SHELBURNE FALLS — The Arms Library and Boswell’s Books are holding a reading of “Helen in Trouble” with author Wendy Sibbison on Friday, June 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the library.
According to Sibbison’s website, “Wendy wrote ‘Helen in Trouble’ to show what it was like in 1963 to be a particular 16-year-old girl trapped in a pregnant body, with no safe or legal way out. Even after Roe v. Wade became the law of the land in 1973, an enraging number of women of all ages, colors and income groups remained trapped like Helen.”
Sibbison grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C., where “Helen in Trouble” takes place. It is her first novel.
Copies of the book will be available for sale after the reading. Advance registration is appreciated and attendees are asked to wear masks.
For more information about the event, contact armslibrary@gmail.com or 413-625-0306. For more information on “Helen in Trouble,” visit helenintrouble.com.
COLRAIN — Prentice Crosier will give a presentation on artist Almira Edson (1803-1886) on Thursday, June 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Stacy Barn behind the Pitt House. The presentation will follow the Historical Society’s 7 p.m. business meeting. It is free and open to the public.
Edson was a stepdaughter of Edward Adams of the village of Adamsville in Colrain, according to a notice from Belden Merims of the Historical Society. Edson developed a style of family registers combining calligraphy and watercolor that is sought after by collectors of folk art today. After years of teaching at Halifax Academy, she joined a utopian community in Vermont that combined spiritual purity and “complex marriage,” only to find herself in conflict with the movement’s leaders.