Gibson House Museum benefit set for April 18
The Friends of the Gibson House Museum invite you to its annual museum benefit, “The Sporting Life,” on Thursday, April 18, from 6 to 8 p.m.at the St. Botolph Club at 199 Commonwealth Ave.
This fun and festive party will offer a nod to the Gibsons and other 19th-early 20th century families who spent much of their leisure time enjoying outdoor activities. The event will honor Community Boating, the oldest public sailing organization in the country, for its mission of breaking down the physical, social, and financial hurdles that sailing frequently presents and providing opportunities for people of all backgrounds and abilities to experience the joys of being on the water.
All proceeds will support the preservation and operation of the Gibson House Museum. Tickets are $150 and may be purchased via the link above, or by sending a check with the names of your guests to: the Gibson House Museum, 137 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02116.
This year’s Benefit features some fabulous raffle items, including tickets to the theater, restaurant gift certificates, a Community Boating membership, a pickleball set, and vintage treasures. You do not need to be present to win. More details, as well as a link to purchase raffle tickets, can be found at
Nichols House Museum program to explore women’s hats and fashion
The Nichols House Museum presents ‘By Her Own Design: Women Milliners of Boston: Dress and Textile Historian Elizabeth Weisblatt,’ on Wednesday, March 27, at 6 p.m. at 55 Mount Vernon St.
At this time, Weisblatt will explore the lives of Boston’s entrepreneurial women milliners through the incredible hats they created. She will share hats from the 7,000-piece costume collection of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Housed in the W. H. Prescott House on Beacon Street, this collection provides a rich glimpse into the fashions worn by Boston women, including some Beacon Hill residents, and helps to shed light on the women who created the pieces.
Registration is through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/by-her-own-design-women-milliners-of-boston-tickets, tickets are $15 general admission, $10 Nichols House Museum members.
For more information, visit https://www.nicholshousemuseum.org/events/.
Sounds on the Hill to hold ‘Celebration of Faith’ on March 28
Boston Society of the New Jerusalem – Sounds on the Hill, invites you to ‘A Celebration of Faith.’ The church at 140 Bowdoin St. invites you experience word and music during Holy Week and Easter.
On Thursday, March 28 (Maundy Thursday), at 5 p.m., the COH Brass Ensemble will present a musical offering featuring a five-member brass ensemble. On Friday, March 29, at 7 p.m., there will be a Service of Tenebrae, featuring “Seven Last Words of Christ” by Haydn.
On Sunday, March 31, at 11 a.m., the brass ensemble and BSNJ Choir will present ‘Gloria’ by Vivaldi. The fully professional, mixed-voice choir will be under the direction of Andrew Mattfeld.
Visit https://churchonthehillboston.org/ or call 617-523-4575 for more information.
Upcoming event sponsored by the Boston Athenaeum
The Boston Athenaeum, located at 10½ Beacon St., is offering a children’s program, ‘Portraits In Color: Celebrating Blackness with Wee The People’ on Saturday, March 30, at 1 p.m.
At this kid-powered celebration of the Harriet Hayden Albums Exhibition Framing Freedom, families will enjoy an interactive read-aloud of the award-winning picture book ‘Take A Picture of Me, James Van Der Zee!,’ followed by an art-making activity, creating picture frames for the portraits. The program is recommended for children, ages 6 and older.
For more information on the Boston Athenaeum, visit bostonathenaeum.org.
Upcoming programming by West End Museum
The West End Museum presents ‘Destruction and Rebirth: Barber and Beethoven’ on Saturday, March 30, at 6:30 p.m. at The Hub on Causeway Community Room at 52 Causeway St. (located along the alleyway next to Hub50House, across from the Tip O’Neill Building).
Join the museum for an artistically sublime experience as we project photographic images from the Edgell and Frani Collections (which chronicle life before, during, and after urban renewal) alongside a live performance of two of classical music’s most emotive string quartets, both possessing tonal qualities that convey the ideas of transformation and explore the complex social dynamics that underpin both the destruction and rebirth of the West End neighborhood.
