May and Olive text each other all day long. May's fiery temperament is calmed by Olive's gentle ways; they seem to complement each other... until they stop understanding each other.
English teacher Movado the Avocado and best friend Supercali were the same way. From first grade through age sixteen, they were tight as ever... until Supercali had the bright idea to jump into Emerald Falls... and she was never the same again.
Dad is always busy at work, at home fighting with May, or scheming up plans for May's summer.
Gram is depressed and a shadow of her former self. She refuses to emerge from bed, and she rarely eats more than a sliver of anything. She has lost easily half of her weight.
Mom is gone for some unknown reason.
Hermit crab, Sherman, travels up and down May's arm when she lets him out of his cage to play.
Ricky's will present a recruitment on Monday, April 27, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, for Quality Control Assistant (1 opening), Assistant Manager (P/T) (5 openings), Store Receiving Manager (2 openings), Store Manager (2 openings), Sales Associate (5 openings) at Lower Manhattan Workforce 1 Career Center, 75 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013.
Heightened Security, Inc. will present a recruitment on Tuesday, April 28, 2015 , 10 am - 1 pm for Special Event Operatives - Security Guards (35 openings) at Flushing Workforce 1 Career Center, 138-60 Barclay Avenue, 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355.
Mid-Manhattan Library Single Stop will present Career Services Fair on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm at Mid-Manhattan Library - Corner Room. Services include Recruitment, Home Health Aid Training, Educational Opportunities, Technical and Vocational Training, Services for Veterans, Computer Skills, Resume Writing, Interviewing Skills, Senior Services and Production Careers Training. Please call to register: 212-576-0024 or 212-340-0861. Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10016.
Block Institute will present a recruitment on Thursday, April 30, 2015, 10 am - 3 pm, for Assistant Teacher/Teacher Aide, (15 openings), Group Leader (5 openings), Assistant Manager (2 openings), Direct Support Professional (25 openings), at NYS Department of Labor - Workforce 1 Career Center, 250 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Clinical Staffing Resources will present a recruitment on Thursday, April 30, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm, for Certified Nursing Assistant - LTC, (15 openings), Registered Nurse -LTC (10 openings), Registered Nurse - Hospital (10 openings), Licensed Practical Nurse - LTC (10 openings) at the Bronx Workforce 1 Career Center, 400 E, Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458.
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physically disabled. NYCE&TC Job Listings.
Digital NYC is the official online hub of the New York City startup and technology ecosystem, bringing together every company, startup, investor, event, job, class, blog, video, workplace, accelerator, incubator, resource and organization in the five boroughs. You can search jobs by category in this site.
St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development, 790 Broadway, 2nd Fl., Brooklyn, NY 11206, 718-302-2057 ext. 202.
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking. BWI is at 621 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217. 718-237-5366.
CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for 8 weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for 6 weeks, and includes test prep then taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, please Email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690 or visit 70 Mulberry Street, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10013. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings for free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding. Please call CMP for information.
Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.
Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.
Please note this blog post will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of April 26 are available.
Hey! Guess what!? The 2015 baseball season is underway! We've been having lots of fun so far with the Mets prodigious win streak, the Cubs and the White Sox calling up phenoms, Kris Bryant and Carlos Rodon respectively, and Royals outfielder Paulo Orlando collecting 3 triples for his first 3 hits in the Major Leagues, the first player since 1900 to pull off that feat (seriously!). 2015 is also a noteworthy season because it marks the 100th anniversary of the folding of the Federal League. What exactly was the Federal League? Glad you asked!
Back a hundred years ago, the Federal League represented a third “major league” option for ballplayers to consider playing for, in addition to the National and American Leagues. The Federal League, started in 1914, was not affiliated with Major League Baseball, did not play any of their pennant winners, and was sort of an “outlaw league,” Players would breach their contracts with their MLB teams to jump ship to the Federal League, Reason? Shocker, for more money. At the end of the 1915 campaign, owners from both the American League and the National League agreed to buy out the bulk of Federal League owners, and thus the league's life was unceremoniously cut short. While the Federal League's life was gone in a heartbeat, that does not mean there weren't any interesting trivia tidbits to come out of it. Here are some of those fun facts!
