44 / matters magazine / fall 2026 Maplewood Division of Arts & Culture October 23 7:30PM Fourth Annual MAPSO Family Follies Variety Show returns with old-timey acts and quirky fun DETAILS Columbia High School, 17 Parker Avenue, Maplewood; maplewoodartsandculture.org/follies Maplewood Strollers November 3-4 7-9PM Auditions for Narnia, the Musical: Seeking performers of all ages November 7 7PM Rocky Horror Picture Show Sing- Along with live shadowcast: Dress up as your favorite Rocky Horror character for a fun night of singing November 7-8, 14-15, 8PM; November 9 2PM Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary: Follow the daring and dizzying adventures of Tommy and Tuppence through 1920s London November 13-22 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a Tony Award-winning masterpiece with a sweeping score, dark humor and gripping tale of revenge and redemption DETAILS The Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Durand Road, Maplewood; 973-761-8453; themaplewoodstrollers.org JESPY House November 8 5-8PM JESPY Trivia Night Community Friendraiser: Attendees form teams of two or up to eight people for an opportunity to win great prizes. The event provides support to advance independence for adults with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities. DETAILS Avenue Pub, 1790 Springfield Avenue, Maplewood; purchase tickets at givebutter.com/JHTrivia2026 Friends of the South Orange Public Library November 14 10AM-5PM; November 15 1-4PM Holiday Jewelry Sale: Thousands of pieces of fine, vintage and costume jewelry, all priced to sell; proceeds help to pay for the new library DETAILS Baird Community Center, 5 Mead Street, South Orange; sopl.org/friends-of-sopl Elusive Sounds November 15 10AM-4PM Maplewood Record Fair: Music lovers come together to celebrate their love for records, CDs, cassettes, 8-tracks, vintage clothes, stereo equipment, musical instruments, comic books and toys with some delicious vegan food and treats DETAILS The Woodland, 60 Woodland Road, Maplewood; elusivesounds.org Sweeney Todd Maplewood Record Fair Rocky Horror Picture Show Singalong JESPY Trivia Night MAPSO Family Follies Holiday Jewelry Sale of whom grew up in Maplewood and returned to see the renovation. “I feel incredibly lucky, because I get to see the results of my work, and most people don’t,” she says. “When you work with families and you work in a community for a long time, it’s incredible. We’ve all had a beautiful influence on each other.” Folger also pointed to the “incred ibly talented” people who are taking over for the retirees, including Nata sha Osborne, a senior librarian whom she hired four years ago and is now re placing her as head of youth services. “She’s going to go her own way, but the basic thing you need here is a love of people,” says Folger. “You want to be sort of heart driven, so that people feel like they’re dealing with a human being. It’s a real community.” Maplewood’s libraries – which comprise the new building and the Hilton Branch – employ the equiva lent of 24 full-time employees, in cluding 10 who are librarians with masters of library science degrees. More than 100 resumés were sub mitted for some of the openings, says Lester, noting the creativity of the broader Maplewood community as a drawing card. “It’s a level of intellectual curios ity that you don’t see in a lot of plac es,” says Lester. “These people are to tally interesting, really smart, really curious and professional. A lot of them are artists because Maplewood attracts that. It’s true of the people who have retired, and it’s true of the new staff too.” Nealon, for example, is a painter who’s planning to dedicate his retire ment to his art. Bridget Mendoza- Velez, recently hired as a library assis tant, is a talented multimedia artist who is helping with design work and art projects for the library. She’s also a singer in a band. New Commu nications Director Christine Dall, a former volunteer who was promoted from within, is a former actor. Others who filled open positions are Carolyn Quimby, program and outreach librarian; Louigene, sys tems administrator; and Sigfredo Montijo, business administrator. “We have a very smart, very cre ative, very talented staff, and that’s been the case for years,” says Lester. “We continue to be a place where people want to work, because of the community, because of the staff, and now because of the building.” Folger, for one, says she intended to move away from the area, though her immediate plans included simply spending time outside of the library walls she called home for so long. “I’m going to go for a nice 4-mile walk with a friend, in the daylight,” she says. “I can’t wait to be out side for big pe riods of time.” Mason Levin son, a two- decade reporter at Bloomberg News, is direc tor of content at Maplewood- based PR firm RoseComm. Manman Huang with librarian Jane Fol ger at the Maplewood Library leading "Paint Like a Champion" Soccer Ball Art Workshop during World Cup mania. Library staff retirees were part of the team that reimagined the new space and readied it for the public. A highlight, the forum staircase, faces Memorial Park and is used as an open venue to host events. Photo by Tracy Sham Photography. Fall Events That Matter Fall
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