Tickets for this event cost $15 each and can be purchased by visiting https://www.eventbrite.com/e/destruction-and-rebirth-barber-and-beethoven-at-the-west-end-museum-tickets.
The museum will offer ‘Boston in Fiction: A Conversation with Frances McNamara and JB Harris,’ a lively discussion about Boston in historical fiction with the two authors, on Wednesday, April 10, at 6 p.m.
At this time, McNamara and Harris will talk about their recent novels, ‘Three-Decker Murder in a Nutshell’ and ‘The Immigrant’s Wife,’ respectively, and also answer questions about the process of writing historical Boston tales.
Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-in-fiction-a-conversation-with-frances-mcnamara-and-jb-harris-tickets for tickets and more information.
The museum will offer a ‘West End Architecture’ walking tour on Wednesday, April 17, at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/west-end-architecture-tickets.
The museum’s next Trivia Month is set to take place on Monday, April 22, at the Dubliner Irish Pub at 2 Center Plaza. Admission is $10 per person. Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/856151160167?aff=oddtdtcreator to purchase tickets and for more information.
The museum will also offer an online lecture, ‘Curley to Kevin: The New Boston and the Mayors Who Made It’ on Thursday, April 25, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
At this time, Sebastian Belfanti, the museum’s executive director, will lead a discussion on the political impact of Boston’s 20th-century mayors.
Over the course of the 20th century, Boston underwent a major change in political leadership, from the dynamic and populist, but corrupt, James Michael Curley, to New Boston’s honest but elite-centric Hynes and Collins. They were followed by Kevin White, who tried to bridge these two leadership styles with a more populist good-government approach. The story of how these shifts changed the political landscape of Boston, reshaped the city, and created “The New Boston” are critical to understanding the city today.
Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/curley-to-kevin-the-new-boston-and-the-mayors-who-made-it-tickets.
WEM seeking volunteers for spring and summers seasons
The West End Museum is now seeking volunteers for the spring and summers seasons.
Volunteer opportunities include in-person openings on Wednesday-Sunday mornings and afternoons for greeter, event assistant, exhibit attendant, social media creator, and special projects assistant.
For more information, contact the WEM volunteer coordinator via email at [email protected].
Upcoming programs by The Vilna Shul
The Vilna Shul presents ‘Mazaltob – Sephardi Women in Translation’ on Thursday, March 28, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
This book-launch celebration and discussion featuring translators Frances Malino and Yaelle Azagury and moderated by Jonathan Decter. Mazaltob will offer a fascinating portrait of a young Moroccan Sephardi woman navigating the ever-shifting ground between tradition and modernity, East and West, self and other, obligation and desire. Stylistically bold, culturally rich, by turns comic and wrenching, this polyphonic novel is both historically important and, in its new translation, a gift for our times. Tickets for this event cost $18 each.
Ongoing programming sponsored by The Vilna Shul include ‘Israel Through the Filmmaker’s Lens,’ with Dr. Shayna Weiss, on Wednesdays though March 27, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 18 Phillips St.
This course will explore questions about Israeli life and identity in a global context. Dr. Shayna Weiss will examine contemporary Israeli film and what these movies teach about Israel today, covering timely topics including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mizrahi-Ashkenazi relations, ultra-Orthodoxy, Holocaust memory, and more.
The cost of admission is $120 per person for all five sessions, including dinner, along with an approximately $30 materials fee (for film viewing, paid directly to screening platforms [e.g. Netflix]).
The Vilna also presents ‘Climate Change and Tikkun Olam: A Poetry Journey,’ with Professor Deborah Leipziger on Wednesdays through March 13 and on April 3, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 18 Phillips St.
This course will look at climate change through a Jewish lens, like what does Jewish tradition teach us about how to cope and respond to this environmental and humanitarian challenge?; and how can poetry and creative endeavors help build resilience while cultivating hope, empathy, and action? Professor Leipziger is a sustainability expert who is also a poet and co-founder of the New England Jewish Poetry Festival.
