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Johan, a small-town loner with a flair for horses and explosives, finds himself in constant conflict with the community. He struggles to find his place in society while coping with unrequited love for his neighbor.

In Norwegian with English subtitles | Comedy | 93 minutes

Saturday, March 9th | 1pm | $10; $5 for SCC&L Members | tickets

Come by the Kaffestugan for Finnish day from 10am-2pm. We will have a ton of Finnish goodies including Karelian Pastie (Piirikka), organic dark rye crust filled with savory rice porridge and topped with Egg butter.. A true Finnish staple. A great pick me up snack on the go or divine breakfast fuel.

We will also have coloring pages for the kids.

Saturday, March 16th from 10am-2pm

*no reservations, while supplies last*

During our weekly Kaffestugan we will be celebrating the Swedish tradition of Våffeldagen. Swedes have enjoyed waffles in some form since the 1600’s and they remain popular today. So much so they celebrate them every March! Often covered with cream and jam instead of syrup, these are sure to delight. Come on out for lunch and a waffle or just a waffle on it’s own! We won’t judge. The standard Kaffestugan menu will still be available.

Saturday, March 30th | 10am-2pm (no reservations)

Norwegian jazz guitarist, Tim Johnson, returns to perform a set of jazz standards and originals with award winning Swedish-pianist Ebba Dankel, a Swedish jazz pianist and singer who is currently based in Boston, and is a presidential scholar at Berklee College of Music.”

Saturday, April 6th | 2pm | $20; $10 for members | tickets

Timothy Johnson is a Norwegian guitarist, composer, and educator, based in NYC. He has performed at world-renowned jazz clubs like Dizzy’s Club (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC) Scullers Jazz (Boston), Smalls (NYC), and at festivals like the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival (Argentina), as well as clubs in Japan and Norway. Additionally he has appeared alongside jazz luminaries Damien Sneed, Melissa Aldana, and Neal Smith, and most recently has also performed in the award winning musical, Once on this Island.

He completed his Bachelors degree at the Berklee College of Music on scholarship, and recently completed his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship, studying with guitarist Mike Moreno. He has received many prestigious awards along the way, such as the Berklee Jimi Hendrix Award, the NAMM Innovation Award, the Juvenarte composition award, placed runner up in Lee Ritenour’s Dreamcatcher Competition, and most recently was a scholarship/fellowship recipient of the Norway-Amerika Association. He appears on recordings by the award winning composer Eri Chichibu, as well as singer April Varner’s release “Hummingbird”, and is preparing to record his debut album later this year.

Ebba Dankel is a Swedish Boston-based jazz pianist, vocalist and composer, currently pursuing a BM in Jazz Composition and Piano Performance on a presidential scholarship at Berklee College of Music. She began her studies in piano at age 6 and trumpet at age 11 and played in several big bands, both on trumpet and piano. She graduated from the music program at Malmö Latinskola in 2019 and got accepted into the prestigious jazz program at Skurups Folkhögskola where she studied for 2 years. Ebba studies with NEA Jazz masters Joanne Brackeen, Terri Lyne Carrington and grammy winning Matthew Stevens at Berklee. Ebba performs weekly at the legendary Wally’s Jazz Club in Boston with different groups she puts together. She’s playing and recording with various groups in Boston as well as in Scandinavia during the summers. She is currently working on her debut album as a leader.

The year is 1933, and society has very specific expectations of how young women should behave. Seventeen-year-old Maren is wild and unruly, so she is sent to the women’s institution on Sprogø to adapt. The stay has the opposite effect.

Presented as the Library’s April film choice.

In Danish and Swedish with English subtitles; 130 minutes

Saturday, April 13th | 1pm | $10, $5 for members | tickets

Zosha Warpeha is a Brooklyn-based composer-performer working in a meditative space at the intersection of contemporary improvisation and folk traditions. Using bowed strings in tandem with her own voice, her performances explore transformations of time and tonality. She performs primarily on Hardanger d’amore, a resonant-stringed instrument relative of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle that houses five bowed strings as well as five sympathetic strings. Her current work is informed by the cyclical forms, rhythmic elasticity, and the physical momentum of Nordic folk music, developed during her time living abroad in Oslo. Born in Minnesota, her artistic work has been supported by the US-Norway Fulbright Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the MN State Arts Board. Warpeha’s performance at the Scandinavian Cultural Center & Library will be part of a spring tour celebrating the release of silver dawn, her debut solo album on Relative Pitch Records (April 2024).

Saturday, April 20th, 2024 | 1pm | $20; $10 for SCC Members | tickets

Fettisdagen – “Fat Tuesday” is on February 13th– come celebrate with us in the Kaffestugan on Saturday, February 17th from 10am – 2pm (while supplies last)

To celebrate we will have semla, kremla, and a special roast beef sandwich– along with our regular menu.

