(This session was in October 2021, but all four Forgotten Histories lectures can be viewed here on our Youtube page!)

Come join us in October for our ever-popular “Joy of Learning” series! Joy of Learning classes have been offered here for many years, in April and October. They are taught by educators and other experts on a volunteer basis, for adults and for and teens at a high school/college learning level.   Come learn something new and have fun!

Due to the pandemic, they will be held on Zoom this fall.   This program is free, and is sponsored by the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library.

We are offering two classes this October.

The Great Gatsby (limited to 20 participants-register by clicking here)

Mondays, October 4, 18, 25 and November 1, 10-11 AM (doesn’t meet on Columbus Day)

1. Scott Fitzgerald‘s novel, The Great Gatsby, follows Jay Gatsby, a man who orders his life around one desire: to be reunited with Daisy Buchanan, the love he lost five years earlier. Gatsby’s quest leads him from poverty to wealth and to complications he did not perceive. Published in 1925, The Great Gatsbyis a classic piece of American fiction.

Through shared inquiry, participants will explore the ideas, meaning, and themes presented in The Great Gatsby.

Joanne Holcomb, retired English teacher of 35 years and English/language arts department head for 14 years at Falmouth High School, will lead a 4-session discussion on Zoom. She has taught several literature classes for us at Joy of Learning!

Please read the first two chapters before the first session. As it is a literature discussion class, space is fairly limited, so please register early to ensure that you can attend. There will be library copies available at the reference desk to check out. 

Forgotten Histories: The Unknown Stories of Portuguese and Cape Verdean Immigrants and How They Shaped the Cape (register by clicking here)

Tuesdays, October 5, 12, 19 and 26, 10-11 AM

This course uses recent research uncovering unknown histories of Portuguese and Cape Verdean immigration to Falmouth and Cape Cod. Classes will focus on immigrants and settlement of the town and Cape in four key historical periods (early mid 1800s; the Industrial Agricultural period 1870-1930; WW II and its aftermath; and the 1960s-1980s). Key themes to be explored the whys and where’s of migration, and stories of conflict and cooperation in the town between Yankee and Portuguese and among different groups of Portuguese speaking settlers. The class will dispel some of the myths of about Falmouth’s Portuguese-speaking communities and offers a chance to understand how this migration fit into broader regional, US and world history. 

Miguel Moniz (PhD Anthropology, Brown University) is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Research in Anthropology at ISCTE/Institúto Universitário de Lisboa in Portugal, and has been the Michael Teague Visiting Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University and the Hélio and Amelia Pedroso Visiting Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His work and publications have focused on Portuguese-speaking migration to North America; and have been supported by fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the European Research Council (ERC), Portugal’s National Science Foundation (FCT), the Luso American Foundation, and the US National Endowment for the Humanities. He is a Falmouth native and a graduate of Falmouth High School. 

Lew White is a fourth-generation Azorean-American descended from strawberry farmers and founding families of the Fresh Pond Holy Ghost Society. He graduated from Falmouth public schools and Northeastern University in Boston. Now a retired technologist, small businessman, and educator,  he is researching the history of the Portuguese in Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties.  He lectures locally, has authored two books (including Sopas – a brief history of Portuguese islanders, the cape Cod town of Falmouth, and the Feast of the Holy Ghost), and an article in Spritsail Magazine.