Did you know that the Chicago Cubs were not Wrigley Field's first tenant?This is totally true! The Chicago Cubs came to existence in 1876, and owned several other team names, White Stockings, Colts, and Orphans, before settling on the Cubs in 1903. They also bounced around a few stadiums before calling Wrigley Field home in 1916. However, what many people don't know is that Wrigley Field, originally named Weeghman Park, was originally built as a Federal League stadium for the Chicago Whales in 1914. Though the Whales ceased operations after 1915 when the League went out of business, Weeghman Park never stopped operations. The Cubs moved into Weeghman Park in 1916, changed the name to Cubs Park in 1920, then to Wrigley Field in 1927, which has remained ever since. Wrigley Field is certainly the largest contribution the Federal League has left on the game of baseball today.
Did you know that the first lefthanded pitcher to win his 300th game came during a Federal League game? The first pitcher to win 300 games? That would be the righthanded Hall-of-Famer Pud Galvin. Galvin's achievement came on September 4, 1888, while pitching for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys of the National League. After Galvin, seven other players reached the 300-win plateau, and every one of them was righthanded. Now fast forward to 1915, where we'll focus on southpaw Eddie Plank. Plank had played every season of his career, from 1901-1914, for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics. He ammassed 284 wins for the A's, in addition to two World Series rings in 1911 and 1913. However, when 1915 came around, Plank was in search for a bigger paycheck, and the St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League were very happy to oblige. Pitching for the Terriers on a one year contract, Plank tallied a 21-11 record over 42 appearances, with a 2.08 ERA to go with it. Win #300 came on September 11, 1915 for Plank, as he went 8 innings allowing only 2 runs as his Terriers bested the Newark Peppers.
Though the Federal League was shortlived, its place in baseball history should not be overlooked. For more books on the subject, please visit our catalog.
Narrative or creative nonfiction is somewhat newly recognized genre. Naturally, as librarians we have a great appreciation for the research, the primary source documents and interviews, but it is the narrative, the skillful pacing, the phrasing, and the insight that make it read like a thriller that set these books apart from other nonfiction. For this week's readers advisory practice we decided to pay tribute to the talented authors who do this well. We received such a strong response to the call out for favorites that we divided the list into four categories: journalism and social science, travel and adventure, science, and memoir. This is the travel and adventure edition of our salute to great narrative nonfiction.
Isak Dinesen's (Karen Blixen) Out of Africa brings you to her coffee plantation in British colonial Kenya. I found myself longing to lounge around her house and soak in the atmosphere first person. More recently, Philip Hoare's The Sea Inside took twists and turns with whales and birds around the globe and traveled through time to discuss man's relationship with the sea. Swimming, biking, boat riding… it is all very cathartic. —Jessica Cline, Mid-Manhattan
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston takes us into the heights of the Redwoods and the peculiar lives of a group of driven climbers. —Jeremy Megraw, Billy Rose Theatre Division
I love the travelogues of Paul Theroux, particularly The Great Railway Bazaar, which I read during a trip through Southeast Asia, and ignited a passion for train travel. The passages about the Trans-Siberian Express, the landscape around Lake Baikal, and especially Theroux's interactions with staff and passengers are priceless glimpses into a bizarre, hermetically-sealed universe. —Sherri Machlin, Mulberry Street
A great getting lost in the woods tale is A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson. In between laughing until my eyes teared up, I enjoyed the fascinating history of the beginnings of this monumental tribute to the great outdoors and volunteerism and the story of what it took to actually get the trail finished as Bill Bryson attempts to walk the trail from start to finish. —Maura Muller, Volunteers Office
I used Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburned Country as a travel guide when I stayed in Australia for a month and I saw things I never would have thought to without his book (like a dual pet shop/porn shop). His audiobooks are high entertainment as well. —Leslie Tabor, Assoc. Dir. Neighborhood Libraries
Ajani and friends play football in South Africa... after he has finished his homework and gotten water from the well. He joyfully calls his friends outside to join him in the game. Overturned buckets serve as goal posts. One boy acts as a guard for danger. The boys forget about their problems as they race for the ball. Then, a gang of boys tries to steal their venerated leather Federation football. However, they cannot dampen the fun of the game. Scoring is the best of all; vying for the black-and-white sphere, dribbling and running together cements the boys' friendship.
