Lunchtime Series

The Atwater Library Lunchtime Series features once-a-week presentations by leading writers, musicians, intellectuals, scientists, and many more people sharing their knowledge and experience with the Atwater Library community. Lunchtime Series events usually take place on Thursdays (but sometimes are on other days), from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Admission is free though we do appreciate donations! Everyone is welcome.

Upcoming Events

Past 2025 Events

WEDNESDAY, January 8, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
Heritage, Densification, Westmount and Cabot Square – Dinu Bumbaru, Héritage Montréal Policy Director, discusses issues at play in the proposed redevelopment of the area around the Atwater Library in the context of the Westmount Southeast PPU.

Thursday, January 16, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
CANADIAN HISTORY – Award-winning author Stephen R. Bown talks about his books The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire and Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada.

Thursday, January 23, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
ESTATE PLANNING – Catherine Rahal, Certified Professional Consultant on Aging, gives practical advice for organizing information and documents for those responsible for your affairs following incapacity or death. She will discuss her book If You Love Them Leave Them Lists.

Thursday, January 30, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
DIGITAL LITERACY AS WE AGE – Kim Sawchuk, Professor, Communication Studies, Concordia University, gives a presentation on the importance of digital literacy for independent living in later life. Dr. Sawchuk is the Director of the ACT research project on ageing, communication and technologies.

Thursday, February 6, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
AUTHOR INTERVIEW – Award-winning writer Peter McFarlane discusses with journalist Anne Lagacé Dowson his book Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today. The book “provides context and background for understanding the complex dynamics behind the war between Ukraine and Russia, and Canada’s role in that conflict.” – publisher Lorimer.

Thursday, February 13, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
THE NEW VIC PROJECT – David Syncox gives a presentation on “The New Vic Project: Creating a dynamic research, teaching and learning hub dedicated to sustainability and public policy at McGill University.” He is the Senior Philanthropic Advisor for the project.

Thursday, February 20, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
THE WORLD OF TEA – Tea taster Kevin Gascoyne gives an inside view into the world of tea, his profession and the breathtaking tea gardens of Asia he visits every year to select precious leaves for the world-famous catalogue of Montreal-based Camellia Sinensis.

FRIDAY, February 28, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
To celebrate BLACK HISTORY MONTH, the Imani Gospel Singers, directed by Marcia Bailey, perform a program of spiritual music and discuss the evolution of Black gospel music.
There is no registration process. It’s first come, first seated. Atwater Library Adair Auditorium.

Thursday, March 6, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
CANADIAN ARTIST JOYCE WIELAND – Anne Grace, co-curator of the current Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition Joyce Wieland: Heart On, gives an illustrated presentation on the work and legacy of Joyce Wieland (1930-1998).

Thursday, March 13, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
For ST. PATRICK’S DAY, Festival Bloomsday Montréal presents the Gan Ainm Trio: three members of the celebrated Franco-Saskatchewanians folk music family: Gabriel Campagne on guitar, his brother Aleksi Campagne on fiddle and their dad Paul Campagne. They’ll perform tunes and tell stories to celebrate joyful Irish diasporic traditions.

Thursday, March 20, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
WARTIME ARVIDA – Rosalind Pepall shares stories of Arvida in the late 1930s and early ‘40s based on love letters exchanged between her father, an engineer with the aluminum industry there, and her mother, an Ontario College of Art graduate. The model company town in the Saguenay was built in 1926 for the Alcoa (later Alcan) aluminum complex, which became the largest aluminum producer in the world in 1942.

Thursday, March 27, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
TOM THOMSON – Wayne Larsen, author of Tom Thomson: Artist of the North, gives an illustrated presentation on the life and work of the great Canadian landscape painter who died mysteriously in 1917.

Thursday, April 3, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
DRAMATIC DOINGS – Playwright and novelist Colleen Curran along with actors Mary Burns and Sylvia Cymbalista present staged readings of short and complete theatrical acts that take a comedic spin on literary classics.

Thursday, April 10, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
NORTHERN IRELAND – Rev. Dr. Glenn Chestnutt reminisces about growing up in Northern Ireland and shares his observations about the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and what has ensued. He is the Presiding Minister of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montreal.
This event is co-sponsored by the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society of Montreal.

Thursday, April 24, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
MONTREAL CORRUPTION and CRIME – Award-winning writers Julian Sher and Lisa Fitterman talk about their new book Hitman: The Untold Story of Canada’s Deadliest Assassin.

Friday, May 2, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
BOOK TALK – Award-winning writer Helen Humphreys discusses her most recent book, Followed by the Lark, in which she imagines the life of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the New England naturalist, poet and essayist.

Thursday, May 8, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
NEW TREATMENTS for PPA and ALZHEIMER’S  – Leading neurology researcher Dr. Howard Chertkow gives a presentation on “New Treatments for Neurodegenerative Brain Disease: Primary Aphasia and Alzheimer Disease.” He will provide information about opportunities for English-speaking Montreal-area residents to take part in the study – PPA patients as well as healthy seniors (aged 50+).

Thursday, May 15, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
CONCERT – Singer Barbara Lewis performs songs and tells stories celebrating creativity at all ages: “IMAGINE THIS!”

Thursday, May 22, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
WWII INTERNMENT OF JEWISH REFUGEES – Ian Darragh discusses the experiences of Jewish refugees to Canada who were treated as enemies and imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. He will draw from Blatant Injustice, the memoir of Walter W. Igersheimer, as well as his own research.

Thursday, May 29, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
ANTIQUE POSTCARDS – John Gallop talks about his many years collecting, buying and selling postcards, and shows rare and exotic ones. He is a retired investment professional who spent 20 years as a part-time postcard dealer.

Thursday, June 5, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
NOTMAN PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES – Reference archivist Heather McNabb, Ph.D., gives an illustrated presentation on the McCord Stewart Museum’s treasure trove of images from the Montreal photographic studio founded in 1856 by William Notman.

Thursday, June 12, 2025 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm
FESTIVAL BLOOMSDAY MONTRÉAL CONCERT – THE REAL THING, a concert of sketches, poetry and music arranged and emceed by Kevin Wright. The stellar cast includes Chad Linsley, Kathleen McAuliffe, James Loye, Quinn Dooley, Brian Dooley and Anne-Marie Sahib. Delving into James Joyce’s notes and letters, they will reveal some of the actual people he slandered and satirized in his landmark novel Ulysses. The true stories are often more hilarious or scandalous than in the novel, according to Festival Artistic Director Kathleen Fee.

 

Please click here to view the events list for January-December 2024.
Please click here to view the events list for January-December 2023.
Please click here to view the events list for January-December 2022.
Please click here to view the events list for January-December 2021.
Please click here to view the events list for January-December 2020.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2019.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2019.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2018.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2018.
Please click here to view the events list for August-December 2017.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2017.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2016.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2016.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2015.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2015.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2014.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2014.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2013.
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Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2012.
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Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2011.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2011.
Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2010.
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Please click here to view the events list for September-December 2009.
Please click here to view the events list for January-June 2009.