Category: Connecticut Travel

The 12th Annual Martin Luther King Day Celebration, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction for “Stamped from the Beginning,” about the history of racist ideas in America, will be on Sunday, January 14, at 3 p.m., at Westport Country Playhouse. Kendi’s address is titled “How to be an Anti-Racist.”
Musical performances will be by Chris Coogan and the Good News Gospel Choir, and Weston High School Jazz Ensemble. Students from the Regional Center for the Arts will present a dance piece.

Free-of-charge and open to the public, the celebration is co-sponsored by The Westport Library, Westport Country Playhouse, TEAM Westport, and the Westport/Weston Interfaith Council. Seating is unreserved. Complimentary refreshments will be served in the Playhouse lobby after the presentation.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is an assistant professor of African American History at American University, focusing on racist and anti-racist ideas and movements. He is a frequent public speaker about the findings of his New York Times bestseller, “Stamped from the Beginning,” and how they can fit into the national conversation surrounding movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and social justice.

According to Kendi, he embarked on the research for his book under the assumption that the major producers of racist ideas were hateful and ignorant, and that borne from racist ideas were racist policies like slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. But as Kendi dug deeper, he said he soon discovered that political, economic, and cultural self-interest are behind the creation of racist policies and these policies in turn create the racist ideas that rationalize the deep inequities in everything from wealth to health.

“Stamped from the Beginning” was also named a finalist for the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and nominated for the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Nonfiction. The book was featured on many Best Books of 2016 lists. Kendi is also the author of the award-winning book, “The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972.”

Kendi’s address will be followed by a moderated audience Q&A and an author signing. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

The Westport/Weston Family YMCA will provide childcare and activities in the Lucille Lortel White Barn, Sheffer Studio, adjacent to the theater.

For more information, call the Westport Country Playhouse box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529. Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. westportplayhouse.org.

The Railroad Museum of New England (RMNE) recently acquired a 1926 Seth Thomas Register No. 2 clock and is hosting a reception to celebrate the “homecoming” at the Thomaston Railroad Station on Saturday, January 13th, from 3:30pm-5:30pm. The public is invited.

The Number 2 Regulator is an historic clock that was produced in Thomaston for 90 years, starting from before the Civil War. What makes it meaningful to the Museum is that this type of clock was the standard for railroad stations throughout America. A countless number of Seth Thomas clocks were built and shipped from the Thomaston Station to the rest of the country and the world.

This acquisition will help the Museum to educate visitors about the importance of trains, standard time, and clocks to the history of our society and economy. The Museum had been searching for this type of clock when John Springer, a volunteer and retired Amtrak locomotive engineer, found one while on a fishing trip in Montana last August.

Springer was visiting the family of a recently deceased friend, Ron Losee, M.D., when he discovered that Dr. Losee had possessed a Seth Thomas Register Number 2 clock that was built in Thomaston in 1926. The family generously donated the clock to the museum “In memory of Ron Losee, M.D. friend of John Springer.” The American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol assisted the RMNE and arranged for a volunteer, Mel Brown, to clean and tune up the mechanism. Patrick Hunt of Collinsville Restoration refinished the mahogany woodwork back to its original sheen. The clock is now mounted on the west wall of the Thomaston Station.

The RMNE is a not-for-profit, all volunteer, educational and historical organization that dates back to January 1968. The mission of the RMNE is to tell the story of the region’s rich railroad heritage through its educational exhibits and operation of the Naugatuck Railroad. The museum concept is more than artifacts. It is also a story of the region and the development of society around the railroad.

The museum is located at the landmark Thomaston Station, on 242 East Main Street in Thomaston, Connecticut. The RMNE owns and operates the Naugatuck Railroad. For scheduled trains, birthday parties, and corporate events, contact the RMNE to find out how the Thomaston Station and the Naugatuck Railroad can offer you a unique experience. More information about the Railroad Museum of New England can be found at: www.rmne.org.

The Aquarium’s 2017-18 season of “Seal-Spotting & Birding Cruises”  operates on many weekends through March 31, 2018.

These invigorating 2½-hour outings seek out some of the harbor seals and gray seals that migrate down into Long Island Sound from northern waters – such as off Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine – which serve as their summer breeding and pupping areas. During the Aquarium cruises, seals often can be seen near the Norwalk islands resting on rocks and shoals exposed at low tide. Aquarium educators will point out these federally protected marine mammals and talk about their natural histories.

These cruises also give birders unique “on-the-water” access to see and photograph visiting winter waterfowl, such as buffleheads, mergansers, Brant geese and long-tailed ducks.

“Although we’ve been displaying seals for nearly 30 years now – and explaining to guests that seals are out there in the Sound during the winter – it’s still a revelation for participants to actually see them during our cruises,” said Dave Sigworth, the Aquarium’s associate director of communications. “It is these exciting first-hand experiences that really emphasize that Long Island Sound is an important habitat to protect.”

