The Thoreau Society offers free educational programs to public libraries, community centers, senior centers, and other groups and organizations in Massachusetts about the life, works, and legacies of Henry David Thoreau. If you live outside of Massachusetts, please contact us about a speaker near you.
Many of the programs offered through the Speakers Bureau are free and/or open to the public. Please check individual listings by host organizations for details.
If you are interested in hosting a Thoreau Society presentation, please email membership@thoreausociety.org.
This series is supported in part by a Mass Humanities Staffing Recovery Grant (2023-2025) that provides for our Membership and Program Coordinator. Funding from Mass Humanities has been provided through the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
2024 Dates
June 6 – LAWRENCE
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
6 pm @ Lawrence Public Library
June 12 – STOW
“Thoreau 101/ Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
1pm @ Stow Community Center
June 20 – LITTLETON
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
6:30pm @ Reuben Hoar Public Library
June 25 – LEOMINSTER
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
6pm @ Leominster Public Library
July 30 – WORCESTER
“Thoreau 101/ Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
10:30am @ Worcester Senior Center
August 2 – FITCHBURG
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
1 pm @ Fitchburg Senior Center
August 7 – GROTON
“Thoreau 101/ Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
12:30pm @ The Groton Center
August 15 – READING
“Thoreau 101/ Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
10:30 am @ Pleasant Street Center
October 9 – READING
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
10 am @ Pleasant Street Center
November 18 – CHELMSFORD
“Thoreau 101/ Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
1pm @ Chelmsford Senior Center
December 12 – LANCASTER
“Thoreau: Knowing Nature” with Zoë Pollak
11am @ Lancaster Community Center
Speakers & Talks Available
“Henry 101: Thoreau-ly Misunderstood” with Rich Piccarreto
A delightful and informative overview of Thoreau’s life, quirks, and lesser-known aspects that challenge common misconceptions about his ‘experiment’ at Walden Pond 1845-47.
Richard Piccarreto is a certified tour guide in Concord, MA; a Cultural Site Interpreter for the Trustees of Reservations at the Old Manse; and Membership & Program Coordinator for the Thoreau Society.
“Thoreau: Civil Rights & Civil Disobedience” with Richard Smith
A thought-provoking exploration of Thoreau’s participation in the Underground Railroad, his abolitionist views, night in jail and how his writings have historically inspired civil rights movements around the world.
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th-Century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry Thoreau at Walden Pond, around the country, and in Canada. He has written eight books for Applewood books and is a regular contributor to Discover Concord magazine.
“Thoreau: Knowing Nature” with Zoë Pollak
Henry Thoreau did not “flee” to nature to escape the human world, but rather used his observations of patterns and phenomena in the landscapes around him to reflect upon the human condition. The presentation also addresses the political and cultural history of Henry Thoreau’s New England, with a focus on Concord’s early Black inhabitants.
Zoë Pollak received her PhD from Columbia University, where she wrote her dissertation on 19th-century American Northeastern and pre-Harlem Renaissance nature poetry. She helps design exhibits for The Concord Free Public Library, Thoreau Farm, and the Thoreau Society. Her academic and creative writing has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, The American Sonnet (Iowa, 2023), Callaloo, ELH, ESQ, The Hopkins Review, Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau (Princeton, 2021), and Women’s Studies.