Joyce Mandel is an employment specialist with 15 years of experience providing employability skills workshops geared towards youth and adults. Topics covered in this workshop will include: interviewing skills, resume writing, dressing for success, job leads, telephone skills, networking, and keeping your job. Workshop objectives include building participants’ confidence, readying participants for employment opportunity, and enhancing their job skills.

To join via ZOOM on September 24:

https://boston-public-library.zoom.us/j/89657513532?pwd=UTN2SU5xcHIwK2hOYm5NdDA2bU56QT09

Joyce Mandel is an employment specialist with 15 years of experience providing employability skills workshops geared towards youth and adults. Topics covered in this workshop will include: interviewing skills, resume writing, dressing for success, job leads, telephone skills, networking, and keeping your job. Workshop objectives include building participants’ confidence, readying participants for employment opportunity, and enhancing their job skills.

To join via ZOOM on September 10:
https://boston-public-library.zoom.us/j/82352425826?pwd=UDZydVRBR0RFb2IrTUxpcjdkSm0rdz09

Dear FOSEL Members and Library supporters,
                                                                          
We cordially invite you to our Annual Members' Meeting on Wednesday, July 1, at 6:00 PM, via ZOOM.  

(If you wonder whether you are a member, in the past when we had LIVE Annual/Membership meetings, those who showed up were considered members. The same will hold for whoever shows up via ZOOM.) 

FOSEL's joint Members/Annual Board Meeting in March was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead, the board held a separate Annual Meeting on May 7 via ZOOM. We had hoped to hold out and convene an in-person Members' Meeting, but given the uncertainty we are facing, we thought it best to move ahead with a virtual Members' Meeting. 

At the Annual Board Meeting in May, the directors voted to elect a new slate of directors to govern for 2020 and to approve a series of changes to FOSEL's bylaws. At the upcoming Members' Meeting, the Members will be asked to vote to confirm the 2020 slate of directors and to approve the bylaws changes. Links to the list of the 2020 slate and to a copy of the bylaws highlighting all changes can be found below. The most important of the bylaws changes is a shift from a Membership governance structure, as we now have, to a Board-only governance structure. We have added a button you can click on below to view the bylaws’ changes.

The idea behind creating a Membership organization in 2006-7 was that FOSEL wanted to be broadly supported by the community for the Library's benefit. Over the years we have been able to achieve that aim in another way, namely by producing popular programming and successfully advocating for Library and Park renovations.  

Under a Membership governance structure, the Membership had to meet on a regular basis and keep minutes which, unfortunately, did not happen, nor were Membership rolls kept up. The primary driver of the proposed governance change was eliminating these types of administrative obligations while still enabling all interested to continue to participate in FOSEL programs, receive our newsletter, and keep up our efforts to make the South End Library and Library Park the best they can be.

After the change in governance we hope to accomplish with your vote, all will still be welcome to attend the board's Annual Meeting. And, financially, we will still invite you to be supporting members on an annual basis at a donor level you can afford. However, with the approval of the bylaws amendments, the governance of FOSEL will be the responsibility of the board of directors alone. 

AGENDA
for the July 1 Membership meeting:

1. Vote to approve the minutes of the 2019 Annual Members Meeting 
2. Vote to confirm the 2020 slate of directors and officers 
3. Clerk Tracey Bolotnick’s update about the the proposed bylaws changes, followed by a vote
4. Treasurer Barbara Sommerfeld's financial update
5. President Marleen Nienhuis's update on recent FOSEL achievements and activities
6. Vice-president Yvette Yarreau's update on FOSEL's new committee structure

If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may cast your vote on items 1, 2,  and 3 by proxy.  In order to do so, please respond to this message at info@friendsofsouthendlibrary.org before July 1, 2020  by indicating either:

 1. "I VOTE YES ON APPROVING THE MINUTES" or "I VOTE NO ON APPROVING THE MINUTES" 

2. "I VOTE YES ON THE 2020 SLATE OF DIRECTORS or 'I VOTE NO ON THE 2020 SLATE OF DIRECTORS

3. "I VOTE YES ON APPROVING THE AMENDMENTS TO THE BYLAWS" or "I VOTE NO ON APPROVING THE AMENDMENTS TO THE BYLAWS."