Dates and departure times of the cruises vary by low tide. Most cruises occur on weekends, although outings also are planned during the Christmas-break week Dec. 27-29. For the full schedule, go to www.maritimeaquarium.org.

Ring in the New Year with an old-fashioned Tea hosted by the Gunn Historical Museum in the Wykeham Room of the Gunn Memorial Library from 11am-1pm on Saturday, January 6, 2018. A snow date is scheduled for Tuesday, January 9, 2018 4-6pm.

Visitors will have the opportunity to socialize with friends under the historic 1914 gilded ceiling mural by H. Siddons Mowbray and enjoy period music in the festively decorated room. We’ll have our Washington photo albums out for guests to browse. Guests are asked to bring their favorite teacup and we will provide tea sandwiches.

A cookie contest will be the highlight of this year’s tea party. Those interested in participating should pre-register by calling the library 860.868.7586 or signing up at the circulation desk: gunncirc@biblio.org.

The Tea is free and open to the public. Registration is requested. To register please email your name(s) to: info@gunnhistoricalmuseum.org or call 860-868-7756. The Gunn Memorial Library is located at 5 Wykeham Road at Route 47 on the Green, in Washington, CT. View www.gunnmuseum.org for more information.

Start the new year off at Connecticut’s largest nature foundation, White Memorial in Litchfield. On January 6, this conservation center will be offering a program on the forest wolf with Andrew Dobos who will take visitors on a wildlife tracking walk through the winter woods. There are always clues left behind by the animals for us to decipher, telling a story of their habits and lives. Get to know our beloved wildlife that much better. Children should be accompanied by an adult and all should dress extra warm and wear good boots! You never know where the animals have been.10:00 A. M. – 12:00 P.M. Meet in the Museum. Members: $5.00 Non-Members: $15.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857.

Another charming program for kids on January 6 is the Christmas bird count designed for children ages 7- 12. Have your kids participate in the longest-running citizen science project in history, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. This bird survey is held around the world between the second weekend in December and the third weekend in January every year. This year, we’ll be holding a special CBC 4 Kids event at White Memorial Conservation Center on January 6, 2018 from 10am-approximately 12pm. Meet in the A.B. Ceder Room (lower level of Museum). There will be pizza and hot cocoa afterwards for all the participants. Bring your own binoculars if you have them, but if not, pairs will be provided. Dress for the weather. This event will be run by LHAS Junior Audubon Leader Donna Rose Smith and White Memorial Education Director Carrie Szwed, but additional adult mentors are needed to help the teams of young people out in the field, so parents, please plan on staying. There is no program fee, but donations are welcome to help defray program costs.

If you love the winter white, grey, blue colors of winter, take an art workshop with Betsy Rogers-Knox to learn to paint a serene sunset silhouette using a variety of watercolor techniques on January 20 from 2-4:30 pm. All levels welcome in this step-by-step workshop which includes all materials. The cost for this is members: $35.00 Non-members: $60.00, Pre-registration and pre-payment are required. Call 860-567-0857 or register online.

If you have always wanted to walk with llama’s on Jan. 20, you will have your chance! Visit White Memorial to take a one hour walk with a llama on a beautiful trail! The cost is $20 per person with a percentage donated to the White Memorial Conservation Center. Participants should meet at 10:00 A.M.,at the Museum parking lot. Call Debbie from Country Quilt Llama Farm at 860-248-0355 to pre-register or to schedule your very own private llama walk.

To finish off the month, go to a special DEEP Family Ice Fishing Workshop on January 27 from 9:30 am to 3 pm. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Fisheries Division sponsors this program for the seventh consecutive year. Families and individuals age nine and up are welcome to attend this unique event which is part of the DEEP’s CARE (Connecticut Aquatic Resources Education) program. The class is taught by certified volunteer instructors and it’s FUN!!! All fishing tackle and course materials are provided ABSOLUTELY FREE! To learn more log onto the CT DEEP’s website: http://www.ct.gov/dep and type in “CARE”. BRING LUNCH! Classroom (mandatory participation): 9:30 A.M. – 11:30 A.M., Ice Fishing (Conditions permitting): 12:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M., A.B. Ceder Room. Pre-registration is required. Call 860-567-0857. Or register online

For more information and to register for these events click here https://www.whitememorialcc.org

Treasures of the Earth: Mineral Masterpieces from the Robert R. Wiener Collection,” opens at the Bruce Museum, located on One Museum Drive in Greenwich and runs through April 1, 2018.

There will be approximately 100 dazzling specimens on display, ranging from intricately connected cubes of pyrite, to dazzlingly clear crystals of selenite, to fiery red hexagons of vanadinite.

Robert R. Wiener, chairman of MAXX Properties, a fourth-generation, family-owned real estate company based in Harrison, N.Y., has built this comprehensive collection over the past four decades. His collection includes minerals from Madagascar, China, Peru, Australia, Morocco, the United States, and beyond. Many examples of unusual crystal forms, rare combinations of multiple minerals growing together, and eye-catchingly enormous specimens are all featured.

Visit the website for future programming.