11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Courses

  • Bright Moments of Jazz & Rock

    This course celebrates the great bands and stars of pop, rock and jazz. We will listen to recordings, watch videos and talk about a wide variety of musicians and bands. Social, historical and musical context will be provided. Examples of the artists included are Aretha Franklin, Michael McDonald, Elvis, James Brown, Fats Domino, the Temptations, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and B.B. King. We will listen, watch and discuss the greats. You will expand your jazz and rock music appreciation and have fun doing it. Come and share your bright moments.

    Teacher: Tom Doran is a bassist/vocalist who plays soul, funk, blues, jazz and rock. In retirement he loves to play music and make abstract art. He loves to talk about music, so if you do too, please join!

  • Stories Of Conflict As Seen Through A Narrator's Lens, Part XVII

    We will discuss how narrators' perspectives affect our appreciation of works including selected sonnets by Shakespeare. Our emphasis will be on Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

    Teacher: Helen F. Smith has taught at the Winsor School, Newton North and in Armenia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Georgia, Romania and Zambia. A Smith College graduate, she edits texts about writing and journalism. She is the president of the New England Scholastic Press Association.

  • The 1619 Project

    Minimum Enrollment: 20 This course will be a discussion course. One idea behind it is that we all should know more than we do and be able to discuss without fear. We shall read and talk about Born on the Water and The 1619 Project, a New Origin Story. We shall also read Africa Is My Home by Edinger & Byrd as well as “The Case for Reparations ” by Ta-Nehesi Coates (available online). These books bring information to us that is not necessarily new in time but new in our consciousness. Born on The Water is a children's book addressed to all ages (as many children's books are) about how some black people got to the United States; Africa Is My Home has a similar theme. The 1619 Project is a series of essays written by recognized experts in their fields explaining the current circumstances of many black people today. Coates's article has become a paradigm of reporting.

    Please read Born on the Water, Africa Is My Home and the prologue and chapter 1 of The 1619 Project for the first session. This will be a discussion course with full participation, and reading will average 50 pages per week.

    Teacher: Brooks Goddard taught three years of secondary school English in independent Kenya in the 1960s before earning his MA at Teachers College and starting his 30-year career at Wellesley High School. There he was heavily involved with the METCO and ABC programs. In his adult education avatar he has taught several courses in African history and African literature. His son and son's family are inspirations for this course.

  • Writing Your Story: (Memoir, NOT autobiography)

    Maximum Enrollment: 20 If you enjoy writing and sharing stories of your life with a community of writers that will give you constructive feedback, this class may be for you. If you are writing a memoir or simply want to share your stories with your children and grandchildren, most writers find being part of the group inspires them to write more regularly. The best way to learn about memoir writing is to listen to other writers' stories. Everything shared is confidential. Writing is done at home and shared in class. For those who can stay, the class extends to 1 p.m.

    Leader: Sue Edgecomb, retired from teaching for 35 years in the Wellesley schools, has participated in Amherst Writers and Artists workshops for 12 years. Her memoir, Clearing in the West: Navigating the Journey Through Loss, Grief and Healing, was published in July 2021.