The Associates of the Boston Public Library is pleased to invite you to the 29th Annual Literary Lights awards dinner.

Join the BPL on Sunday, April 23, 2017, at the Boston Park Plaza for a spectacular black tie (optional) evening honoring distinguished authors from the Northeast for their contributions to literature and the written word. The evening begins with a reception at 6:00 PM, followed by dinner and the awards program at 7:00 PM.

The Associates of the Boston Public Library are honored to recognize the following authors as their 2017 Literary Lights:

Kwame Anthony Appiah 

Presented by: Hentry Louis Gates, Jr.

Appiah is a philosopher, novelist, professor and cultural theorist.  He grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Cambridge University in London. Professor Appiah has lectured around the world and taught at Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke and Harvard Universities before moving to New York University where he now teaches in the Department of Philosophy. In 2009 Forbes Magazine named him one of the world’s most powerful thinkers, in 2010 he was on the list of Foreign Policy Magazine’s top global thinkers, and he was awarded the National Humanitarian Medal at a White House ceremony in 2012. Appiah, the author of numerous books and articles, has traveled around the world giving lectures on multiculturalism, global citizenship, courage, identity, and religion. One of his early books, In My Father’s House, which explores the role of African American intellectuals in shaping contemporary African life, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Herskovits Award for the most important scholarly work on African studies published in English. Appiah is well known for his columns and podcasts as the Ethicist for the New York Times.

Susan Faludi

Presented by: Christopher Lydon

Faludi is a journalist and author who has written extensively on gender issues. In 1991 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism for a piece on the leverage buyout of Safeway Stores, focusing on the “human cost of high finance.”  After graduating from Harvard University, where she wrote for The Harvard Crimson, she was a contributor to the New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, as well as many other publications. In the 1980s Faludi wrote several pieces on the feminist movement and the resistance to it, resulting in her 1991 book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, for which she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.  She went on to write Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, The Terror Dream, and, most recently, The Darkroom, which was inspired by her father’s transsexuality. She was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies in the 2008-2009 academic year and a 2013-2014 Tallman Scholar in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Bowdoin College.

Wally Lamb

Presented by: Andre Dubus III

Lamb is the best-selling author of She’s Come Undone, I know This Much is True, The Hour I First Believed, and Wishin’ and Hopin’. His first two books were selected for Oprah’s Book Club, were New York Times best-sellers, New York Times Notable Books of the Year and, between them, have been translated into 18 languages. His latest novel is We Are Water.  Lamb has also edited two volumes of essays: Couldn’t Keep it to Myself and I’ll Fly Away, written by students in his writing workshops at a women’s prison in Connecticut. He has taught creative writing in the English department at the University of Connecticut, was founder and director of the Writing Center at Norwich Free Academy, has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Connecticut Commission for the Arts, and was honored with the Connecticut Center for the Book’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brian Selznick

Presented by: Gregory Maguire

Selznick graduated from RISD where he studied illustration and, while there, took classes in set design at Brown University. After graduation, he worked at a children’s book store in New York City while writing his debut book, The Houdini Box. In 2008 he won the Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association, for The Invention of Hugo Cabret, the first such award for a book this long; 533 pages with 284 illustrations. The book was adapted into a 2011 film, Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. He has also been awarded a 2002 Caldecott Honor for his illustrations of Barbara Kerley’s The Dinosaurs of Waterhorse Hawkins.  In addition, Mr. Selznick has received the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Rhode Island Children’s Book Award and the Christopher Award, given to media which “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.”

Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall (Keynote Speaker)

Presented by: David Leonard

Marshall was born in South Africa where, as a student, she led the National Union of South African Students, working to end oppressive minority rule and achieve equality for all South Africans.  Marshall first came to the US as a high school exchange student in Wilmington, DL in 1962, as the civil rights battles were beginning to boil over, and later returned to the US for graduate school, where she became involved with the anti-war and the women’s movements. After Yale Law School, she entered private practice, became President of the Boston Bar Association, Vice President & General Counsel for Harvard University, and then went on to the State’s Supreme Court, where she became the first female Chief Justice of the oldest continuously serving appellate court in the Western Hemisphere. Though she has had many accomplishments, Justice Marshall is most renowned for her 2003 opinion which led Massachusetts to become the first state in the nation to outlaw the ban on same-sex marriage. Although she loved her time on the bench, Justice Marshall stepped down in 2010. She now mentors young lawyers at her former law firm, Choate Hall & Stewart, and teaches at Harvard University.