Danette Vigilante grew up in the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, NY. She is now a resident of Staten Island along with her husband, two daughters, two puppies and a cat with a bad attitude. Danette is the author of The Trouble With Half a Moon, a 2012-2013 Sunshine State Young Readers award nominee and Saving Baby Doe, a 2014 pick for the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing list.
We were given the opportunity to ask Danette a few questions; here is what we found out!
When and where do you like to read?
I especially love to read while on vacation, though I have to remember to apply sunscreen! I learned that the hard way while reading at my favorite place, a beach. I was visiting Puerto Rico and was so engrossed in Carrie Ryan’s, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, that I was completely unaware of the blazing sun. Ouch!
What were your favorite books as a child?
I was a weak reader growing up, but when I finally discovered a love for reading in the fifth grade, I devoured anything by Judy Blume. One of her books in particular stands out though, and that’s Blubber. I remember not being able to put it down. At bedtime I hid beneath the covers reading (and sweating) by the light of a working dollhouse lamp. I loved that lamp!
What books had the greatest impact on you?
One of the books that had the greatest impact on me is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Like Francie, I grew up poor and lived in Brooklyn and because of this, I think I was able to identify with her in some ways.
Would you like to name a few writers out there you think deserve greater readership?
To Kill a Mockingbird, at this point, seems almost to be the essence of literary life for American schoolchildren. It's a perennial favorite in the English classroom that, unlike many other examples of required reading, wins the lifelong affection of many readers. At the same time, its author, Harper Lee, is one of the most mysterious figures in American letters. This year, on April 28, Lee will turn 89. She will publish her second novel, Go Set a Watchman in July. As we await this much-anticipated encore, we're looking at the beloved author who told us that real courage was “when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
“Love—In Other Words” by Harper Lee Vogue April 15, 1961 (via The Vogue Archive)
No one can quite capture Harper Lee as can the author herself, and this essay is quintessentially Lee as she drops little pearls on love, unapologetically declaring to us that “Without love, life is pointless and dangerous.”
“Harper Lee's Novel Achievement” by Charles Leerhsen Smithsonian Magazine June 2010 (via Academic Search Premier)
Journalist Charles Leerhsen visited Lee's hometown, Monroeville, Alabama on the eve of To Kill a Mockingbird's fiftieth anniversary. His bemused critique of the town's grab for touristic commercialization suggests something like an explanation for Lee's media-reticence.
“Mocking Bird Call” Newsweek January 9, 1961
In 1961, Newsweek published a profile of Lee that shows the author at an angle unfamiliar to us now: the new author. Lee reveals, with some amusement, one of her favorite reader letters.
“To Steal a Mockingbird?” by Mark Seal Vanity Fair July 2013 (via Proquest Research Library)
In 2013, Seal covered Lee's lawsuit and with it a brief history of literary scandals, including that surrounding the execution of John Steinbeck’s estate. The portrait that emerges is messy and fascinating.
“The Courthouse Ring” by Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker August 10, 2009 (via Proquest Research Library) To Kill a Mockingbird has been much praised for its treatment of issues of race. Gladwell posits that, in fact, Atticus Finch represents the limits of southern liberalism in the mid-century Southern landscape.
“Why ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Won't Die” by Sam Tanenhaus Bloomberg View February 15, 2015
In this interrofation of the enduring appeal of To Kill a Mockingbird, Sam Tanenhaus offers one explanation: the novel is not only one centered around issues of social justice but also the goodness of reading. How could the bookish of heart resist?
“To Shill a Mockingbird” by Neely Tucker Washington Post February 16, 2015
When it was announced that Lee's second novel Go Set a Watchman would be published, many speculated that an elderly Lee was taken advantage of by profit-driven vultures. Tucker investigates the claim with wit and nuance.