Please feel free to include additional commentary.  

To view the FOSEL bylaws changes and the 2019 minutes, please use the buttons below.

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The Board of Boston Public Library Trustees, which is the official governing body of the BPL, will hold ia historic first ZOOMED Annual Meeting on Tuesday, May 26, at 8:30 AM. The public is cordially invited to participate by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page. Meeting materials, including the agenda, draft minutes from the last (pre-pandemic) meeting on January 30, and details about the City Council Library Budget hearing earlier this month are linked here. Items of interest are: the President’s Report by David Leonard; goals and accomplishments for the 2020-21 fiscal year; an update on capital projects, including a discussion about a possible name change for the soon-to-be-opened Dudley branch now that Dudley Square itself was changed to Nubian Square; and a discussion about the recently adopted policy of fine forgiveness.

The ZOOM-facilitated public access to BPL meetings is another welcome additional step in a much-improved process to fully engage the public in how the BPL can provide the help it seeks. Not too long ago it used to be that BPL Trustees Meetings were near-secret events where very few members of the public ever ventured. Public comment was sometimes allowed, often not. Even when allowed, no notes of it were recorded in the minutes. Yet, momentous decisions would be made, such as the unceremonious closing of the beloved Kirstein Business Library, a branch ostensibly protected by trusts that paid for its maintenance and upkeep. The closing was approved with barely a quorum of the trustees in attendance, several of whom protested they had received no information about the closure plans whatsoever.

All of this has changed dramatically for the better, a turn-around that began in 2008 when many branches were threatened with library closures and a furious public demanded explanations in overflow meetings. A much-improved and diverse group of library trustees has been appointed in the last six years. and become passionately engaged in, and perhaps inspired by, the commitment to a thriving public-library system promoted by the Walsh Administration. All that is needed now is for you, the public, to watch over it all and make your concerns and questions known.

NOTE: The public can also submit written comments in advance to pcarver@bpl.org with subject: Trustees Meeting Public Comment” by 5.25.20 at 12:00 p.m. All submissions will be read into the public record.

To access the ZOOM meeting, Click on this link:

https://boston-public-library.zoom.us/j/82844556151 Webinar ID: 828 4455 6151

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The most popular outdoor event of the year, the South End Library’s Easter Egg Hunt, will take place on Easter Sunday, April 12, at 11:00 AM. If the past is any guide, it will be over by 11:05 AM, thanks to the enthusiastic and highly focused young South End hunters. There will be a separate area cordoned off for the very young, and you, the parents and caregivers, can decide who needs to be there to be protected from the older crowd. We will have baskets available for those who forgot theirs.

The Easter bunny is already looking forward to distributing the eggs filled with chocolates, poems and knock-knock jokes. There will be delicious refreshments for the adults provided by FOSEL’s culinary team. We’ll implore the gods of good weather to do what they can to make it the best Easter Egg Hunt, yet.

The Friends of the South End Library will hold their yearly board of directors election on Thursday March 12 at 6:00 PM at the South End Library and you are most cordially invited. FOSEL elects and re-elects board members to its voting board around this time every year. Since we are a membership organization, you, the public that shows up at the Annual Meeting, helps us affirm the slate of proposed candidates that has been vetted by our current board. Since last September, we have aggressively recruited new directors at neighborhood association meetings, via mailings to some 2,500 South End residents, and on our website, as per linked here.

The current slate of proposed directors is made up of the following South End residents, each one of whom stated unequivocally that they loved their South End neighborhood, public libraries, and that they wanted to ‘give back’ to their community library what they received from their own since when they were children. They are (alphabetically): Gary Bailey, Lauren Begley, Tracey Bolotnick, Marilyn Davillier, Nancy Downer, Michael Hinchclife, Yvette Jarreau, Marleen Nienhuis, Derek Lessing, Fara Ramjane, Joe Rondinelli, Karen Teller, Jason Sarno, Barbara Sommerfeld, Jennifer Watson. The advisory board includes Bill Coady, Susanna Coit, Kaiti Coffin, Liane Crawford, Sara Divello, Stephen Fox, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Don Haber, Maura Harrington, Michelle Laboy, Reinhold Mahler, Jackie McGrath, Russ O’Haver, Anne Smart, Elizabeth Taylor and Duncan Will. Their bios are posted on our website, linked here.

