Did you know the name ‘LEGO’ is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt”, meaning “play well”. It’s true! Although LEGO seems completely American to many the LEGO Group was founded in Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen!
The SCC is pleased to offer another week of Play-Well TEKnologies summer camp that will:
Develop and enhance students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills
Expose children to concepts and vocabulary of Engineering, Architecture and Physics
Provide an opportunity to have a great time with a terrific and versatile building system
The Pre-Engineering summer camps are primarily focused on BUILDING techniques
Prepare for a full-day LEGO® camp packed with hands-on and minds-on STEM fun! Build projects inspired by cool machines close to home, such as Trains, Helicopters, Treehouses, and Beam Bridges. Then find Platform 9 ¾, build Hogwarts Express Train, and soar on the wings of a Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon! Engineering and Wizardry are the focus of this new full-day themed camp for LEGO® fanatics! (ages 5-10)
Monday, July 22nd – Friday, July 26th | 9pm-4pm
Fee: $400 per week
Frequently asked questions about Play-Well Summer Camps answered here.
Join us in the Nordic Hall while we celebrate Astrid Lindgren’s creation, Pippi Longstocking. We will decorate cookies to look like Pippi while a movie plays on the big screen.
Saturday, September 28th | 11am | $7 admission; free for members
Teenaged Astrid Lindren (Alba August), who later went on to write the Pippi Longstocking series, leads a carefree life with her family in the forests and fields of rural Sweden. Restless and eager to break free from the confines of her conservative upbringing, she accepts an internship at a local newspaper where she attracts the attention of its married editor, Blomberg (Henrik Rafaelsen). After Astrid becomes pregnant, she leaves her childhood home and goes to Copenhagen to secretly give birth to a son, Lasse, whom she reluctantly leaves in the care of a foster mother, Marie (Trine Dyrholm). Astrid goes into self-imposed exile in Stockholm, refusing Blomberg’s offer of marriage and saving up her paltry salary for visits to see Lasse. When Marie falls ill, Astrid uses her imagination and flair for storytelling to reconnect with her son. In spite of her struggles, Astrid emerges with a newfound courage that will later form the foundation of a vast and beloved body of work.
Saturday, September 28th | 1:30 | Free; $5 suggested donation
123 minutes. In Swedish and Danish with English subtitles.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
Chapter House weaves together stories and music to create unique concert experiences. In this program, Peter and Sarah Walker explore the rich lore of the medieval Norse world, including the saga of the legendary viking Ragnar Loðbrok, tales from the Eddas featuring mythical gods and giants, and the Vinland sagas, which describe Leif Eriksson’s discovery of the New World centuries before Columbus. Music is drawn from medieval and traditional sources, and performed on a variety of instruments including Swedish bagpipe, Norwegian medieval lyre, overtone flute, tagelharpa, and kantele.
Friday, October 18th | 7pm | tickets $25; $15 for members
ABOUT: Chapter House was formed in 2018 by Peter and Sarah Walker, in order to bring old tales to new audiences. Firmly grounded in scholarship and tradition, the duo is dedicated to rediscovering and reinvigorating the connection between song and story. Chapter House has been featured on concert series presented by Gotham Early Music, the Society for Historically Informed Performance, and the GRAMMY-nominated Skylark Vocal Ensemble. Peter Walker is a critically acclaimed singer and award winning piper who performs with ensembles in the US and abroad, and has lectured on early music at Vassar College and the University of Virginia. Sarah grew up in the Appalachian storytelling tradition, and has performed extensively in her home state of West Virginia and throughout New England. She holds degrees in Medieval Studies, Art History, and Library Science, and is a children’s librarian in Connecticut.
Unknown Soldier by AKU LOUHIMIES is the story of an infantry unit’s tour of duty that lasts for more than three years during the Finnish Continuation War. The film is based on the classic novel by VÄINÖ LINNA. The film is the story of Rokka, Kariluoto, Koskela, Hietanen, and their brothers-in-arms. It shows how friendship, humour, and the will to live unite these men on their way there and back. The war changes the lives of each of the soldiers as well as the lives of those on the home front, and also leaves its mark on the entire nation.
Saturday, October 19th | 1:30 | Free; $5 suggested donation
133 minutes. In Finnish with English subtitles.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
*Please note that this performance will take place at the First Baptist Church in Newton
We welcome Copenhagen Chamber Choir Camerata for presentation of choral music from the Nordic region, both contemporary and traditional, which delves into the unique Scandinavian choral sound and explores its rich history and roots in traditional regional music and in the Scandinavian nature.
