2022-2023 Programs

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September 30, 2022 

Cocktail Party at home of Hilary Wodlinger

October 25, 2022

The Emerald Tutu: A New Method to Protect Urban Coastlines from Flooding at the Cambridge Public Library

Co-sponsored by The Cambridge Club, Cambridge Public Library, Mothers Out Front, Biodiversity Builders, Charles River Conservancy, History Cambridge, Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Cambridge Community Foundation and Coston Society of Landscape Architects

The Emerald Tutu is an NSF-funded research project working to design and implement biomass-based coastal protection infrastructure for urban areas. A floating network of interconnected, anchored massive organic growing modules dampens wave energy and reduces flooding, storm damage, and erosion on shore while improving nearshore water quality. These biomass modules are seeded with marsh grass at the surface, and are home to many seaweeds below the waterline, all of which add significant mass and frictional surface area and provide habitat for many types of creatures, human and non-human.

November 30 on Zoom 

Born in Cambridge: 400 Years of Ideas and Innovators

Speakers: Karen Weintraub and Michael Kutcha

Cambridge, Massachusetts is a city of “firsts”: the first college in the English colonies, the first two-way long-distance call, the first legal same-sex marriage. In 1632, Anne Bradstreet, living in what is now Harvard Square, wrote one of the first published poems in British North America, and in 1959, Cambridge-based Carter's Ink marketed the first yellow Hi-liter. W.E.B. Du Bois, Julia Child, Yo-Yo Ma, and Noam Chomsky all lived or worked in Cambridge at various points in their lives. Born in Cambridge tells these stories and many others, chronicling cultural icons, influential ideas, and world-changing innovations that all came from one city of modest size across the Charles River from Boston. Nearly 200 illustrations connect stories to Cambridge locations.

January 18

Via Zoom

Work Force; What a Successful Program to Prepare Students Living in Public Housing for Higher Education and Training Looks Like

Speakers:· Kambiz Maali, Deputy Director of CHA Resident Services Department; Carmen Blyden, Director of the Work Force

Established in 1984, the Cambridge Housing Authority’s (CHA) Work Force Youth Program is a highly successful, comprehensive after-school educational enrichment and work-readiness program for low-income teens who reside in CHA residences.  The program serves students from 6th grade through the first four years of post-secondary education.  This innovative and unique program boasts graduation rates that exceed national averages for students from all income brackets.  Our speaker were: 

February 6, 2023 

Club Passim 

Speakers: Executive Director Jim Wooster and Managing Director Matt Smith
Music: Performances by Rosi and Brian Amador of Sol Y Canto ( solycanto.com)
Time: 6pm drinks & light dinner followed by program at 7pm

Club Passim is regarded as one of the nation’s premier venues for folk, traditional, and acoustic music. As a nonprofit since 1994, Passim carries on the heritage of its predecessors—the historic Club 47 (1958-1968) and for-profit Passim (1969-1994).  Legends such as Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett, and many more cut their teeth at Club 47. Today, the Club provides young artists with a place to develop their craft, to name but a few: Lake Street Dive, Anais Mitchell, Josh Ritter and Lori McKenna. During this unique evening we will share the essence and history of the Club with music and story.

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Introducing the Cambridge Foundry!

At the Foundry: 101 Rogers Street, East Cambridge , 5:45pm-8:15pm 

Presenters: Charles Sullivan, Executive Director, Cambridge Historical Commission; Tom Evans, Executive Director, Cambridge Redevelopment Authority; Diana Navarrete- Rackauckas, Executive Director, the Cambridge Foundry; and Stephanie Couch, Executive Director, Lemelson-MIT Program & Chair of the Foundry Consortium Board 

The Foundry - a newly renovated historic buildin -  offers four makerspaces, a multi-use performance space, dance studio, demonstration kitchen, artist work-spaces, and offices. This community center offers opportunities for new forms of civic engagement. Programming possibilities include, but are not limited to, the visual and performing arts, yoga and dance, community events, and workforce education. 

April 11, 2023

The New  MIT  Museum

May 9, 2023

Speaker: Yi-An Huang, Cambridge City Manager