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Churchill and Ireland with Lee Pollock

The Misunderstood Relationship Between Britain’s Greatest Statesman and the Emerald Isle, presented by acclaimed Churchill speaker and popular Community Library presenter Lee Pollock, Director and Senior Advisor to the Board of The International Churchill Society. Registration is recommended to save your seat. This program will be livestreamed and available to view later. Image from the cover of Churchill and Ireland by Paul Bew, Oxford University Press (2016).

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Book Around the Block!

Join us for a summer open house at The Community Library, Gold Mine Thrift, Gold Mine Consign, and the Wood River Museum of History and Culture. We’re going to “Book Around the Block” for literacy, history, shopping, community, food, and fun, with activities for all ages.

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Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with Shirley Athy

The Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association Oral History Project Presents: Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with Shirley Athy Shirley Athy was born in 1924. Her father, Preston Linford, was a civil engineer supervising road construction in Stanley between 1929 and 1935. Join us for a conversation with Shirley, recorded in 2008 , recalling her time spent in Stanley during those years. 5pm at the Stanley Community Library

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Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with John Buccuzzo

The Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association Oral History Project Presents: Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with John Buccuzzo John Boccuzzo, a WWII veteran, was born in 1923 in Brooklyn. He enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1940 and was assigned to Stanley and Crouch. Join us for a conversation with John, recorded in 2017, recalling his Naval career and his time in Idaho. 5pm at the Stanley Community Library

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Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with Bethine Church

The Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association Oral History Project Presents: Preserving Our History: A Recorded Conversation with Bethine Church Bethine Church, wife of Senator Frank Church, spent her early years in Mackay, Idaho and at Robinson Bar Ranch. Join us for a conversation with Bethine, recorded in 2009, recalling her life, the SNRA, and the founding of the Sawtooth Society. 5pm at the Stanley Community Library

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A Song Film by Kishi Bashi: “Omoiyari”

Acclaimed Japanese American musician Kishi Bashi visits The Community Library as part of a multi-event trip to Idaho organized by Friends of Minidoka and the Minidoka National Historic Site. The event is in honor of the annual Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the signing of Executive Order 9066 that led to the exclusion, forced removal, and unjust incarceration of over 125,000 Japanese Americans during WWII, including at Minidoka. Kishi Bashi will present his award winning A Song Film by Kishi Bashi: “Omoiyari” followed by a discussion and live musical performance. “Omoiyari” is a Japanese word that means to have sympathy and compassion towards another person. Reserve your seat at www.comlib.org. In A Song Film by Kishi Bashi: “Omoiyari”, Kishi Bashi embarks on a transformative journey to confront his heritage and reconcile the painful history of Japanese American incarceration during World War II. Inspired by the rising tide of discrimination against marginalized communities, Kishi Bashi delved into the untold stories of incarceration survivors and composed an album titled Omoiyari that captures their experiences. Kishi Bashi is the pseudonym of singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Kaoru Ishibashi. Born in Seattle, Washington, Ishibashi grew up in Norfolk, Virginia where both of his parents were …

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2023 Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Join The Community Library and its Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History for the Induction Ceremony of the Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023. The Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame honors the significant contributions of legendary local athletes and visionaries who have not only achieved in their sport or industry, but have given back to the Wood River Valley community in ways that have furthered the development of the sport: Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Ice Hockey, Figure Skating, Snowboarding, and Freestyle Skiing. This year’s inductees are Judy Blumberg (Figure Skating), John “Cub” Burke (Ice Hockey), Heather Flood Daves (Alpine Skiing), Marc Mast (Adaptive Alpine Skiing and Adaptive Nordic Skiing), and Jonna Mendes (Alpine Skiing). Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and a reception will follow at 7:00 p.m. across the street at the Library’s Wood River Museum of History and Culture. Seating is limited, and registration is required to attend. This event will also be livestreamed, and a recording will be available to view later. Register and learn more at www.comlib.org. The Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History, established in 1982, is comprised of the Betty Olsen Carr Reading Room, the Wood River …

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Sun Valley Opera and Broadway presents the Met Opera’s live simulcast of “Dead Man Walking”

The 2023-2024 Season of The Metropolitan Opera’s Live Simulcast Opera Performances begins on Saturday, October 21, 2023 with “Dead Man Walking”. Sun Valley Opera and Broadway will present its MET HD Live Simulcast Operas at the Magic Lantern Theater in Ketchum. “Dead Man Walkin”g is based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer. “Dead Man Walking” matches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s beautiful and poignant music and a brilliant libretto by Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Sister Helen. The outstanding cast also features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham—who sang Helen Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother. Content Advisory: “Dead Man Walking” contains a depiction of a rape and murder, as well as other adult themes and strong language.

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SIHA Summer Series

Join the Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Association for their 16th annual Sawtooth Forum & Lecture Series at the Stanley Museum, 5pm every other Friday June 30-August 25. June 30: Grizzly Bears and the Bitterroot and Central Idaho Wilderness presented by Steve Nadeau, Wildlife Biologist July 14: What Lies Beneath: How the Idaho Batholith Influenced the Yellowstone- Snake River Plain Supervolcanoes presented by Kathrine Potter, PhD July 28: Multiple Voices, Varied Spaces: Literature and History in the American West presented by Amanda J. Zink, PhD August 11: Seeking Beauty: The Wanderings of a Vagabond presented by Ed Cannady, Photographer and retired SNRA Backcountry Manager August 25: Advocates For Our Future: A Youth Perspective on Salmon Recovery presented by Lilly Wilson, Salmon Youth Protectors September 22 at The Community Library in Ketchum: The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind presented by Amy Gulick, Photographer and Author

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Frank Church: “The Last Honest Man” with James Risen

“The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy” is a new book out in 2023 from journalist James Risen centering on Frank Church, a senator from Idaho from 1957-1980. Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI—would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams …