@Blue Hill Library

Tuesday, May 13, 2014-- In this issue:

•  Events This Week... 
•  Plant Sale Fundraiser May 24 
•  Special Preschool Story Time: Kamishibai 
•  Play Reading: Blythe Spirit 
•  Art and the Scottish Landscape 

• The public is invited to a reception THIS THURSDAY May 15, 4:30 to 6:00 PM for the exhibit in the Howard Room glass cases, "Jonathan Fisher: Art, Spirit and Nature," put together by Rick Sawyer, president of the Jonathan Fisher House Memorial.  

• Bangor Daily News reporter Abigail Curtis will talk about her part in the newspaper's recent multimedia retrospective, Living the Good Life In Maine about the 60-year-old "Back to the Land Movement," inspired by the Nearings THIS THURSDAY, May 15 at 7:00 PM.  

In 1983 friends and neighbors gathered to celebrate Scott Nearing's 100th birthday

     And, it isn't just plants: The Friends of the library will host a Bake Sale of coffee and breakfast treats plus a special garden edition of their wonderful Book Sales.

      Not a gardener or don't need more plants?  There are lots of wonderful items for bid in the Silent Auction. Featured items include: a gourmet farm-to-table dinner for 8, a granite bench, lunch cruise on a sailboat, fine desserts, a handmade floral quilt, terracotta pots filled with herbs, a month of local eggs, tattoos (to forever show your love of plants), massages (to ease the aches and pains of weeding), and a pile of goat manure-truly something for everyone.

      All proceeds benefit the general operating fund for the Library. For more information or to volunteer contact the Library at 374-5515.

     The Library's Preschool Storytime on Tuesday May 20 at 10:30 AM will feature "kamishibai," a kind of storytelling unique to Japan. Surry resident Donna Tamaki will perform Japanese stories - both traditional and modern - as a special event in conjunction with the current exhibit of Japanese kokeshi dolls in the children's Larchwood cases.

A Kamishibai artist in Tokyo.

     Kamishibai is a dramatic form of storytelling that uses large, illustrated cards inserted into a miniature wooden stage. In Japanese, "kami" means paper and "shibai "means play. Before people had television in their homes, the kamishibai storyteller would come regularly to parks and playgrounds and sold candy to children from the back of his bicycle. Then, as a treat, he would tell stories very dramatically using illustrated cards and a stage mounted on the bicycle.

     There are almost no street storytellers left in Japan today but kamishibai is still an integral part of Japanese children's culture and is performed in schools, libraries and at community events. Everyone in Japan - young and old - loves kamishibai and along with anime and manga, it is now enjoying popularity all over the world. For more information, please call Pat at 374-5515.

    The group welcomes inexperienced and experienced readers alike. The only criteria are the love of plays and the joy of reading them aloud among like-minded theater fans. For further information, contact the  Library at 374-5515 or Michael Donahue at 374-5248 (or Donahue.mg@gmail.com).

     The Library's monthly series of free Art Adventures for adults and interested teens continues on Thursday, May 22 at 7:00 PM with a program by Blue Hill resident Val Libby on Art and the Scottish Landscape.

Formal terraced gardens at Drummond Castle

      From the Highlands to Balmoral castle, Val will explore how changing tastes in the arts in Scotland transformed people's view of natural and designed landscapes. She will illustrate her observations with extensive use of images.

     Val Libby is a retired professor of Landscape History at Temple University, Philadelphia, and a Fulbright Scholar to Portugal. A year-long internship at Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh introduced Val Libby to the Scottish landscape.

      This exploration will be followed on June 26 at 7:00 PM by a panel presentation and discussion with Richard Wands, Heidi Daub and Louise Bourne, three well-known local landscape artists with totally different visions and approaches to painting landscapes.

    The events in this series are free and everyone is welcome.  For more information, call the Library at 374-5515.

Don't hesitate to call us for more information at 207-374-5515.