In addition to celebrating the accomplishments of these outstanding writers, proceeds from Literary Lights support the David McCullough Conservation Fund, William O. Taylor Art Preservation Fund, Associates Endowment Fund, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s operations. The Associates created the McCullough Fund in 2001 to provide a consistent source of funding for the conservation and preservation of books, manuscripts, works of art and historic documents in the BPL’s Special Collections.

If you would prefer to receive a mailed invitation or for more information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact the Associates office at associates@bpl.org or (617) 536-3886. Thank you.

Celebrate the Holidays With Gingerbread Houses For Grown-Ups at Fairmont Copley Plaza!

During the holiday season, everyone is a kid at heart, and this year Fairmont Copley Plaza is letting adults in on some traditional holiday fun! With the assistance of the hotel’s culinary team, grown-up guests can toast the season with festive libations while decorating their own gingerbread house to take home for the holidays.

Tickets for the event are $75 per person, which includes an assembled gingerbread house, all candy decorations and accoutrements, assistance from the culinary team, wine, beer, festive holiday cocktails and canapés. Make it a date night for $125 per couple, which includes one gingerbread house to decorate and share.

Fairmont Copley Plaza will host a birthday party for its canine ambassador, Carly Copley, on Sunday, December 10, 2017 at 1pm. Hosting Carly’s 7th birthday will be Vanessa Welch, Anchor for Boston 25 News, who will be reading “Catie Copley” to guests. The reading will be followed by birthday cake (for humans) and special snacks for Carly’s canine friends. This beloved Boston holiday tradition is free and open to the public.

In lieu of gifts for the hotel’s pampered pooch, Fairmont Copley Plaza invites guests to bring a donation of towels, blankets or toys for the dogs and cats at the Animal Rescue League’s Boston Shelter.

Free Hot Chocolate on National Cocoa Day

Wednesday, Dec. 13 is National Cocoa Day and Fairmont Copley Plaza will celebrate with its Back Bay neighbor, L.A. Burdick Chocolates by serving complimentary Burdick hot chocolate from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at the hotel’s Dartmouth Street entrance. The artisan chocolatier, famous for its European-inspired chocolate bonbons, hot chocolates and pastries, will have warm cups of its Dark Drinking Chocolate (robust & full-bodied) and Milk Drinking Chocolate (gentler yet still decadent & luscious) to brighten the morning for passersby, while supplies last. L.A. Burdick’s hot cocoa – named one of the “11 must-try hot chocolates around the U.S”. by Zagat – will be served snow or shine to mark this fun food holiday and spread holiday cheer to the neighborhood. It will certainly be a welcome surprise after Boston’s first snowfall this past weekend!

Fairmont Copley Plaza will toast the holiday season with a lavish four-course Holiday Bacchanal dinner featuring a special menu from Executive Chef Laurent Poulain — North Country bacon wrapped local monkfish, winter pickled vegetable salad with candied Marcona almonds and 50-year-old sherry, coffee braised all natural beef short ribs, and warm milk chocolate & coconut brioche bread pudding will be served. American Idol finalist (Season 13) Sam Woolf will provide live entertainment.

Join us on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. as we transform the hotel’s dramatic 105 year-old lobby into an elegant ambiance suited for contemporary times with guests dining at tables running the length of the space

Cocktail attire is suggested.

Celebrate Earth Day at OAK Long Bar + Kitchen

OAK Long Bar + Kitchen is celebrating Earth Day on Sunday, April 22 by turning off its lights from 5 p.m. through closing to conserve energy. More than a hundred candles will be placed throughout the dining room to illuminate the space for an unforgettable “Earth, Wine & Fire” candlelit dinner experience in one of Boston’s most beautiful restaurants.

