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• Happy Needlers & Hookers: A Needlework Shared Interest Group

  • Start
    Monday, January 06, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Monday, November 17, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    22 sessions
  • Location
    Lenox, MA

  
  

  Happy Needlers & Hookers:
  A Needlework Shared Interest Group

  Shared Interest Groups are free and exclusively for current OLLI at BCC members.

  The Happy Needlers & Hookers Needlework Group is a Shared Interest Group for people that like to knit, needlepoint, cross-stitch, crochet or enjoy any other needle-based craft.

  You can work on any project you wish. The camaraderie and time we spend together is what we find so enjoyable!
  

  All levels are welcome, from beginner to advanced. Meets in-person in Lenox.

  Please contact Sharon Walker for information on days and times and to join the group.

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• Creative Nonfiction Writing SIG

  • Start
    Tuesday, January 14, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Tuesday, November 11, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    11 sessions
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  Creative Nonfiction Writing

  

  Shared Interest Group
  

  Meets the second Tuesday of the month at 

  9:30 a.m. Eastern

  Free and open exclusively to OLLI at BCC members

  Do you love to write and want to have a writers’ group to share and critique your work? If you do, consider joining our Creative Nonfiction SIG which meets monthly via Zoom. The format of our meetings will be flexible but will focus on each member sharing their work and receiving mindful critique from other group members.  At each meeting we will pick a leader for the next meeting. That leader will assign a prompt for the next meeting’s writings or writers may choose their own subject.

  What is creative nonfiction? It can be essay, memoir, personal narrative, travel writing, food writing, chronicle, fact-based essays, or biography. The commonality is that the writer uses literary techniques to tell the facts allowing the reader to understand the situations described in a fuller, more emotional way. As one writer — Melanie McGrath, whose book Silvertown, an account of her grandmother's life, describes her writing — the known facts of her stories are "the canvas on to which I have embroidered. Some of the facts have slipped through the holes—we no longer know them nor have any means of verifying them—and in these cases I have reimagined scenes or reconstructed events in a way I believe reflects the essence of the scene or the event in the minds and hearts of the people who lived through it. ... To my mind this literary tinkering does not alter the more profound truth of the story.”

  For more information, please contact Lana Bennett. 

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• Contemporary Gender Roles SIG

  • Start
    Wednesday, January 15, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Wednesday, November 19, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    11 sessions
  • Location
    Online via Zoom

  Register

  
  

  This OLLI Contemporary Gender Roles Shared Interest Group was started by Deborah Caine to study and explore cultural changes in the roles of men and women in the family and in the workplace and the multiple changes in gender presentation and identity exemplified in the growth of the LGBTQ+ communities; changes not always easily understood by many.

  
  The group has grown over the last several years from three members to two dozen women and men who enjoy the lively monthly discussions on topics of urgent and current interest.

  
  Members volunteer to lead a discussion on a topic of their choice and/or invite an outside speaker and circulate articles from major newspapers, magazines and journals that are relevant to group interests.  

  
  The Contemporary Gender Roles group sponsored an OLLI course on the Equal Rights Amendment in 2018 which was well attended.

  
  We meet on Zoom at 2 pm on the third Wednesday of the month. 

  
  Check out the Contemporary Gender Roles SIG Padlet, for articles, videos, and pictures here!

  
  For more information about this SIG, please contact Ellen Croibier.
  

  
  

  Topics for 2024 Contemporary Gender Roles SIG

  Helen Hailes: “Gaslighting in Intimate Partner Violence” on January 17

  Leyn Burrows on self-defense for women vs. men on February 21

  Michael Wilcox: Topic TBD on March 20

  Berkshire Pride and the Elizabeth Freeman Center on April 17

  Chris Canning Wilson on the role of women in the Middle East on May 15

  Mal Wasserman with book review: Undaunted and/or The Exceptions on June 19

  Farrah Cukor, literary rep at United Talent Agency on July 17

  Linda Baxter will give a talk on midwifery on August 21

  Mary Hunt, PhD on feminist theology on September 18

  Chief Deanna Strout on women in criminal justice on October 16

  Farah Cherif D’Ouezzan on women in Morocco on November 20

  December 18 TBD

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• Gotta Reads: New York Times Best Seller Book Club

  • Start
    Thursday, January 16, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Thursday, November 20, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    11 sessions
  • Location
    Online via Zoom

  
  

  The Gotta Reads - NYT Best Sellers Book Club reads books from the NYT Best Seller List of the last couple of years. We look for books that are "discussion-worthy" and thought provoking.

  This group meets on the third Thursday of each month at 4pm.