The cost of admission is $120 per person for all five sessions, including dinner.
On Tuesday, April 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., The Vilna presents ‘The Jewish Holiday Table: A Culinary Adventure’ at 18 Phillips St.
Naama Shefi, founder of Jewish Food Society, introduces ‘The Jewish Holiday Table,’ a collection of 135 vibrant recipes, each with accompanying stories collected by the Jewish Food Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving Jewish culinary heritage from across the globe. Shefi will be joined by Uri Scheft of Bakey Bakery for a challah-making demonstration. The conversation will be moderated by Devra Furst, co-author of the cookbook and food columnist for the Boston Globe. Tickets cost $25 each.
Visit https://vilnashul.org/events/upcoming for more information for more information on The Vilna’s upcoming programming.
West End Branch Library’s ‘Writing Your Memoir’ series
The West End Branch of the Boston Public Library, located at 151 Cambridge St., will offers its ‘Writing Your Memoir’ over three consecutive Monday evenings beginning on April 29.
Everyone has a story to tell. Step into the captivating field of memoir writing with this three-part workshop and acquire the skills and confidence to share your story with the world. Under the guidance of an expert writer, you will learn the art of crafting compelling and authentic personal narratives!
Session 1, which takes place on Monday, April 29, from 2 to 4 p.m., introduces memoir writing and developing a writing voice; Session 2 on Monday, May 6, from 2 to 4 p.m. focuses on sharing your written memoir and receiving positive feedback; and Session 3, which takes place Monday, May 13, from 2 to 4 p.m., concentrates on concluding your memoir and reaching your desired audience.
To register, contact Wesley Fiorentino at [email protected] or by calling the West End Branch Library at 617-523-3957.
Beacon Hill Books to welcome two authors on April 18
Jeanne Blasberg, whose third novel ‘Daughter of a Promise’ is due out soon, will be joining Julie Carrick Dalton, author of the upcoming novel, ‘The Last Beekeeper’ and a new resident to the neighborhood, on Thursday, April 18, at 5 p.m. at Beacon Hill Books at 71 Charles St.
WLP’s annual fundraiser and networking luncheon May 10 at Mandarin Oriental
Women’s Lunch Place Executive Director Jennifer Hanlon Wigon and M. Lee Pelton, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation, will have a fireside chat at WLP’s annual fundraiser and networking luncheon, eat LUNCH give on Friday, May 10, in the Oriental Ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental, Boston. The luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. and concludes at 1:15 p.m.
Hanlon Wigon and Pelton will address the pressing issues of the housing crisis in Boston, including the shortage of affordable units and the critical need for safe, gender-specific housing for women in the community. The event will be held in the Oriental Ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental, Boston.
This luncheon will include a delicious meal, an opportunity to network with Boston’s best and brightest leaders, and an inside look at the context behind Women’s Lunch Place’s life-changing work from two experts in their fields. There will also be a raffle with local prizes.
All proceeds from the fundraising luncheon will be donated to Women’s Lunch Place.
Tickets cost $200 each and are available online at womenslunchplace.org/elg, along with sponsorships, program advertisements, and opportunities to support the raffle.
Charles River Cleanup set to return April 19-20
Join the Esplanade Association for the 25th annual Charles River Cleanup – one of the largest Earth Day cleanups in the nation – on Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20.
Registration is now open for individual and corporate/large groups; sign up for one or both days online at https://esplanade.org/cleanup/.
Free lessons in American Mahjong offered at West End Branch Library
The Friends of the West End Library will be offering lessons in American Mahjong to new and experienced players at no cost.
The group meets on Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m., on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month in the Community Room of the West End Branch Library, 151 Cambridge St.
To sign up or for more information, email Audrey Tedeman ([email protected]) or Julia Forbes ([email protected]).