By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Senegalese dancer Abdou Sarr cavorted all the way to the NFPL on Tuesday. A special library guest, Sarr carried traditional drums with him to give Needham a crash course on “sabar” a term...
High School Quiz Show, GBH’s televised academic tournament for Massachusetts high schools, has revealed the 17 teams that will compete for the Season 14 State Championship title — and a squad from Needham High School is among the challengers. The Rockets will face off against Brookline on February 25; a victory will set...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
January 30th is National Yodeling Day. To celebrate, seniors at the Center for the Heights warmed up their voices and prepared for a concert and yodeling lesson with professional yodeler, dancer and instructor, Andy Taylor-Blenis.
Traditionally from a dance background, Taylor-Blenis found...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Needham’s Center at the Heights celebrated an extra-special birthday on Tuesday, January 31.
The first of February marked Needham resident Elizabeth “Betty” Leary’s 97th birthday. Leary, surrounded by friends and family at the CATH, enjoyed a celebration as spectacular as she is...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Using recycled vintage materials, artist Laurie Bogdan puts forward the idea of a partnership
between art and nature. Bogdan’s original pieces give maps a new life as part of collaged
masterpieces, and her current exhibit at the Needham Free Public Library, “Navigating Flight”,
up through February 21, presents a perfect opportunity to...
By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Needham locals gathered recently together in the high school auditorium to celebrate the legacy
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, January 16.
The two hour program was hosted by the Needham Diversity Initiative. Other sponsors included
Needham Human Rights Committee, Needham Public Schools and METCO Program, Interfaith
Clergy Association, and World...
By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Seniors gathered together at the Needham Center at The Heights this past Wednesday, January 11, to enjoy some covered renditions of their favorite tunes from their younger years, performed by the Steve Rudolph Trio. The Trio’s repertoire consisted of popular tunes from the 1940s, 1950s,...
By Stephen Press
Hometown Weekly Editor
Throughout the entirety of the autumn, I noticed a trend during my walks in the woods.
It seemed every time I turned a corner in the vicinity of a body of water, I found a heron, typically a great blue heron, staring...
By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
Residents at the Needham Housing Authority (NHA) welcomed a new holiday tradition into their
hearts last Wednesday, December 21, thanks to Resident Services Coordinator Laurie Blake.
Blake and the NHA introduced the Giving Tree program to residents this year. It is a project
created to bring joy to residents within senior living...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Founded in 2005, Wreaths Across America has affected Needham deeply. In the last two years,
a post-pandemic tradition of laying wreaths on the graves of veterans in the community has
expanded to thousands of individuals. Though this year’s represented only the second local
iteration of the event, the growing interest suggests Wreaths...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Gorse Mill Studios, a Needham artist co-op — and one of town’s hidden gems — opened its doors over the weekend of December 17 and 18 for its holiday open studios event. The event brought dozens of artists together to share their work and inspire...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
There’s no place like home for the holidays, and Needham homes are dazzled with sparkling lights and inflatable lawn ornaments once again.
To bring attention to the creativity of the community, 32 homes are currently featured in the Needham Women’s Club’s (NWC)...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Betty Hood has been teaching ballroom dance for over twenty years. Working primarily from her studio at home, Hood makes time to teach local community groups the art of dance — namely, the Needham seniors at the Center at the Heights.
She...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Directed and choreographed by Marianne Lonati with musical direction from Alan Rodi, Needham Community Theatre’s “Shrek the Musical” gifted audiences a professional-quality production that was enjoyed by all.
The story, based on the Dreamworks film, centers around Shrek, a lonely ogre who...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Local Needham artist Nancy Motley Walton periodically opens her doors to the public for her holiday exhibit and sale. She did so on Saturday and Sunday of November 20 and 21, transforming the first floor of her home into a spectacular one-woman gallery. On the...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
The overcast Sunday skies of November 13 provided the backdrop as Needham locals to made their way to Powers Hall for a special performance of the Rivers Symphony Orchestra. The Town Hall has a rich historic significance of its own, and lent some of its...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Well-seasoned Needhamites know that the Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) has much to offer. With books and events aplenty, there is one more exceptional highlight to upgrade the cultural aspect of your next library trip: a new art exhibit has reached NFPL, and it features...
By Tom Keating
Hometown Weekly Contributor
My Vietnam War was a mix of crushing heat and tremendous rain, long days working, and rocket and sapper attacks at our base. I worked as an administrative clerk for the 47th Military History Detachment, and later for the general staff at USARV HQ in...
By Cameron Small
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
This past Sunday, the Needham Free Public Library, in partnership with the Friends of the Needham Library, hosted award-nominated author Marjan Kamali. Kamali spoke about her writing journey, provided writing tips, read a passage from her latest novel, and held a Q&A session prior to...
By Lauren Schiavone
Hometown Weekly Staff
Photos by Lauren Schiavone
Children's entertainer Stacey Peasley is no stranger to Needham Free Public Library -- she's visited multiple times over the years, and has built a following amongst the town's littlest residents.
It goes without saying, then,...
