To increase awareness of book bans and raise money to overturn them, groups all across the country are hosting Readout events during Banned Books Week, September 22-29. Here in Duxbury, we’ll be reading one of the most commonly banned books in America, The Bluest Eye, by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison. We’ll get together to discuss the book on September 24th, from 6 to 8 pm in the Settler Room of the Duxbury Free Library. If you can’t attend in person, you can join us via Zoom.

“In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.” Amazon

Copies of the Bluest Eye are available to purchase at Booked. in the Duxbury Marketplace.

While this event is free, we encourage you to make a donation to help support Defense of Democracy, a grass roots organization fighting to overturn book bans. To learn more about Defense of Democracy visit www.defenseofdemocracy.org.

You can register for the event and make a donation here.

Readout: The Bluest Eye is sponsored by Booked., Defense of Democracy, Duxbury for All, and the Duxbury Free Library.

Join us on August 8th at the Merry Room of the Duxbury Free Library for a celebration of what DfA has accomplished and what we’re working on now. There will be a social gathering from 6 to 6:45 pm, with light appetizers available. From 7-8 pm, there will be a presentation and discussion of the MBTA Communities Act. Childcare will be available.

You can register for this event here.

Drag Queen Storytime returns at 11:00am, on Saturday, July 20th, at The Duxbury Free Library. Come celebrate , have fun, and enjoy yourself with special storytime guests! Appropriate for all ages. Young children must be accompanied by a caregiver. This event will include and ASL interpreter.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

Pride Movie Matinee will air Mean Girls at 1:00pm on Friday, June 28th, at the Duxbury Free Library. In Mean Girls, Cady Heron is a hit with the Plastics, an A-list girl clique at her new school. But everything changes when she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels, the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George.

Queer adult crafting night, at 7:00pm on Tuesday, June 25th, at the Duxbury Free Library. Make art and build community with an LGBTQ craft night for adults! All abilities welcome.

Pride Movie Matinee: Theater Camp will be aired at 1pm on Friday, June 21st at the Duxbury Free Library. Theater Camp is a 2023 mockumentary comedy, where the eccentric staff of a rundown theater camp in upstate New York must band together with the beloved founder's bro-y son to keep the camp afloat.

Mercury Stardust presents Safe and Sound: a Renter Friendly Guide to Home Repair. From Tik Tok stardom to best selling author, Mercury Stardust has dedicated her time to helping people reclaim their independence through home improvement and raising awareness and funds for Trans healthcare support. This event will be held virtually at 7:00pm on Thursday, June 20th.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

Magic Girls & Fighting Dreamers: an Exploration of Queer Representation in Manga and Anime. This event will be held virtually at 7pm on June 18th. Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

Poets of Provincetown: the legacy of Mary Oliver, 1pm at the Duxbury Free Library, on June 18th. Community Engagement Librarian Sam Correia will give a presentation on poets who lived in Provincetown and the legacy of poetry in that renowned artistic community.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

High School GSA Meetup party at the Duxbury Free Public Library, Saturday, June 15th at 6:30pm. For LGBTQ students in High School, ages 14-18. Ice cream bar, games, crafts.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

A play about being who you are and having fun. Open to ages 3-8 and their caregivers. 1pm at the Duxbury Free Library on Saturday, June 15th.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

Pride Movie Matinee screening of Pride. Based on a true story, it depicts a group of lesbian and gay activists who raised money to help families affected by the British miners' strike in 1984, at the outset of what would become the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign. 1pm at the Duxbury Free Library on June 14th

Please join us at the Pilgrim Church on June 13th for the screening of the award-winning documentary film 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture. “1946” follows a group of researchers who uncover a mistranslation of two words from ancient Greek in the 1946 Revised Standard Edition of the New Testament. This mistranslation was the first time that the word homosexuals ever appeared in the Bible. The film is both a fascinating inquiry into the original meaning of those two words, and a moving story of the researchers’ faith that drove them to uncover and discuss the religious roots of anti-LGBTQ+ bias which so many still hold today.