Frank Bruni is a New York Times columnist, who has written four nonfiction books. His most recent, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania, turns a gimlet eye toward college admissions—and the mythology surrounding it. In this week’s episode of the New York Public Library podcast, Bruni discusses the pitfalls of believing that elite schools are the sole path to a great life, why people put too much faith in the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings, and what’s worthwhile about college.
It would be reductive to read the title of Bruni’s book and assume that the author thinks college is a waste of time. Bruni, in fact, notes many benefits:
“I believe in college. I have a big problem with the conversation about ‘Is college worth it?’ because that question and that conversation is entirely about professional utility, and it kind of casts college in a vocational role. And I think if you can, and you’re blessed if you can, but if college if economically attainable, if it’s within your reach, it’s not just about preparing for a job. It’s about becoming a better citizen. It’s about becoming a bigger person. And I would hate for us to lose sight of that as we do this dollars and cents analysis of whether college is financially worth it.”
Rather than critiquing the college experience, Bruni questioned the way that college reputations often precede the educations they offer, and there is no mechanism that drives the engine of college reputations more than the U.S. News & World Report:
“We’re as insecure about colleges as we are about washers and dryers, and you want to look in Consumer Reports—no, I’m not making a joke—you want to look in Consumer Reports and be told what car to buy or what washer and dryer. You also want to outsource your judgment and discretion when it comes to colleges and U.S. News & World Report has done, admittedly, the most comprehensive and best marketed rankings in the world. But what people I don’t think understand is exactly how these rankings are put together and how manipulable, gameable they are. So you take one thing: a big fraction of that ranking reflects what high school guidance counselors and then on the college level what university presidents, provosts, and admissions teams have said in surveys about the colleges they’re asked about. I’ve had college administrators say, ‘I don’t know what goes on at that college over there. So when I fill out the survey, I’m going by reputation. I’m going by how they ranked in U.S. News last year.’ So it’s a self-perpetuating phenomenon. It’s crazy.”
The craziness doesn’t end there. Bruni, who studied at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Columbia University, explained that college admissions anxieties are foregrounded by an unsubstantiated belief that college is the ultimate metric with which an individual can measure future success:
“It became clear to me that we’ve infused this process with so much anxiety that there are all these kids who really believe that they’re going to maximize substantially their chances of a great life or even be guaranteed one if they can just get into these schools, and there are these kids who conversely believe that if they get a no from these schools it is some binding verdict on their future and some meaningful judgment of their self worth. And as I watched kids go through that and then I looked around me at the New York Times, thought about it, I mean, I’ve been fortunate to work in a lot of different areas of journalism and to interview lots of people, this belief that success was only going to be attainable or was going to be so much more attainable only though the Ivy League and its ilk, it just didn’t match up to what I saw around me and the educational backgrounds and pedigrees of people I knew.”
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On May 2, the Great Kills Book Discussion Group will convene to discuss Ronald Kessler’s The First Family Detail, which provides riveting and highly astonishing facts as well as firsthand accounts concerning several United States Presidents, their respective families, United States presidential candidates and the United States Secret Service Special Agents (“SSSAs”) who serve and protect the immediately aforementioned entities. My reading of Kessler’s extraordinarily revealing work (I am hereby issuing the caveat that my comments concerning some of the reported incidents in The First Family Detail are predicated upon the rebuttable presumption that the incidents depicted in The First Family Detail are veracious. While Mr. Kessler is a highly esteemed, famous and responsible writer, I feel compelled to qualify my following comments because some of the incidents reported in The First Family Detail exert the effect of leaving a reader stupefied, and are often attributed to a source identified merely as “an agent,” which is understandable in terms of encouraging Special Agents to speak with complete candor regarding sensitive matters, but which also creates a situation whereby verification of some incidents is not a facile task. The book provided me with a surprising and engrossing experience, one that my book discussion group participants will share.