Because the South End Library is scheduled to be expanded and renovated in the next three to five years, FOSEL has expanded its voting board from seven to fifteen members to more fully represent the neighborhood and the diverse needs for library services. In addition, we have an advisory board for members of the community who have skills and talents to contribute but can’t commit to a voting board position. When the new board of directors is confirmed at the Annual Meeting, they in turn elect four officers, president, vice-president, clerk and treasurer. Officers serve two-year terms. Directors serve one year but can be re-elected several times. It is not unusual for voting-board members to move to the advisory board and vice versa, depending on changed commitments in their personal and professional lives.

The Boston Public Library is governed by its nine-member board of trustees appointed by the Mayor of Boston, and meets regularly at he Central Library or at one of the BPL branches. These meetings are open to the public. The president of he BPL, David Leonard, and his team give informative updates about developments in the BPL system. Public comment is encouraged at the end of the meeting, which usually lasts up to to hours. For more information about the BPL and its trustees, click here.

Filmmaker Katrina Browne, a descendant of the largest slave-trading family in the U.S., traced the geographic, historical and political legacy of her ancestry, together with eight of her cousins, to produce a documentary movie, Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008. It was shown on PBS, won the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and was nominated for an Emmy Award for historical research. FOSEL board member, Gary Bailey, Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and Social Justice at Simmons University, will introduce the event and its participants, Dain and Constance Perry. .

Dain Perry is one of the filmmaker’s cousins; his wife, Constance, is a descendant of slaves. Together they have conducted more than 350 screenings and facilitated conversations in over 160 cities across the country, including many libraries and churches. Both active in the Episcopal Church, they will lead a discussion about the documentary’s subject after the movie..

Traces of the Trade describes the DeWolf family of Bristol RI, who from 1769 to 1820 trafficked in human beings. Their ships sailed from Bristol to West Africa, with rum to trade for African men, women and children. Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolfs owned in Cuba, or were sold at auction in Havana and Charleston while sugar and molasses were brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol. Over the generations, the family transported more than ten thousand enslaved Africans across the Middle Passage. They amassed an enormous fortune. By the end of his life, James DeWolf had been a U.S. Senator and was reportedly the second richest man in the United States.

The film follows ten DeWolf descendants, ages 32-71, as they retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade, from the DeWolf hometown of Bristol to slave forts on the coast of Ghana to the ruins of a family plantation in Cuba, exploring the impact of slavery on America and its ongoing legacy of racism. Back home, the family confronts the thorny topic of what to do now. In the context of growing calls for reparations for slavery, family members struggle with how to think about and contribute to “repair,” questions that apply to the nation as a whole: What is the legacy of slavery? Who owes who what for the sins of the fathers of this country? What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens? How does Northern complicity change the equation? What would repair—spiritual and material—really look like and what would it take?

The event is free. Due to the length of the movie (1.5 hours) and the time required for a post-movie discussion, the event begins at 6:00 PM and ends at 9:00 PM. We thank branch librarian Anne Smart for keeping the library open beyond its usual time.

You will see a huge crowd in Library Park on Monday, June 3 when Little Groove music performers will bring song and dance and invite all of you to sing and dance along with them. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library.

Sara Wheeler founded Little Groove pre-school for music and art years ago when she realized that there was a lack of music programs in the Boston area that fit the developmental needs of infants and toddlers. She wanted to make a program that helped children develop better communication skills, trust, language and overall well being.

Little Groove classes are conducted in a live music setting. During the class teachers perform songs playing live instruments. These songs are fun, catchy and repetitive and help teach your child about his/her environment. Children interact at their own level. The classes also incorporate brightly colored instruments that your child can touch, feel and shake.

