Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

Shared Interest Group 

In Person

Included in Membership

The New Yorker Fiction Salon reflects the joy of reading great short stories, and the pleasure of doing it together. We meet weekly throughout the year to enjoy iconic fiction, delightful discussions, and lots of laughs. Discussion leadership is shared by members of the group — new members are always welcome. Access to the fiction pieces is provided in the BOLLI Bulletin.

The Salon meets once a month in person and weekly on Zoom. 

In Person

BOLLI Member Led 

for Members

Registration Required

BOLLI in Bloom: Throughout the summer, BOLLI Members invite other members to tour their home garden and learn about their gardening process. Come for gardening tips, beautiful views, and community.

On Tuesday, June 8 at 3:00pm ET, Suzanne Art will open up her garden to BOLLI Members. 

From Suzanne:

We bought our house for the back yard, which was a large lawn surrounded byhoneysuckle, with some woods at the back. It was a great playground for our kids.

When I retired from teaching, I began digging out the honeysuckle (basically a weed) and replacing it with specimen conifers and garden beds. Over the years, the trees have grown and the gardens have expanded. We had a little waterfall built by our terrace for its soothing effects. I do all the work myself – this is no show garden! – because it brings me great pleasure and peace of mind. Since the weather has been unseasonably warm, it’s hard to predict what will be flowering on June 8. Most likely the iris will be in bloom, as will the peonies, violas, and dianthus, with the lilies still in bud and annuals adding spice throughout the gardens. I can promise lots of color, texture, and tonality!

This event is full. Please contact Dom Restivo at drestivo@brandeis.edu to be added to the waitlist. 

In Person 

Guests Welcome

BOLLI Member Led

Author Dorothy Anger and BOLLI member will talk about her recent book, Women Of Courage and Conviction, recounting the untold life stories of five truly extraordinary older Newton women who show us how grit, determination and risk-taking have played seminal roles in their lives. Three are immigrants and two are holocaust survivors. Some of them will join Dorothy to talk about the secret sauce that keeps them vital, active and involved in the face of the many challenges aging presents. Their riveting life stories and productive lives are wonderful role models for us all. The book has been co-published with Newton at Home, a nonprofit Newton membership organization dedicated to providing support and connection to older Newton adults who choose to remain in their own homes as they age. For inspiration and for sheer page-turning storytelling Women of Courage and Conviction is a book to savor and share.

Register here

Seminar Online Included with Membership

Social and political conflict in the United States seems to have increased significantly in recent years. However, this phenomenon isn’t limited to the U.S.; it is plaguing societies across several continents. Many of us are left pondering the reasons for this disturbing trend and what can be done to reverse it. Trying to find a handful of causes can become a fool’s errand, because societies are complex systems driven by intertwining relationships. This course offers a view of these conflicts looking through the lens of complexity science, a theory of life that posits that the world we live in is relational rather than atomistic. It will take participants through the rules that guide complex systems, applying this lens to better grasp the uncertainty and nonlinear nature of complex systems and how they play out in social conflict. It will also offer insights into how we can approach social, political and even personal conflicts in a healthier manner. 

 Suggested reading: Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being (2023) by Neil Theise 

WHEN: Eight Tuesdays, June 16- Aug 18, TIME: 10am-12:00pm ET

No class June 30 & August 11

WHERE: Zoom

Who: This seminar is available to active members. To purchase a membership for this seminar, please register here. 

Attendance: While Zoom gives members flexibility, we ask that you enroll only if you can attend at least six of the seminar sessions in real time. Members' presence makes for a more lively and community-oriented experience for all. 

To register: Active members will receive an email with a personal registration link on May 21, 2026 at 12:00pm ET. Signs-ups are first come, first served. In the event that the seminar becomes full, we will maintain a waitlist. 

Shared Interest Group 

In Person

Included in Membership

The Nonfiction Book Group  reads on narrative nonfiction, a genre of writing that typically emphasizes storyline, descriptive detail and character development in its examination of topics pertaining to history, science, art, music and other disciplines. 

For the June meeting, members will read Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah by Charles King

About the book:

In the words of historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, Every Valley is a “delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure. A study of creativity and humanism, beautifully told, filled with charm and worldliness, deeply researched and as compelling as a symphony with a full choir of amazing characters who sing their songs around the central figure of Handel himself. Unforgettable.”

Please read more about Shared Interest Groups. Membership is required for Special Interest Group attendance. 

Special Interest Group 

In Person

Included in Membership

Each month participants will watch a global film selection at home and then gather for an in-person discussion at BOLLI. We hope to engage in lively conversation and thoughtful debate, exploring different aspects of each film, such as visual and aesthetic choices, cultural and social content, or authorship and production. Please join us to share your perspective! 

Anyone who is interested should please contact Kate Seideman (kateseideman22@gmail.com) to be added to our mailing list and to access the Film Forum SIG website.

The June film selection will be announced on their website.

Lecture Series

Online 

For members

In 2014, a cover of Time magazine boldly proclaimed the arrival of the “transgender tipping point” featuring up-and-coming trans actress Laverne Cox. The following year, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal across the country in Obergefell v. Hodges. Since the mid-2010s, however, the forward momentum of LGBTQ rights has been stalled or even reversed. Moves to limit access to bathrooms, sports, identification, and more for trans people have been dominant in elections and legislation since, as have efforts to ban books featuring gay or trans characters in schools and libraries. How did sexual orientation and gender identity become central to political and popular debates, and why are transgender people the center of the newest wave of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric? This two-part series will explore the histories of sexual and gender diversity to trace the paths that led to our current moment, starting with the development of modern narratives about gender and sexuality in the late 19th century and following developments to the present.

Dates:

• Part 1: Wednesday, June 24, 2026 10:00 am - 11:30am ET (Zoom)
• Part 2: Thursday, July 9, 2026, 10:00 am -11:30am (Zoom)

Members may attend one or both lectures. These lectures are included with an active membership.

Register here

Presenter bio: Todd G. Nordgren is the director of LGBTQ+ Programs & Services at Wellesley College, and teaches courses in gender and sexuality studies, twentieth and twenty-first century literature and film, and life writing. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University, and has publications appearing in Modernism/modernity, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literary Theory, The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature, and Contemporary Queer Modernism.

LECTURE SERIES ONLINE INCLUDED IN MEMBERSHIP

Join Professor Gil Harel as he examines Ludwig van Beethoven’s career and works through the latest musicological scholarship, placing him at the pivotal transition from Enlightenment universalism to post-Enlightenment disillusionment and, finally, to full-blown Romantic individualism. Participants will explore how Beethoven’s music—especially landmark compositions such as the Appassionata Sonata, Eroica Symphony and the Op. 59 string quartets—embodied and advanced political ideals of heroism and human emancipation, while engaging deeply with contemporary philosophical and political thought. We will also consider Beethoven’s passionate yet unfulfilled personal life—most famously expressed in his enigmatic 1812 letter to the “Immortal Beloved”—as a window into the post-Enlightenment emphasis on longing and inner struggle amid political and social upheaval.

No registration necessary. BOLLI members will receive an email with the Zoom link the day before each lecture. 

• Monday, June 29, 2026
• Monday, July 6, 2026
• Monday, July 13, 2026
• Monday, July 20, 2026
• Monday, July 27, 2026

Time: 1:30pm-3:00pm ET

Location: Zoom

Special Interest Group 

In Person

Included in Membership

 The New Yorker Fiction Salon reflects the joy of reading great short stories, and the pleasure of doing it together. We meet weekly throughout the year to enjoy iconic fiction, delightful discussions, and lots of laughs. Discussion leadership is shared by members of the group — new members are always welcome. Access to the fiction pieces is provided in the BOLLI Bulletin.

The Salon meets once a month in person and weekly on Zoom. 

BOLLI Has parterned with Dartmouth Osher to provide access to the Livestream of their prestige lecture series. 

Ways to Participate:

• Watch the livestream. BOLLI members will receive the link via email the day before the lecture.
• Watch the livestream with other BOLLI members and engage in an in-person discussion afterwards. Location: 60 Turner Street in Waltham.

Read more about the Lecture Series

Active BOLLI members do not need to register on the Dartmouth OLLI site. 

Live Music

In Person

Open to the Public

Free

LECTURE SERIES ONLINE INCLUDED IN MEMBERSHIP

In 2014, a cover of Time magazine boldly proclaimed the arrival of the “transgender tipping point” featuring up-and-coming trans actress Laverne Cox. The following year, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal across the country in Obergefell v. Hodges. Since the mid-2010s, however, the forward momentum of LGBTQ rights has been stalled or even reversed. Moves to limit access to bathrooms, sports, identification, and more for trans people have been dominant in elections and legislation since, as have efforts to ban books featuring gay or trans characters in schools and libraries. How did sexual orientation and gender identity become central to political and popular debates, and why are transgender people the center of the newest wave of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric? This two-part series will explore the histories of sexual and gender diversity to trace the paths that led to our current moment, starting with the development of modern narratives about gender and sexuality in the late 19th century and following developments to the present.

Dates:

• Part 1: Wednesday, June 24, 2026 10:00 am - 11:30am ET (Zoom)
• Part 2: Thursday, July 9, 2026, 10:00 am -11:30am (Zoom)

Members may attend one or both lectures. These lectures are included with an active membership.

Register here

Presenter bio: Todd G. Nordgren is the director of LGBTQ+ Programs & Services at Wellesley College, and teaches courses in gender and sexuality studies, twentieth and twenty-first century literature and film, and life writing. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from Northwestern University, and has publications appearing in Modernism/modernity, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literary Theory, The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature, and Contemporary Queer Modernism.

BOLLI Has parterned with Dartmouth Osher to provide access to the Livestream of their prestige lecture series. 

Ways to Participate:

• Watch the livestream. BOLLI members will receive the link via email the day before the lecture.
• Watch the livestream with other BOLLI members and engage in an in-person discussion afterwards. Location: 60 Turner Street in Waltham.

Read more about the Lecture Series

Active BOLLI members do not need to register on the Dartmouth OLLI site. 

IN PERSON BOLLI MEMBER LED FOR MEMBERS REGISTRATION REQUIRED

BOLLI in Bloom: Throughout the summer, BOLLI Members invite other members to tour their home garden and learn about their gardening process. Come for gardening tips, beautiful views, and community.

On Thursday, July 16 at 4:00pm ET, Richard Laing will open up his garden to BOLLI Members. 

From Richard:

BOLLI Has parterned with Dartmouth Osher to provide access to the Livestream of their prestige lecture series. 

Ways to Participate:

• Watch the livestream. BOLLI members will receive the link via email the day before the lecture.
• Watch the livestream with other BOLLI members and engage in an in-person discussion afterwards. Location: 60 Turner Street in Waltham.

Read more about the Lecture Series

Active BOLLI members do not need to register on the Dartmouth OLLI site.