To learn more about 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture, visit www.1946themovie.com.

Doors will open for the event at 6:30 pm. The 90-minute film will be aired at 7pm and will be followed by 30-minute breakout discussions in the Parish Hall for those who wish to participate.

Please register for this event at Eventbrite. While tickets are free, we encourage you to make  a donation to help us promote the cause of diversity, equity & inclusion in our community!

Pride movie matinee of Milk, the story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official. 1pm at the Duxbury Free Library, Friday, June 7th.

LGBTQ Pride Putt Putt. The Senior Center will be transformed into a Mini Golf Course, with live entertainment and a BBQ. Cll 781-934-5774 X 5703 to register.

Middle School GSA Meetup party at the Duxbury Free Library, for ages 10-14 Ice cream bar, games and crafts.

Please register for this event at the Duxbury Free Library calendar webpage.

Join us and our cohost, the Helen Bumpus Gallery, for the opening of Community of Characters: Celebrating the Children’s Art of Brian Lies. The event will include a reading by Brians from his local favorite, Bats at the Beach, a talk by Brian about characters and community, Q & A, a chance to meet Brian in person, see his art, and for the first time ever, the opportunity to purchase his work!

The event will run from 10am to 1pm. Brian will speak shortly after 10am. The official opening of the gallery will be at 11:30am. Event details can be found on our Duxbury for All home page

The Art Complex Museum in Duxbury will host Falco, a rescued Red-Tailed Hawk, on March 16, 1:30pm - 3:30pm. Jack Banagis, Director of STEM Education at the New England Wildlife Center in Weymouth, MA, will talk about Falco and the wildlife center. This event is free and is part of the Town Wide Read, Immerse Yourself “Better Living Through Birding”.

https://artcomplex.org/event/gallerytalk_falco_mar2024/

Mae Baird, Board Member and Secretary of the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project, will present a talk, “Wompanoag Language: Reclamation, History and Continuity, at the Waquoit Congregational Church, 15 Parsons Lane, Falmouth, MA. You can learn more about the Wopanaak Reclamation Project at waquoitucc.org

Dance performance by the Wah Lum Academy of Quincy 11am to 1:30pm on February 9th at the Duxbury Senior Center.

Throughout the months of January, February and March there will be a series of events to support the town-wide read of Better Living through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. A brownbag lunch discussion of the book will be held on February 8th at 1pm in the Senior Center.

Susan Thanas, an instructor of Lifelong Learning courses at the Senior Center, will give a presentation on Lunar New Year at 1:30-3pm on February 6th at the Duxbury Senior Center.

Lunar New Year Storytime with Helen Ji Li at 10:30am on Saturday, February 3rd at the Duxbury Free Library.

Sam Correia, DFL Community Engagement Librarian, will host a talk on pronouns at 5:30pm, January 18th, at the Duxbury Senior Center.

You can register for this event at the Duxbury Senior Center website

Duxbury Rotary, the sponsor for Duxbury for All, will be airing a documentary film about three Kenyan teens who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to prove that disability is not inability. In the Merry Room of the Duxbury Free Library at 5:30pm on January 17th. Sandwiches and beverages will be served. Suggested donation is $10.

Join us for the Interfaith Council’s annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast and prayer meeting at the First Parish Church in Duxbury. Continental breakfast at 8am, prayer meeting at 9am.

Dr. Lacee Satcher, professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at Boston College, will be giving a presentation on the environmental racism and environmental justice in Greater Boston. We're excited to have her presenting to our community; this library event will be held at the Duxbury Senior Center. 

Join us for the latest in our Challenging Conversation series: What are we afraid of? Interrupting Racism. Topics for discussion will include race, racism and how to combat and interrupt racism and racist language. 6:30-8:30 pm at the Merry Room of the Duxbury Free Library.