Good Morning Gloucester

Gloucester, MA—The Sawyer Free Library is proud to welcome Carnegie Medal-winning and New York Times bestselling author Eric Klinenberg this week. NYU’s Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge and a professor of sociology, Klinenberg will discuss how social infrastructure like the modern public library creates lasting and powerful connections where shared values and experiences build community consensus. Presented jointly by the library and the Sawyer Library Foundation (sawyerfree2025.org), the author will deliver remarks and conduct a dialogue with the audience from 6 to 7pm on Thursday July 14. 

“Professor Klinenberg’s research raises concerns about historic inattention to preserving and updating free and equitable public spaces, and his recommendations for counteracting this align perfectly with Sawyer Free Library’s 2025 plan to modernize and expand,” said Library Director Jenny Benedict, noting that the event is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a dessert reception at the library’s outdoor amphitheater. “Our library has a broader reach than any other single organization in the community. The new space will foster personal connections, mutual support and collaboration among friends and neighbors across Cape Ann. It creates a dynamic, welcoming and modernized environment that will inspire generations of life-long learners in our community.”

Klinenberg’s most recent book, “Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization and the Decline of Civic Life” (Crown, 2018), will inform his remarks Thursday evening. Drawing on extensive original research, he suggests that ‘social infrastructure,’ which he defines as the physical spaces that shape our interactions, plays an essential but unappreciated role in modern societies by helping to redress inequalities in health, education, crime, climate vulnerability and social networks. 

Klinenberg suggests that just as urban green space, schools, community centers, civic spaces and nonsecular organizations are places where lasting and powerful connections are formed, so too do modern public libraries represent a crucial swatch of this social fabric. In this public remarks, he will offer a blueprint for rebuilding in this moment of societal polarization and explore how, while America appears fractured at the national level, it can be mended locally. 

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden called Klinenberg’s work, “One of my favorite books of 2018… (the author) is echoing what librarians and library patrons have been saying for years: that libraries are equalizers and absolutely universal.” 

The author of three other books and co-author, with Aziz Ansari, of the New York Times No. 1 bestseller “Modern Romance” (The Penguin Press, 2015), Klinenberg’s scholarly work has been published in journals including the “American Sociological Review,” “Theory and Society” and “Ethnography.” He has contributed to “The New Yorker,” “The New York Times Magazine,” “Rolling Stone” and National Public Radio’s “This American Life.” Klinenberg is currently working on a new book entitled “2020: A Social Autopsy.” 

To register for this event, please visit: bit.ly/3nRWVn0.

SFL_ProgrammingMultigenerational: During his visit to Sawyer Free Library this Thursday evening (July 14) from 6 to 7pm, best-selling author and professor Eric Klinenberg will make the case for why, in a highly impersonal and socially distanced age, social infrastructure like the modern public library creates lasting and powerful connections—like the gathering pictured above—where shared values and experiences build community consensus.

KLINENBERG PORTRAIT: Author Eric Klinenberg’s remarks at Sawyer Free Library this week will be followed by a dessert reception at the library’s outdoor amphitheater.

✓ How do I learn more or contact Sawyer Free 2025?

Visit sawyerfree2025.org

info@sawyerfree2025.org

Call 978.225.0363 or 978.225.0915

Facebook: Sawyer Free 2025

Instagram: Sawyer Free 2025

YouTube: Sawyer Library Foundation 2025

✓ How Do I Give to Sawyer Free 2025?

• Visit sawyerfree2025.org
• Text to donate: Text “325182” to 1-855-575-7888 and select an amount
• Checks: SF2025, 2 Dale Ave., Gloucester, 01930 (Checks payable to: “Sawyer Library Foundation”)
• Volunteer!

It’s Official… “Food Truck Tuesdays” starts this week- we’ve got an incredible group of vendors for July – we can’t wait to see you! 4pm Tuesdays at 23 Harbor Loop. Our Maritime Museum and Sea Pocket Aquarium will also be open until 7pm.
LobsterRoller The Whoo(pie) Wagon Crêpe du Jour Meat and Sweet Foods

I use mine all the time and consider them essential.

link to purchase on sale here

I am not sure if this is more a story of ducks or of lilies at Niles Pond. Regardless, it’s quite a striking sight to see the regal ducks amidst the glowing lily field. And sometimes you run into a fellow GMG contributor (Pat M)…….so, bonus…..

Photos: Scottie Mac

On a clear day…

The Manchester-Essex Rotary Club is pleased to announce the 2022 “Service Above Self” scholarships.  Scholarships are awarded to students demonstrating leadership, integrity, and academic success.  Graduating high school seniors must either attend Manchester-Essex Regional High School or have parent(s) or legal guardian(s) residing in Manchester or Essex, Massachusetts.  Students must be enrolling in a certificate or degree-granting program in the fall of 2022.

Congratulations to this years’ recipients who are both attending Suffolk University in Boston.

Jacob Brown will be studying Business and Law

Isabella Thurlow will be studying Psychology, Criminal Justice and Law

The Manchester-Essex Rotary Club is grateful to our members and community for your support of our fundraising events. The monies raised are used to support these scholarships and many other projects to benefit our community and those in need.

Link to sign up is:

Click Here