in the Himalayas
Thursday, February 23 2011 at 7:00 pm
Evan Cowles retired from his Landscape Architecture practice in July 2008 and immediately started training for a trek in the Anapurna region in October 2008. Cowles will tell the story of how he and five other trekkers spent 21 days on an ancient trade route that has been used for centuries. The images are vivid digital photos that include children, ancient stone paths, and rickety suspension bridges.
In Search of Edith Wharton's Passions and Repressions
Wednesday, March 30 2011 at 7:00 pm
Jane Barstow, professor emerita of English, Univ. of
Hartford, will discuss the dynamic interplay between Wharton's writings and
what we now know about her life using examples from several of her most
fascinating short stories.
Kidnapped By The Taliban: the Authors of A Rope & A Prayer
Saturday, April 2 2011 at 2pm
David Rohde, a correspondent for The NY Times, and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, will talk about Mr Rohde's 7 months and 10 days in Taliban captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, her harrowing negotiations for his release, and his escape and return. A book signing will take place.
Climbing Denali (My McKinley)
Thursday, April 7 2011 at 7:00 pm
Three times over fifteen years, adventure photographer and high altitude mountaineer Walt Hampton attempted to climb Mt. McKinley (Denali), North America's highest peak. Turned back twice by ferocious winds, unrelenting snows and unmitigated fears, Hampton nearly abandoned his lifelong dream of summiting The High One. But with uncompromising tenacity, he returned this past June to finally stand on top. Denali sits in the heart of the Alaska Range and has a vertical rise higher than Everest's. Known for its extreme cold and dangerous storms, Denali is not for the unprepared or faint of heart.
The Internet, Nanotechnology and a Sustainable Future
Wednesday, April 27 2011 at 7:00 pm
Louis Manzione, Dean, College of Engineering, Technology and Architecture, will lecture on the Internet, Nanotechnology and creating a sustainable future. Two profound technological movements in the drive toward a sustainable society are the megatrends of the internet and the field of nanotechnology. At first these two topics seem radically opposite, but both will play critical roles in our future.
SUMMER 2011
A Summer of Shakespeare—Emeritus English Renaissance Professor Humphrey Tonkin (Former President of the University of Hartford)-
Wednesday May 25, 2011 at 7pm
In the Summer. Shakespeare really comes into his own in southern New England with offerings in Lenox, MA and West Hartford and New Haven. Dr. Tonkin, an President of the UHart will take a look at some of the plays due to be performed this summer and offer brief introductions to what are likely to be the more notable productions.
Summer 2011
Bob Steele’s Century: 1911-2010--Wednesday, June 22, 7:00 p.m.
Radio Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Steele was well known to millions in Southern New England as the morning voice of WTIC for half a century and July 13 marks the 100th anniversary of his birth. Bob’s son Phil will talk about Bob Steele’s Century: 1911-2010, a collection of Bob’s own photos, articles about him, scripts he authored for his radio programs, jokes he wrote and jokes he stole, hundreds of letters from listeners that he held onto (and, when not flattering to him, shared with his radio audience), the wonderful cartoons he loved to draw, his diaries recording details of his personal life and the epic century into which he broadcast his unique sense of humor and disarming personality.
The Work of Sol LeWitt, Morgan installation and upcoming projects at the Wadsworth Atheneum--Wednesday, July 20, 7:00 p.m.
Susan Lubowsky Talbott, Director of Hartford's Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, will speak on the work of Sol LeWitt and his affect upon mid-century visual art and the Morgan Great Hall installation and upcoming projects for the Wadsworth.
Stress Management --Wednesday, July 27, 2: 1 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Karen Chekas MS, LPC, Community Educator for
Mental Health Association of Ct, Inc. will give a Stress Management workshop. The program is designed for 20 people and will consist of lecture and the application of practical coping strategies segments. This event is interactive and provides practical solutions to everyday stressors.
Travelling in Modern Turkey--Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 p.m.
Executive Director Jay Johnston's multimedia presentation speaks to modern Turkey, the artifacts of the Classical world from a 21st Century perspective.
