Archives : Events

This is a special moment when the community gathers together to talk about everything and anything (…in English of course!) and sips coffee and tea. Coffee House is free and open to all library members. Just drop in, no need to reserve! Coffee house is every Friday except during school holidays.

During the entire month of December that library will be selling crafts donated by volunteers and friends. Come and support this fundraiser while finding some great little original gifts for friends and relatives!

,

Each year the local independent cinema in Angers, the « 4OO coups », organise a week of films in English catered for different age groups and fashioned for classes. For 2016 there is a great line-up of films! Take a look at the program by clicking here and book in those dates!

The next film club event will be « Opening Night » by John Cassavetes. 

John Cassavetes’ “Opening Night” tells the story of an alcoholic actress going through the final agony of bottoming out, while surrounded by people whose lives she is making impossible, and who are not nearly as angry with her as they should be. Gena Rowlands plays the role at perfect pitch: She is able to suggest, even in the midst of seemingly ordinary moments, the controlled panic of a person who needs a drink, right here, right now. The story, which takes place in the final days of the out-of-town tryout of a new play, stars Rowlands as Myrtle Gordon, a famous actress idolized by her fans. Ben Gazzara plays the director, who doggedly tries to keep the doomed production on track, Joan Blondell is the playwright, and Cassavetes himself plays the leading man. Everyone in the cast and on the production staff knows that Myrtle is a drunk, but to one degree or another they all go along with her fantasy, which is that she drinks because she is terrified of aging, and since the play is about an aging woman, the pain is simply too much for her to bear. Alcoholics can always tell you about the problems they’re drinking over, but they can never quite see how the boozing and the problems might be related.

Screening begins at 15:00 sharp. This activity is free of charge for all library members. Please reserve by signing up at the front desk in advance. A discussion in English will follow the film.

Treat yourself to an afternoon of a collective reading of Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry the Fourth. The activity consists of watching a BBC production on DVD and then reading relative scenes. This is a great activity for lovers of language and fans of the great wit. The activity is free for library members. Please sign up at the front desk.

Like to craft? So do we! So let’s do it together and do it at the library!

This is the latest of the many different fundraising ideas that makes our hearts beat! Get crafty, enjoy time with others AND support the library!

The library will be scheduling two full mornings for crafting as a group. If you have ideas, come with your « pattern » and supplies and our little Santa’s helpers will help cut and paste and knit and design…all so much fun! Anything goes as long as it is handmade and sellable in the crafts fair! Think Christmas cards, ornaments, table setting decorations, etc…

The dates are Friday, November 25th from 10-12 am and December 2nd at the same time. The library will be offering our bottomless mugs of tea and coffee for all crafters! All crafts will be put on sale as a fundraiser for the library during the month of December. If you would like more information, contact Phoebe by sending an email.

This is a special moment when the community gathers together to talk about everything and anything (…in English of course!) and sips coffee and tea. Coffee House is free and open to all library members. Just drop in, no need to reserve! Coffee house is every Friday except during school holidays.

Stop by the library during the hours open to the public for Michel Durigneux’s  exhibit of black and white photos taken in the USA.

Michel Durigneux, humaniste au plus consubstantiel de lui-même, aime les gens, il les regarde, s’y intéresse et s’y arrête. Qui a eu le bonheur de voir ses portraits d’écrivains peut mesurer l’exemplaire bienveillance qu’il manifeste à l’égard de ses semblables. Pour ma part, je connais peu de photographes capables, comme lui, de faire surgir, sur un visage, les caractéristiques profondes d’une personnalité, la plus intériorisée soit-elle. Aussi, Michel Durigneux n’est-il pas un artiste de paysage (comme sont certains peintres et certains poètes) : dans ses images, le paysage – ou le décor – n’est pas le sujet ; son sujet, c’est la vie, et la vie, ce sont les gens – les individus. Pourtant, le paysage new-yorkais, presque omniprésent dans les photos de ce livre, est immédiatement compréhensible, en tant que contexte, même si une profondeur de champ réduite le met parfois à distance dans le flou. Ici, le paysage replace chaque instant de vie dans le lieu de son aventure et, partant, l’explique.

L’objectivité n’existant pas en photographie, ni dans aucune discipline artistique (et que dire du journalisme ?…), que cherche le chasseur d’images ? Que cherche Michel Durigneux dans un corps, un visage ? Assurément, Michel Durigneux cherche la qualité, au contraire du défaut, la qualité qui définira, révélera, le plus justement, et à l’instant de leur rencontre, le sujet auquel il s’intéresse. Aussi empathique que sa nature et son regard sur ses frères humains, sa démarche vise à saisir le meilleur de l’être, et le plus vrai, qui est souvent le plus intime, parfois le plus caché.

Bernard Bretonnière, juin 2016

The Saturday Reading Group is for anyone who loves to read, socialize in English, and meet new people. Come join us on November 19th at 3pm at the library. If you are interested in knowing the line-up of great reading for 2016-2017 click here.

The November selection is the book and film « Angela’s Ashes » by Frank McCourt.

When and where: Meetings will be held in the library once a month on Saturday afternoons starting at 3:00. Cost: FREE to all members of the library. To join: please contact Anne Kaar at bookgroup@ellia.org

The November read for the bookclub is « The Grass is Singing » by Doris Lessing. Set in Southern Rhodesia under white rule, Doris Lessing’s first novel is at once a riveting chronicle of human disintegration, a beautifully understated social critique, and a brilliant depiction of the quiet horror of one woman’s struggle against a ruthless fate. Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm works its slow poison. Mary’s despair progresses until the fateful arrival of Moses, an enigmatic, virile black servant. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses master and slave are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion, until their psychic tension explodes with devastating consequences.

For any enquiries about joining the bookclub please send an email by clicking here.