…and it will be over by 11:05 AM, so come early. As always, the Easter bunny will distribute many hundreds of eggs filled with chocolates, poems and knock-knock jokes. There will be delicious refreshments, warm coffee and cool lemonade after the hunt.

FOSEL has already ordered good weather and hope it will be delivered in time. We have baskets for those who can’t find their own from last year. We expect the Area D4 police to be available, as they always have been, for those crossing Tremont Street.

There will be a separate area cordoned off for the very young so they won’t be crushed by their enthusiastic and experienced older hunter colleagues. For those whose naps ran a bit late, the Easter bunny will have some extra eggs reserved especially for you..

Next Tuesday, the Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) will have its Annual Members Meeting where you can elect our proposed slate of directors, get updates on our financial status, programming and renovation plans. Eamon Shelton, the Director of Operations at the Boston Public Library. will be at the meeting to discuss renovation plans for the branch and answer any questions you might have. This is also the time when you can propose yourself as an advisor to the FOSEL board and/or sign up for any of its programs.

Our proposed 2019 slate of voting-board directors this year is made up of current officers for the second of their two-year terms, most current directors and one new candidate. Officers serve two-year terms; directors one year. The candidates are: Marleen Nienhuis (President); Barbara Sommerfeld (treasurer); Kim Clark (clerk); Marilyn Davillier; Gary Bailey; Duncan Will; and Jennifer Watson (new).

Our proposed 2019 advisory board includes many of the 2018 advisory board members: Anne Smart, Don Haber, Jacqueline McRath, Stephen Fox, Liane Crawford, Susanna Coit, Michael Cox, Michelle Laboy, Gail Ide and Nick Altschuller. Maura Harrington and Licia Sky asked to move from the 2018 voting to the 2019 advisory board due to increased commitments in their professional lives. In addition, Reinhold Mahler has agreed to join as a new advisor. Two wonderful 2018 advisory board members, Karen Watson and Ed Hostetter have moved out of state and are directing their generous volunteer efforts elsewhere. We thank them for their important contributions. Jon Santiago, who served on the FOSEL advisory board for three years, was counseled by legislative advisors to step down from all boards now that he is a newly elected State Representative (replacing Byron Rushing). We thank Jon for his advocacy and volunteering, and wish him the best.

Here are brief descriptions of the proposed candidates:

Barbara Sommerfeld has been a meticulous treasurer for eight years, patiently and graciously processing innumerable contributions for both capital and membership campaigns by FOSEL. She is an active and devoted South End library user who is always ready to volunteer in any FOSEL project.

Kim Clark has organized board meetings, kept track of by-laws and written crisp and accurate board minutes. She has enthusiastically introduced numerous speakers for South End Writes, and recruited wonderful speakers (Mel King, Byron Rushing, Melinda Lopez). She is a longtime South End library user.

Marilyn Davillier, a therapist, is an active contributor to numerous FOSEL ventures, including the South End Writes program and the Holiday Party, and has made excellent recommendations for past and future speakers on the subject of children’s developmental psychology. She and her husband, Ed Tronick, a renowned child psychologist at UMass, hope to create a seminar series at the library for families of young children. 

Gary Bailey is a Professor of Practice at Simmons School of Social Work, very active in and connected to a range of neighborhood associations, and interested in the role the South End library can play in the lives of homeless patrons.

Duncan Will’s background is in secondary education. He is a member of the Local/Focus group, taking apart old displays and installing new ones. He works closely with Reinhold Mahler in this program.

Jennifer Watson. contacted FOSEL in 2018 and has taken on FOSEL’s newest program, the Award-winning Books Window. She was in charge of the first display, the 2018 Massachusetts Book Awards. She is now planning the second display, the Edgar Awards for Crime Fiction. She works as an executive’s chief of staff at the Boston Medical Center.

Anne Smart is the head librarian of the South End library is an invaluable member of FOSEL advisory board, especially in light of the library’s renovation projects.

Maura Harrington was the FOSEL Capital Campaign’s invaluable co-chair, a generous volunteer for Local/Focus and the Holiday Party, and will continue to be devoted to the branch’s well-being.

