Spy Rings to ‘Hampturbia’
The Tom Twomey Series of programs will begin on Saturday at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. Named for the late chairman of the library’s board of trustees, who died in November 2014, the series, now in its second year, will explore topics including the environment, politics, medicine, and local history, but will also feature a lighter subject, the harmonica.
“They’re really solid programs,” said Dennis Fabiszak, the library’s director, who will host Saturday’s program, “Colonial Commerce.” “We tried to have a whole range of things to interest different people.”
“Colonial Commerce” will explore a transcription project involving the Culper Spy Ring, organized by order of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Many documents in the project are housed in the library’s Long Island Collection.
Other programs include “The Pond Scourge,” with Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, who has sampled waterways on behalf of the East Hampton Town Trustees in recent years, on May 7; “Campaign Theatrics 2016,” with Patrick Healy of The New York Times, on June 4; “Hampturbia in the Age of Escalade Entitlement,” with Preston Phillips, an architect, on July 21, and “Lessons From Katrina: Preparing for the Next Big One Here,” featuring East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell and Scott Cowen of Tulane University, on Aug. 25.
Of “The Pond Scourge,” Mr. Fabiszak said, “Originally we didn’t think that would get that much interest, but there’s a lot of talk about what to do with Town Pond and Georgica Pond. There has been some great research in how to deal with that, and I hope local officials come and listen to what’s being done. It’s a great launching point for a bigger public discussion on how we’re gong to fix things.”
Live music will be performed on May 21 with “Harps, Harmonicas, and Heavy Breathers: A History of the People’s Instrument,” featuring Kim Field and Randy Weinstein. “They’re great performers,” Mr. Fabiszak said. “We’re excited about that. The musical performance we had last year had one of the best attendances.”
The nine programs, which are free, will take place in the Baldwin Family Lecture Room and include a question-and-answer session after the presentation. Reservations have been requested and can be made at TomTwomeySeries.org, at the library’s adult reference desk, by calling the library, or by sending an email to [email protected].
Programs held on a Saturday will start at 5 p.m., and those held on a Thursday will start at 6. With the exception of the musical performance, each program will be filmed by LTV and available for streaming at TomTwomeySeries.org.
“We felt this series was significant enough that it should have its own website,” Mr. Fabiszak said, “for registration and for archiving what goes on.”