Fall 2011
Adult Storytelling @ Farmington Libraries - Wednesday, September 28, 7:00 p.m.
This program will include folktales, a Connecticut story and a personal story told by the presenter.
The Joy of Gardening - Wednesday, October 5, 7:00 p.m
Alexandra Loveday (Lamarre) grew up in Weston CT with her mother and 3 siblings. Her mother among other things was a professor, writer and a horticulturist. At the age of 18, Alexandra went to England to stay with relatives and to be an au pair in France. While in England she learned about gardening, particularly English gardens. After returning home, among other jobs, she worked with a photographer in NYC, all the while developing a keen interest in garden and interior design. Alexandra's Gardens became a business in the year 2000.
South Korean Life During the Korean War: A Photographic Essay - Wednesday, October 26, 7:00 p.m
Dr. Charles Burstone, will present a Photos essay and discussion of civilian South Korean life he photographed during his deployment to the Korean War in the 1950's. The photographs from the perspective of Charles J. Burstone, U.S. Air Force, of Korean civilian life during the Korean conflict 1950-1953 provide an anthropological and cultural view of a society under change through conflict. His photos were exhibited in Korea and we are honored to have the opportunity to present them here. Please do not miss this important opportunity.
5th Annual Kristallnacht Lecture -
Thursday November 10, 2011 @ 10:00 Am @ the Main Library
We are honored to have Ms Gisela Adamski speak of her courage and survival as a Jewish human being in Europe during the Holocaust.
Gisela Marianne Adamski, nee Sachs, was born on January 17, 1928 in Oppeln, Germany. On April 21, 1943, at the age of fifteen, she was deported to Theresienstadt. A year and a half later, she was deported to Auschwitz, and from there was moved to Kurzbach, a satellite camp of Gross-Rosen, in Germany. In late January 1945, she and other inmates of the camp were forced to begin on a death march further into Germany, from which she escaped. For five days she hid, until on February 4 she was liberated by the Russian army. Later in 1945, she returned to her home town of Oppeln and married a Jewish soldier. In the ten years that followed, she emigrated first to France, then to Israel, and lastly, on May 26, 1956, to the United States.
Barney Library's architecture, A Photo Essay By Dr. Alan Coykendall
Tuesday, November 22 @ 7:00 pm @ the Barney
Using photographs of the library taken before, during, and after the recent restoration, plus pictures of buildings in Farmington and elsewhere, the presentation will touch on the origins of this type of building, and compare its Doric style (or "order") with examples of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, some of which are only a few feet away from the library, or even in the library. The object is to show that this small building exemplifies much of what our culture values highly, and can teach us as much as what is on the shelves.
A Sign of Freedom from Signs of History - Wednesday, January 25, 2011, 7 p.m.
Kim Silva, Kim A. Silva M.A. "Coordinator of Amistad Tours for The Farmington Historical Society / Board Member, The Freedom Trail / Author, A Sign of Freedom (unpublished manuscript)
will discuss the leader of the Amistad known as Sengbe Pieh, Joseph Cinque and the "Black Prince" who drew his strength from his Mende culture, storytelling and mime. In antebellum America how did this African pirate, who spoke no English, prevail in three courts of law, and capture the interest and sympathy of the American public? Learn about the interconnected history between Farmington and the American School for the Deaf during the Amistad Affair. How and why did the Amistad Africans' tours to raise funds for their journey home become a catalyst for the Civil War?
Register
Dark Sky - An Engaging lecture on the affects of artifical light on the planet and people
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Richard Stevens received a B.S. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has been working for a long time trying to help figure out why people get cancer. A perplexing challenge which Stevens began to engage in the late 1970s is the confounding mystery of why breast cancer risk rises so dramatically as societies industrialize. He proposed in 1987 a radical new theory that use of electric lighting, resulting in lighted nights, might produce 'circadian disruption' causing changes in the hormones relevant to breast cancer risk, and thereby play an important role in breast cancer causation worldwide. Accumulating evidence has generally supported the theory. Stevens teaches medical/dental students, graduate students in the PhD program, and MPH students at UConn Health Center. Register