HISTORY FROM Swedentips.se:

Swedes have cherished these sweet buns since the 16th century, initially served on Shrove Tuesday, known as “Fat Tuesday” (Fettisdagen in Swedish). This indulgence marked the last treat before the beginning of Lent, a 40-day religious fasting period. Interestingly, the term “Lent” (German “Lenz”) translates to “spring.”

Available until Easter
Nowadays, you’ll spot semla at Swedish bakeries and cafés starting from late December, persisting beyond Shrove Tuesday. Why? Well, modern times have seen a departure from strict adherence to religious fasting, making semla available until Easter.

Abundance Sauna will be at the Scandinavian Cultural Center in Newton, celebrating National Sauna Week Friday thru Sunday February 23-25, 2024.

There are many sessions available each day, starting as early as 10:00am.
Friday has a variety of one hour and one 1/2 hour sessions, Saturday and Sunday sessions are all one hour. One-hour sessions are $65, one and a half hour are $90, regardless of the number of people in your party.
The sauna comfortably accommodates 3 people at once. Sessions are respectively 50 minutes and 80 minutes of heat.
You are welcome to book available consecutive sessions for a longer sauna experience.

Daring souls are invited to experience the thrill of thermal extremes with a dip in the cold plunge tank or if mother nature supports us… some snow angels.

Afterwards relax around the fire pit to share stories of sauna adventure while enjoying tasty snacks.

Each participant must provide their own towels, swimsuits and hydration.

Preregistration is required. An welcome/orientation packet will be sent and a liability waiver must be signed by each participant.

**Be sure to check out the screening of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood as part of the National Sauna Week events**

If you have Sauna specific questions
Mark@gotsauna.com
For more information about Finlandia Foundation Boston
www.Finlandiafoundationboston.com
This event is supported by Finlandia Foundation National
www.Finlandiafoundation.org

*please note this event is at Brookline Booksmith*

Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for an in-store event with author Linnea Axelsson to discuss and celebrate the release of Ædnan: An Epic, presented in conversation with our board member, Tryggve Fossum.

The winner of Sweden’s most prestigious literary award makes her American debut with an epic, multigenerational novel-in-verse about two Sámi families and their quest to stay together across a century of migration, violence, and colonial trauma.

In Northern Sámi, the word Ædnan means the land, the earth, and my mother. These are all crucial forces within the lives of the Indigenous families that animate this groundbreaking book: an astonishing verse novel that chronicles a hundred years of change: a book that will one day stand alongside Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter as an essential Scandinavian epic.

The tale begins in the 1910s, as Ristin and her family migrate their herd of reindeer to summer grounds. Along the way, forced to separate due to the newly formed border between Sweden and Norway, Ristin loses one of her sons in the aftermath of an accident, a grief that will ripple across the rest of the book. In the wake of this tragedy, Ristin struggles to manage what’s left of her family and her community.

In the 1970s, Lise, as part of a new generation of Sámi grappling with questions of identity and inheritance, reflects on her traumatic childhood, when she was forced to leave her parents and was placed in a Nomad School to be stripped of the language of her ancestors. Finally, in the 2010s we meet Lise’s daughter, Sandra, an embodiment of Indigenous resilience, an activist fighting for reparations in a highly publicized land rights trial, in a time when the Sámi language is all but lost.

Weaving together the voices of half a dozen characters, from elders to young people unsure of their heritage, Axelsson has created a moving family saga around the consequences of colonial settlement. Ædnan is a powerful reminder of how durable language can be, even when it is borrowed, especially when it has to hold what no longer remains. “I was the weight / in the stone you brought / back from the coast // to place on / my grave,” one character says to another from beyond the grave. “And I flew above / the boat calling / to you all: // There will be rain / there will be rain.” Translated stunningly by writer and literary translator Saskia Vogel.

Thursday, February 1st | 7pm | regsiter here

Linnea Axelsson is a Sámi-Swedish writer, born in the province of North Bothnia in Sweden. In 2009, she earned a Ph.D, in art history from Umeå University. In 2018, she was awarded the August Prize for this book. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

Oskar Stenmark is a Swedish musician based in NYC, join us for a new exciting project where he pays homage to one of Sweden’s greatest lyricist/song writers of all time – Evert Taube. Hailing from Gothenburg (just like Oskar), Taube was a multi talented artist who wrote, painted and sang about his trips around the world. Taube is pictured on the Swedish 50 kronor bill and is an important part of the Swedish cultural heritage. Oskar will play some of his most famous songs and talk about his life and the places he experienced through his music, together with Ana Petrova on piano.

Saturday, February 3, 2024 | 1pm | $20; $10 for members | tickets