A varied roster of spring classes from “Easy Bluegrass Jamming” to a study of “Chaucer’s Pilgrims: Their Lives, Many Sins, and Occasional Virtues” offers stimulating learning opportunities for both new and returning members of Coastal Senior College. Classes are $35 each; membership is $25. As a popular CSC instructor says,”If you want to meet wonderful people and be stimulated intellectually, then there’s no better deal in town.” All classes meet during the daytime in Knox and Lincoln counties.

Two eight-week classes will meet on Mondays. “Easy Bluegrass Jamming” with instructor Resa Randolph, who teaches guitar, voice, and banjo, begins on Monday, April 3 from 10 a.m. to noon for eight weeks at the undercroft of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Newcastle. The cost of this class does exceed the normal fee by $10, and is $45. Open to players of any acoustic instruments that fit into the bluegrass genre, the course offers a low-key and friendly environment for learning all aspects of bluegrass music and jamming etiquette. Beginning a week later on Monday, April 10 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Bremen Library, Antoinette Pimentel, biochemist and art history teacher extraordinaire, offers “Tenebrism and Chiaroscuro: ‘How a single candle can both defy and define darkness.’” A study of Caravaggio and his use of darkness as an artistic ruse to create both drama and tension will be a focus of this course.

Tuesday’s class, “Where Are My Keys? A Journey into the Aging Mind” taught by veteran CSC instructor Paul Somoza has a class limit of 30, and all slots were filled within the first three days of registration. If you have your heart set on taking this class, then you may call to be put on a waiting list. Most classes do have limits because of teaching space capacities; please register soon in order to guarantee yourself a spot. Sometimes after our catalog goes to print, a class that is listed must be cancelled. One of five upcoming Wednesday classes, “When Nomadism Ends: The Fate of Israel’s Bedouin Citizens” with popular instructor Steve Shaw, will not be offered this spring.

The following four classes are offered on Wednesdays. Two are writing classes; those who registered for “The Memoir Cafe” during the first days of enrollment, which opened on March 7, filled the first class. A second writing class taught by Caroline Janover at the Lincoln Home Media Room in Newcastle from 3 to 5 p.m. for six Wednesdays offers a supportive and inspiring environment for memoir writing. Sign up for “Editing Techniques: How to Cut and Prune Your Writing” to share your stories with a small group led by an inspirational teacher.

Two more Wednesday classes, one on French Impressionism and the second on American democracy, round out the mid-week offerings. Instructor Jane Roos offers “French Impressionism: Mostly Monet”; the course focus is the formation of the Impressionist group, the development of their painterly approach, and the reasons behind the critics’ hostility. The course begins on May 10 and runs for five Wednesdays from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at the Bremen Library. For those interested in a discussion of democracy led by an expert facilitator, instructor Carmen Lavertu’s seminar on the history of American democratic rule and civic engagement, including references to writers and poets from Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, will be a stimulating class. “Ideals of Democracy” begins on April 5 and runs for eight Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Thomaston.

Two classes meet on Thursdays. The first, “Hollywood as Ideology” taught by William Solomon, a media studies expert, will examine how movies distort the complexity of modern life as they reaffirm and sometimes revise the values which pervade U.S. popular culture. During each class students will watch a feature film and then critique it. Class begins on April 6 and runs for eight sessions from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at the Camden Public Library. The second course offered Thursdays is “Allons Enfants! The French Revolution and the People” taught by Charmarie Blaisdell, whose course repertoire includes Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation history. This turbulent time period will be explored through lecture, class discussion, and visuals. Class begins on April 6 and runs for eight sessions from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Porter Auditorium at Skidompha Library in Damariscotta.

Two class offerings on Friday both begin on April 7. Paul Kando, engineer, researcher, and energy expert, offers “After Capitalism,” an exploration of belief systems, economics, and science to help examine the questions: How well does the current economic system serve the basic human needs of every member of society? If it does not, what can we do? Class runs for six sessions from 10 a.m. to noon at URock in Rockland. Also beginning on April 7, but running for eight sessions from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bremen Library, is “Chaucer’s Pilgrims: Their Lives, Many Sins, and Occasional Virtues.” Instructor Ann Nesslage, whose focus is British, Irish and Welsh literature and mythology, will lead students on an exploration of Chaucer’s witty and satirical style as they explore the flawed bawdy, complex world of the pilgrims and their tales of love and lust.

To read complete descriptions for spring trimester classes and instructor bios, and to register for a class, one can choose from several options. Visit the Coastal Senior College website at www.coastalseniorcollege.org and download a registration form to mail in. Pick up a complete catalog (which includes a registration form) at many local businesses and libraries in Knox and Lincoln counties. Call 207-596-6906 to register. Go in person to the URock office, Suite 402 in the Breakwater Building at 91 Camden St. in Rockland. We look forward to seeing you in class!