~~~ Upcoming Events ~~~

Summer Film Series

Our series kicks off at 7 P.M. on Friday, August 8th, with BIG NIGHT, the first of six very different movies with a common theme; the starring role of food in the lives of their protagonists. Naturally, we’ll also be serving refreshments! Food and family, food and passion, food and culture; join us on this filmic ‘cook’s tour’ of the world as seen at table.

August 22nd  ~ MONSOON WEDDING, director Mira Nair’s spicy extravaganza, plays out during the preparations for an arranged marriage, highlighting different aspects of love and crossing boundaries of class and continent.

September 5th  ~ MOSTLY MARTHA, German director Sandra Nettelbeck whips up a tragicomic tale about an uptight professional chef whose world turns upside down when she takes in her newly orphaned niece.

September 12th  ~ Sweden’s charming, witty KITCHEN STORIES is about the oddball relationship between a social scientist and his subject, an elderly farmer whose eating habits he’s been sent to study.

September 19th  ~  We’ll screen the Chinese family drama/comedy that boasts some of the most gorgeous food ever filmed, EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN, in which widower and master chef Chu discovers that no matter how well he runs his kitchen, he’s got no control over his beautiful, libidinous daughters.

All films will begin at 7 P.M., and admission is free. For reservations, please call 767-1560. We’ll save you a plate!

Special Family Event

        "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." ~~ Randy Pausch ~~~~-Randy Pausc

            The Essex Library is proud to feature a special showing of Randy Pausch’s phenomenal “The Last Lecture”, on Wednesday, August 27th at 7p.m. Admission is free.

            At Carnegie Mellon University’s "Last Lecture" series, professors are asked to share with the audience what wisdom they’d choose to impart to the world, if they knew it was their last chance. When computer science professor Randy Pausch was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine. He had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

            But the lecture he gave--"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"--wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was about living. Funny, incisive, surprising, “The Last Lecture” has been viewed over six million times on the Internet. It has spawned an international best-seller that’s on the summer reading list for high schools across the country. Its author has been featured on Oprah and in a Diane Sawyer television special. Don’t miss this opportunity to see and discuss “The Last Lecture” with someone who matters to you. Call the Essex Library at 767-1560 for reservations.