Events
Pember Book Club
The Pember Book Club will be discussing The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander.
GoodReads says:
In August 1914, days before the outbreak of the First World War, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on foot of the Antarctic continent. Weaving a treacherous path through the freezing Weddell Sea, they had come within eighty-five miles of their destination when their ship, Endurance, was trapped fast in the ice pack. Soon the ship was crushed like matchwood, leaving the crew stranded on the floes. Their ordeal would last for twenty months, and they would make two near-fatal attempts to escape by open boat before their final rescue.
Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton’s expedition–one of history’s greatest epics of survival. And she presents the astonishing work of Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer whose visual record of the adventure has never before been published comprehensively. Together, text and image re-create the terrible beauty of Antarctica, the awful destruction of the ship, and the crew’s heroic daily struggle to stay alive, a miracle achieved largely through Shackleton’s inspiring leadership.
The survival of Hurley’s remarkable images is scarcely less miraculous: The original glass plate negatives, from which most of the book’s illustrations are superbly reproduced, were stored in hermetically sealed cannisters that survived months on the ice floes, a week in an open boat on the polar seas, and several more months buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. Finally Hurley was forced to abandon his professional equipment; he captured some of the most unforgettable images of the struggle with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film.
Published in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History’s landmark exhibition on Shackleton’s journey, The Endurance thrillingly recounts one of the last great adventures in the Heroic Age of exploration–perhaps the greatest of them all.
Pember Board meeting
December 17 6PM
A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Pember Library and Museum will be held on the third Thursday of each month at the Pember. This is a regular meeting and open to the public. See Upcoming Events Calendar for dates of meetings.
“No Strings” Puppets at Pember First Friday
Granville sixth graders will be showcasing their “No Strings” puppets at November
First Friday at the Pember Library and Museum in Granville, NY on Friday, November 6, from 7 to 9 pm.
Created last term as a project in Granville Elementary School, the puppets were the result of a puppet making workshop coordinated by June Brown and Vermont’s No Strings Marionette Company. Students and teachers will be on hand to describe the making and character of the puppets. At least 21 puppets will be shown.
Artist Patty Happy will be back with her nature and rural landscape paintings on bark, along with other unique works. Patty will have a workspace set up at the Pember to demonstrate her technique for painting on rock and tree bark.
Singer, songwriter Don Cahn will be on hand to entertain with his mix of folk rock and blues. Don’s mellow sound is always a pleasure to hear. Food and refreshments will be available.
Across the Mettowee, the Slate Valley Museum will be having a 2016 Preview: Voices of the Slate Valley.
First Friday in Granville starts at 7:00 p.m. and runs until 9:00. First Friday is always free.
Pember Book Club November 17, 1 PM
The book club will be reading The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg.
GOODREADS says:
An investigative journalist uncovers a hidden custom that will transform your understanding of what it means to grow up as a girl
In Afghanistan, a culture ruled almost entirely by men, the birth of a son is cause for celebration and the arrival of a daughter is often mourned as misfortune. A bacha posh (literally translated from Dari as “dressed up like a boy”) is a third kind of child – a girl temporarily raised as a boy and presented as such to the outside world. Jenny Nordberg, the reporter who broke the story of this phenomenon for the New York Times, constructs a powerful and moving account of those secretly living on the other side of a deeply segregated society where women have almost no rights and little freedom.
The Underground Girls of Kabul is anchored by vivid characters who bring this remarkable story to life: Azita, a female parliamentarian who sees no other choice but to turn her fourth daughter Mehran into a boy; Zahra, the tomboy teenager who struggles with puberty and refuses her parents’ attempts to turn her back into a girl; Shukria, now a married mother of three after living for twenty years as a man; and Nader, who prays with Shahed, the undercover female police officer, as they both remain in male disguise as adults.
At the heart of this emotional narrative is a new perspective on the extreme sacrifices of Afghan women and girls against the violent backdrop of America’s longest war. Divided into four parts, the book follows those born as the unwanted sex in Afghanistan, but who live as the socially favored gender through childhood and puberty, only to later be forced into marriage and childbirth. The Underground Girls of Kabul charts their dramatic life cycles, while examining our own history and the parallels to subversive actions of people who live under oppression everywhere.
Cooper’s Cave Benefits the Pember November 16, 5-9 PM
Enjoy a great dinner, get away from the stress of the holiday rush and help benefit the Pember Library and Museum!
Go to Cooper’s Cave on Sagamore Street in Glens Falls from 5 to 9 on November 16. Announce to your hostess and the server that you are there for the Pember Benefit Night and 15% of all dinner proceeds (including drinks) will go to the Pember. It’s that easy!
* Reservations are not accepted. Not applicable on take-out orders or with other coupons. Please email pember.library@gmail.com or call us at 518 642-2525 (during regular hours, no message machine) by Sunday, November 9 to let us know how many in your party so they may staff accordingly! Thank you.
First Friday ~ note date change
Calling All Zombies, Vampires and Ghouls – Mark Your Calendar!
The night air is getting chillier and Halloween is just around the corner…The Pember Library and Museum and the Slate Valley Museum are teaming up to host their Second Annual Halloween Party and Zombie Walk. ZOMBIE WALK II will take place during the October First Friday event, this year rescheduled to the second Friday of the month – October 9, from 7 to 9 pm at both museums.
“Last year’s ZOMBIE WALK was such a huge hit we knew we would do it again”, said Krista Rupe, Slate Valley Museum Director. “This year’s event promises to be even more amazing with an expanded lineup at both museums. In addition to a longer zombie parade route, there will be a Zombie Ball, spooky stories, Halloween art, music, treats, special décor and other terrifying surprises.”
At the Pember, zombies can feast on “finger” sandwiches, jelly eyeballs, wormy hot dogs, bloody punch, and other delicacies of the undead. Make-up stations will be available to have you look your worst.
Wayne Rizzo, master artist of the macabre will be back at the Pember with a one man show of the ghoulish and grotesque for the month of October. Wayne studied at the Art Students League in New York City and has had work at all area galleries. The exhibition will be on view from October 1-31 and will include many paintings not shown here before. Artist reception will be from 6 to 9PM on October 9.
The Slate Valley Museum will host Spooky Stories from the Slate Valley. Hear creepy tales from the area that the museum has collected guaranteed to scare and frighten the crowd, and have the chance to share your own!
Skeeter and Nancy Morse will provide music, props and a laser light show for events at both museums. The Morse’s have done many theme shows over the years and are very popular.
Rik Sassa, Glenn Cruze, and Robert Seese of Fear This Productions in Salem will return to First Friday in incredible costume to lurk in the shadows and scare the daylights out of everyone. Rik and his crew are responsible for the annual October haunting at the Salem Courthouse and can be seen there from October 16–31.
For the Zombie Walk, zombies, partygoers and ghouls will assemble at 8PM in front of the Pember for a parade down Main Street, turn onto River Street, where they will gather strength to invade the Slate Valley Museum for a GREAT ZOMBIE BALL. Inside, everyone can dance around the tombstones to zom-rock and laser lights in the crypt.