Licia Sky, a poet, composer and playwright, hopes to organize poetry slams at the branch, and aan evening of local folk music.

Don Haber, as co-president of the Jamaica Plain branch library, is an invaluable sounding board and source of information about library renovations and BPL developments.

Jacqueline McRath has been a loyal volunteer at FOSEL events, and has a wealth of knowledge about fiber artists, writers and poets in the South End community.

Stephen Fox, as chair of the South End Forum and the Rutland Square Association, has been a vocal and important advocate for the South End library and Library Park with our elected city representatives and appointed heads of city agencies.

Liane Crawford has made great recommendations for the Local/Focus window and has been very helpful in our fundraising efforts.

Susanna Coit is a trained archivist at the Perkins School for the Blind. She is very excited to continue as an advisor as the library is going through its renovation process and has kept FOSEL abreast of new information about libraries.

Michael Cox has recruited a number of speakers for South End Writes and is an active volunteer who distributes posters and flyers for our events throughout the neighborhood.

Michelle Laboy’s contribution to FOSEL as an architect helping us to envision a welcoming and beautifully renovated South End library has been inspiring and gratifying. She has participated in numerous meetings with the BPL’s executive and project teams to advance the renovation plans. 

Gail Ide is a library abutter who has been a longtime South End library and Library Park advocate.  She will continue to work  on the redesign and planting plans for Library Park.

Nick Altschuller has made very nice recommendations of authors for South End Writes and compiled a wonderfully curated set of crime fiction titles for our January Local/Focus mystery window, centered on Boston writers and/or fiction set in the Boston area. 

Reinhold Mahler is also an abutter to the library and has a background in architecture. He has made fantastic contributions to the formatting and design of the Local/Focus windows in the past year. The installations have never looked better and Reinhold is delighted to do more of the same in 2019. 

 Marleen Nienhuis founded FOSEL in 2007. After leaving the voting board in 2010 and returning in 2014, her current term will end next year. A 2019 nominating group will focus on expanding/renewing FOSEL’s leadership for the 2020 terms.

Yes, it’s that time of year when library staff and library supporters and friends get together for the Annual Holiday Party. As always, there will be Jazz and Blues music between the stacks, with Pat Loomis and his Friends who will include Antonio Loomis on guitar, Jim Dower, piano, Colescott Rubin, bass, and Benny Benson on drums. In addition, Loomis hopes to book a Special Guest, who shall be announced shortly.

In previous years, the husband of library staffer Carol Glass, John Hampton, prepared dinner but, regrettably, he is unable to do so this year (though we hope he’ll attend). Instead, library staff and FOSEL board members are organizing dinner and drink. As always, culinary donations will be welcomed.

Free to all. The library is fully handicapped accessible.

South End recorder player Janet Fink and harpsichordist Alastair Thompson will play another one of their popular concerts on Saturday, December 8 at 1:00 PM, upstairs at the South End Branch of the Boston Public Library. The program will be of suites and sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, specifically numbers BWV 1031, 1033, and 1034. The program notes will tell the story of the multigenerational connections in the Mendelssohn family to Bach's works.

Recorder player Janet Fink has studied with numerous local teachers and coaches. She has performed in the Boston area for more than twenty-five years, in recorder consort with, among other groups, A Moveable Feast, and as soloist with the Witchtrot Consort, the St John’s Ensemble, and the Hemlock Consort. Always on the lookout to help young struggling musicians, she currently serves as President of the Board of the new wind band, Grand Harmonie. Fink offers frequent recitals at the South End and West End branches of the Boston Public Library.

Harpsichordist Alastair Thompson comes from a family of musicians and dancers and could not possibly stay away from the stage for long. In April 2011 he co-directed a stage performance of Matthew Locke's 1657 masque Cupid and Death (the masque is a form of festive festive entertainment that flourished at courts in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe). As a harpsichordist, he has accompanied performers at Boston-area conservatories and collaborated with many chamber ensembles, including Seven Times Salt, Les Enfants Terribles, the Zelenka Project, Patalena, the Weckmann Project, the Cavalier Consort, and Fourscore. He is also active as accompanist and administrator with Amherst Early Music.