Southbury Celebration is a town-wide event featuring food, music, fireworks, and community fellowship. The annual program is co-sponsored by the Town of Southbury and the Southbury Training School and overlooks beautiful Lake Stibbs at the Southbury Training School on Route 172. The community event draws approximately 5,000 people each year. The 2024 Southbury Celebration will take place this September 7^th with a rain date of the 8^th.

Works in watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media focusing on botanical art and landscapes will be shown by Joan Murray Anthony in September at the Woodbury Public Library. An artist’s reception will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14 from 2 to 4 pm at the Library.

An artist for over 30 years, Joan’s current work was inspired at the start of Covid when she spent time at Hollister House Garden in Washington painting in the garden. When many places were closed down, the garden offered a welcome refuge and offered new subjects. Working in plein air, she lightly sketches flower subjects, then freely applies watercolor. As the painting progresses, she adds more detail, lines, and complementary colors.

Learn more about the experiences, challenges, language, culture, and history of the queer community at the Woodbury Public Library on Wednesday, September 4 at 6:00 PM. The program offers a discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, including a discussion on the meaning, importance, and use of orientation labels and gender pronouns. Speakers from Q-Plus will discuss language and symbols and take a look at how queer identity intersects with other aspects of identity and culture. Common myths about queer art and the history of the queer rights movement will be addressed. They will also discuss a brief overview of risk factors, related statistics, and relevant anti-discrimination laws.  Register for this program on the Library’s website www.woodburylibraryct.org

Q Plus started as a grassroots, community based, youth led, volunteer run organization with the goal of filling gaps they saw in queer youth programming across Connecticut. In March of 2022, they received 501(c)3 status from the IRS. Q Plus continues to expand their programming to include weekly youth groups in towns across the state, hosting Open Mics, Summer Camps, and providing school support and GSA services.

In the fall migrating birds start heading south to their wintering grounds. In this program, you’ll learn what birds we will see during migration here in Connecticut, find out more about why birds migrate, how they do so, and what you can do to help birds during their journey. 

Join Allison Middlemass, an environmental educator from Bent of the River Audubon in Southbury, as she shares insight into Connecticut’s migrating birds species at the Woodbury Public Library on Tuesday, September 10 at 6:30 PM.  Register on the Library’s website or call 203-263-3502 for more information.

Ms. Middlemass is a naturalist, environmental educator, and artist. She grew up in nature and a wildlife-loving family who cultivated her passion for wildlife conservation from a young age. She works as the Senior Coordinator of Community Conservation Programs at the Bent of the River Audubon Center in Southbury CT. Her role includes being an educator for the center as well as building partnerships with communities in underserved urban areas like Waterbury.

Join Megan Baldrige as she shares her poetry at the Woodbury Public Library on Saturday, September 14^th at 1:00 PM.  Megan Baldrige is a homegrown Woodbury poet, graduate of Mitchell Elementary School, and daughter of Midge and the late Mac Baldrige, longtime Woodbury residents.  She studied Japanese at Yale, moved to New Mexico in the 1980’s and worked as a teacher (K-12, various grades at various times, and GED class teacher) until retirement 10 years ago. Recently she has written poetry: about politics, pumpkins, the pandemic, weeds in the garden, bad dogs and about the passion of addictive knitting. She will read a motley crew of light-hearted poems from her twelve books.

Author Margaret Anne Mary Moore shares her debut disability memoir Bold, Brave, and Breathless: Reveling in Childhood’s Splendiferous Glories While Facing Disability and Loss at the Woodbury Public Library on Saturday, September 21 at 2:00 PM.

Local author Rob Palmer comes to the Woodbury Public Library on Tuesday, September 24 at 6:30 PM to share his recently published book A Fireman in the Making.  In this first-person fictional account, the author transports the reader back to early 20th century New York City through the eyes of Mickey Farley, an aspiring architect attending college. Mickey instead is drawn to the perilous world of firefighting in a teeming metropolis. In the era of horse-drawn steam fire engines when firefighting was performed with little regard for personal safety, Mickey experiences thrills, dangers, boredom, and intense action as a member of the greatest fire department in the world. Registration is requested; register on the Library’s website www.woodbuylibraryct.org or call 203-263-3502 for more information.

The Way I See It: the Art of Christina Maschke will be on display in the Woodbury Public Library’s Gallery Space October 1 -31, with a reception for the artist scheduled on October 5. 2:00 – 4:00 PM. 

Christina Maschke is a fine artist based in New Milford, CT. She is recognized for her highly detailed colored pencil drawings of landscapes, wildlife, and commissioned pet portraits.
A self-taught artist, Christina refined her skills on her own through determination, and years of practice. 130 pieces of her work have been published in The Litchfield County Times.
In 2021 and 2023 she earned first place awards at The Great Hollow Juried Art Show in New Fairfield, CT.   Christina Maschke is currently an active member of the Sherman Art Association in Sherman CT