A special à la carte menu by Executive Chef Graham Lockwood will feature sustainably sourced courses and replace the regular dinner menu for the evening. Each dish will highlight ingredients from New England farms and purveyors (see select farms noted below), and the menu’s wine pairings will spotlight New York State and Oregon wines that are produced and grown with sustainable and biodynamic farming practices. A three-course wine pairing will be offered for $30, or these wines can be ordered by the glass for $13-$18 depending on the selection. Those dining between 5-7 p.m.will receive a complimentary taste of rosé upon arrival. The regular bar menu will also be available.

Sunday’s customers will be some of the first to enjoy OAK as a non-plastic straw establishment. The restaurant is permanently ditching plastic straws starting this Friday, April 20. OAK has already been mindful to create cocktails that don’t require a straw, but for those that do and all other straw requests, Hay! Straws will be used moving forward, which are made from natural wheat stems and are 100% biodegradable. The special “Earth, Wine & Fire” dinner menu will be printed on plantable seed paper, and no single-use item (like cocktail napkins) will be offered to tables.

MENU

APPETIZER
Pea & Carrot, pea and ricotta dumplings, charcoal roasted carrots and pistachio – $14
Soter “Planet Oregon” Chardonnay

*   Carrots sourced from Ripley Farm, Dover-Foxcroft, ME

South Bay Blondes, egg yolk jam, pickled daikon, radish greens – $18
Brooklyn Oenology “Social Club White”

*   Oysters sourced from Onset, Cape Cod, MA

Pate en Croute, pickled vegetables, cranberry gastrique – $15
Forge “Classique” Riesling

*   Pork sourced from Alderbrook Farm, South Dartmouth, MA

ENTRÉE
Pan Roasted Monkfish, local bacon, Russian banana potatoes, pickled ramps – $29
Brooklyn Oenology “Broken Land”

*   Monkfish sourced from Georges Bank off the coast of MA

*   Potatoes sourced from Green Sunshine Farm, Hodgdon, ME

Braised Short Rib, cassoulet, haikuri turnips, radish – $32
Brooklyn Oenology Merlot

*   Beef sourced from Pineland Farms, New Gloucester, ME

Chicken Ballotine, wheat berries, spring dug parsnip, cipollini jus – $28
Forge “Classique” Pinot Noir

*   Parsnips sourced from Fish Boot Farms, Bowdoinham, ME
*   Wheat berries sourced from Maine Grains, Skowhegan, ME

DESSERT
Crème Brûlée, duck eggs, maple sugar, almond  – $10
Pacific Rim Riesling Vin De Glaciere

*   Maple sourced from Highland Sugarworks, Barre, VT

*   Cream sourced from Maple Line Dairy, Hadley, MA

Reservations are encouraged for this “lit” dinner and can be made here or by calling 617-585-7222.

The Hottest Standup Comedy Showcase Comes to Cafeteria on Newbury

The last Wednesday of every month at Cafeteria features an unforgettable experience combining the most talented local and national comedians, including previous winners of the Boston Comedy Festival, acts that have been on Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Late Night with Steven Colbert, Comedy Central, Sirius XM and more.

Not only is this show completely free – you can enjoy free drink samples from our sponsors* (that’s right – free alcohol!), $5 burgers, and a custom drink menu full of cocktails available exclusively during the show – if it seems too good to be true, Cafeteria invites you to come see for yourself

Doors open at 7pm, the show begins at 8pm – previous shows have packed to capacity, so while this event is not ticketed, we do recommend arriving early to reserve a seat.

The historic Swan Boats kick off another season in the Public Garden.

On April 13, the Swan Boats officially open for the 2019 Season, bringing joy to families from near and far until Labor Day, September 2.

Spring hours (April 13 – June 20) are 10 am to 4:00 pm.  Summer hours (June 21 – Labor Day) are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The Swan Boats are open every day, weather permitting. We cannot operate in rain, high winds or extreme heat.

Purchasing Tickets
The Swan Boat ride lasts about 12-15 minutes while the driver pedals you around the Public Garden lagoon. Tickets are purchased at the Swan Boat dock prior to boarding the boat. No reservations are needed. We accept cash or credit card. The wait for a ride is typically no more than 5-10 minutes.

Adults $4.00

Children $2.50 (age 2 to 15 years)
Under 2 yrs. Free

Seniors $3.50