  Please click here to contact group leader Sheila McKenna for additional information & to join the email list.

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• Foreign Language Films Shared Interest Group

  • Start
    Tuesday, January 21, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Tuesday, April 15, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    4 sessions
  • Location
    Online

  Register

  OLLI at BCC annual members are invited to join OLLI's

  Foreign Language Films

  Shared Interest Group

  Free and open exclusively to OLLI at BCC members

  We will meet on Zoom at 5 p.m. Eastern

  Upcoming Films:

  • September 17 - The Motorcycle Diaries
  • October 15 - Amélie
  • November 19 - Roma
  • December 17 - King of Hearts
  • January 21 - Minari - Korean 
  • February 18 - The Four Daughters - Tunisian, with special host facilitator - Richard Eason
  • March 18 - Pan's Labyrinth - Spanish
  • April 15 - Purple Moon - French
  • May 20 - Bicycle Thieves - Italian
  • June 17 - TBD from suggestion list

  Discussion on Zoom, watch the movie on your own device.
  

  Welcome to the Foreign Language Film SIG. 

  • The group will meet at 5:00 on the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
  • Karen Curlee, our group leader, will post notes and video comments to the Foreign Language Film SIG Padlet the Tuesday before we meet on Zoom.
  • Members will watch the film on their own time... we only gather to discuss what we watched. 

  Movies can be borrowed from your local library or streamed online.

  Pre-registration is required. Register online or call 413.236.2190 (M-F 9 a.m.-4 p.m.) to register by phone.
  

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• Climate Change Shared Interest Group

  • Start
    Wednesday, January 22, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Wednesday, December 24, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    12 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom

  Register

  

  OLLI at BCC members are invited to join OLLI's

  Climate Change 

  Shared Interest Group 

  Free and open exclusively to OLLI at BCC members

  This OLLI Shared Interest Group (SIG) will study the effects on the Planet Earth caused by fossil fuel emissions by following the science and media news daily. The horrific effects of climate change are now apparent every day and affect all humanity wherever we live. Just watch the daily news in any media. The effects on State and Federal budgets of hurricanes, floods, and extreme heat are now becoming clear to everyone.

  The SIG will utilize the work of national organizations such as Third Act (founded recently by Bill McKibben, the famous environmentalist) and Elders Climate Action (among others). Both of these organizations have monthly newsletters and free webinars.

  As activists the OLLI Climate Change SIG will write letters and postcards to the media and politicians - all who have power to effect changes in National and international behavior. 

  The group will meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month and share information about all local and national efforts to fight the global warming caused by the fossil fuel industry. It will also share information, by e-mail, gleaned from other environmental organizations in Massachusetts and nationally. 

  Please contact Deborah Caine for more information about this SIG.
  

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• Murder, Mystery & Mayhem: A Book Group

  • Start
    Monday, January 27, 2025
  •  
  • End
    Monday, December 22, 2025
  •  
  • Schedule
    12 sessions
  • Location
    Online via Zoom

  
  

  OLLI at BCC members are invited to join OLLI's Shared Interest Group

  Murder, Mystery & Mayhem: A Book Group

  for an online discussion 

  The Fourth Monday of Every Month

  from 1:30 to 3:00 pm Eastern

  Free and open to all OLLI at BCC members 

  OLLI's Murder, Mystery & Mayhem: A Book Group meets once a month, typically on the 4^th Monday at 1:30 pm. Everyone is welcome. We typically meet for no more than 1.5 hours. Historically, the meetings were at someone’s house. Since the pandemic, however, the gatherings have been Zoom-based.
  

  Books are selected one year in advance… and are not your typically hot present-day offerings. At the meetings, we discuss the chosen book, of course, but often we talk about other books we are reading, movies we have seen, serials we’ve watched/are watching on TV, etc.

  Please contact Bruce Cohen for additional information and to receive the Zoom link. 

  Murder, Mystery & Mayhem Book List 2024

  January           Mystic River                                             Dennis Lehane

  February         Ordinary Grace                                       William Kent Krueger

  March              Shutter Island                                          Dennis Lehane

  April                 Slow Horses                                             Mick Herron

  May                  Smiler with a Knife                                Nicolas Blake

  June                 The Dry                                                     Jane Harper

  July                  The Killer Inside Me                              Jim Thompson

  August             The Last Days of Ptolomy Gray         Walter Mosley

  September      The Long Call                                          Ann Cleeves

  October           The Plot                                                    Jean Hanff Korelitz

  November      The Talented Mr. Ripley                       Patricia Highsmith

  December      When Justice Sleeps                               Stacey Abrams

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