Saturday, October 19th | 7pm | tickets $20; $15 for SCC Members
We welcome a group of performers who, all musically talented, have studied or chosen careers in much different fields. Meet the physician and professors hear them play and listen to them talk about their stories and their passion for music.
PERFORMERS:
Allen C. Steere – piano
Joel Moerschel – cello
Betty Anne Diaz – piano
Manuel Diaz – viola
Gabriela Diaz – violin
PROGRAM:
Beethoven, 1st cello sonata in F major
Bach, sonata 2 in D major
Clara Schumann, Romances
Rebecca Clark, 2 pieces
Sunday, October 20th | 7pm | free with registration; donations welcome to support community programming.
We welcome author John B. Simon to discuss his book Strangers in a Stranger Land.
How one country’s Jews fought an unwinnable war alongside Nazis troops… and survived
The first Jews arrived in Finland in the mid-19th century when the nation, then part of imperial Russia, was only
taking shape. They were young boys ripped from their homes, taken to military schools, and forced to serve in the imperial army. One hundred years later, during World War II, 260,000 German soldiers arrived in Finland. The Nazis murdered millions of Jews around Europe, but in Finland Jews fought alongside the Germans against the Soviet Union. Not a single one was harmed by their Nazi brothers-in-arms. A field synagogue functioned on the front line, and several openly Jewish soldiers were even awarded the German iron cross. This happened nowhere else. How was it possible in Finland?
The reader is guided through 100 years of history via narrative nonfictional passages and the personal accounts of three fictional protagonists: Pesach, who was forced to serve in the imperial army and sent to Finland in the 1850s; Pesach’s son Mendel, who started a flourishing business producing hats for the Russian army; and Mendel’s son Benjamin, who ended up waging war against the Soviet Union alongside the Germans in World War II. Just as it outgrows the strict limits of fiction and nonfiction, Strangers in a Stranger Land reconfigures the history of
European antisemitism and the participation of European Jews in the seminal war of the 20th century.
Friday, October 25th | 7pm | FREE with registration
ABOUT JOHN: John B. Simon, an American Jew residing in Finland, grew up in Pleasantville, New York. After
graduating from Hamilton College, Simon earned an M.A. from Cambridge University. He also studied at the Sorbonne and the University of York. In the early 1970s, he founded The DOME Project, a community-based program on Manhattan’s Upper West Side dedicated to providing opportunities for marginalized youth in New York City. His 1982 book To Become Somebody: Growing up against the grain of society (Houghton Mifflin) tells the story of some of the program’s early participants. Nearly fifty years later, The DOME Project is still running.
Simon moved to Finland in 1984 and began working for KONE Corporation as a communications officer. After publishing KONE’s Prince (Otava, 2009), a best-selling biography of one of the company’s legendary owner-directors, he was named Finland’s 2010 Communications Professional of the Year.
Strangers in a Stranger Land was first published in Finnish in 2017 as Mahdoton sota. It was among the four books short-listed for 2017 History Book of the Year.
Simon and his wife, Hannele, have two children, Mikko and Elina, and four grandchildren, Stella, Daniel, Kira and Oliver.
Halla is a 50-year-old environmental activist who crusades against the local aluminum industry in Iceland. As her actions grow bolder, her life changes in the blink of an eye when she’s finally granted permission to adopt a girl from the Ukraine.
Saturday, June 15th | 1:30 | Free; $5 suggested donation
101 minutes. In Icelandic, Spanish, Ukranian and English with English subtitles.
Films start at 1:30pm. Refreshments for attendees are served at 1pm. Lunch (not included) is available in the Kaffestugan, which is open until 3pm every Saturday.
Hear some of Boston’s best virtuosi on an intimate scale and join them in lively round-table discussions in comfortable, friendly, and eclectic surroundings.
Program:
Valencia – Caroline Shaw
Strum– Jessie Montgomery
Beethoven String Quartet in D Major, op. 18 #3
Musicians:
Julia Cash, violin
Liana Zaretsky, violin
Emily Rome, viola
Leo Eguchi, cello
Sunday, November 17th | 3pm | Tickets $25 with discounts for seniors and students; 50% for SCC Members