As I commenced reading Mr. Kessler’s engrossing new book, I was coerced to cast a few glances at the cover of said book, as I thought perhaps The National Enquirer commenced issuing a large-print version and the large-print version had become inadvertently wedged in-between the pages of The First Family Detail. Incidents of reported chronic skirt-chasing by certain former presidents are oft-cited in this book. Shortly after my graduation from college, I recall America being besieged with the seemingly ubiquitous images of (then) Presidential candidate William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton and Gennifer Flowers on virtually every nightly newscast, and can vividly remember the Monica Lewinsky scandal, so the depiction of President Clinton as being equally qualified to be the Leader of the Free Clinic as well as the Free World did not represent a novel school of thought to me. However, I was surprised to read that President Lyndon B. Johnson was reportedly a serial adulterer, and that he often used to engage in trysts with his paramours while onboard the presidential plane when Lady Bird Johnson was also present on the same plane, albeit in a different cabin. (If Wife Swap was in existence in 1965, and former United States Attorney General Janet Reno changed places with Lady Bird Johnson, I doubt that even the SSSAs on the presidential detail would have been effective in protecting President Johnson from Ms. Reno’s wrath!)
Other leading political entities of this country are described in incidents that indicate said entities are in egregious need of a Barney or Sesame Street refresher in basic manners, or an intervention by Dr. Phil. Gigantic chasms between the amiable public personas of respective denizens of The White House and their respective snarling private demeanors will serve to further surprise readers. (One incident that Kessler recounts involves SSSAs instructed to essentially conceal their respective selves in drapes if a certain former First Lady walked by, so deep is her reported disdain for law enforcement personnel, even those perfectly willing to sacrifice his/her life to ensure the maintenance of the relevant former First Lady’s earthly existence. The query that immediately leapt to my mind upon reading these near-farcical passages was, “What if the relevant Secret Service Special Agent became entangled in the drapes and was too ensnared to properly perform his/her protective duties?”) Kessler emphasizes the urgent need for Americans to discern past the respective veneers of political candidates to ascertain the respective true character of said candidates. “…the FBI Academy teaches that the best predictor of future is past behavior. Yet over and over, voters have ignored warning signs of poor character and candidates’ track records and focused instead on their promises, their celebrity, and their acting ability on television. It’s a blindness they would never extend to choosing a friend, a new employee, an electrician, or a plumber…” (As the French philosopher, magistrate and writer Joseph de Maistre observed, “Every country gets the government it deserves.”)
Extending beyond the reportedly sometimes appalling and overtly hostile acts of some of America’s leading citizens to others, including but not limited to the SSSAs, is the oft-repeated statements attributed to SSSAs that the Secret Service, especially since the Secret Service came under the rubric of The Department of Homeland Security in 2003, is woefully underfunded, resources are not allocated properly and there is a system-wide erosion of professional integrity plaguing the Secret Service. I was mindful of the quote attributed to Socrates, “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers,” clearly lamenting the character (or lack thereof) of the youth inhabiting Ancient Greece. So, I reminded myself that it is apparently part of human nature to regard one’s generation as superior to the next succeeding one.
However, Mr. Kessler provides illuminating examples to buttress the relevant SSSAs’ respective statements in that regard. One rather startling and frightening example concerns SSSAs being reassigned on an ad hoc basis from President Obama’s detail to provide personal protective services to the staff assistant to a high ranking Secret Service officer when the relevant staff assistant experienced a quarrel with her neighbor. And, of course, those with even a passing familiarity with the American news will recall the incident involving the Secret Service officer who breached his contract with a prostitute in Cartagena, Colombia, while the pertinent SSSA was in that nation as part of President Obama’s official security detail. As was proven veracious in the financial industry, much to the economic devastation of so many around the globe, the Secret Service has reportedly joined those institutions that are afflicted with some management and certain staff members who fail to realize that they are stewards serving an institution with a specific mission, not individuals who are the alleged recipients of unbridled power to be misused for their own respective selfish ends or for matters beyond the scope of authority of the Secret Service. (As Juvenal so sagaciously penned centuries ago, “Who will guard the guards themselves?”) Kessler stresses the vital importance of the need to restore integrity to the Secret Service, citing its once stellar reputation within law enforcement circles (“…FBI (special) agents tend to admire Secret service (special) agents more than they do any other law enforcement officers”) and the dire necessity to re-implement pertinent firearms training, upgrade of weapons currently used by SSSAs so as to render said weapons on par with the weaponry SSSAs might be facing in a battle against armed foes and stricter adherence to physical fitness standards for all SSSAs. Kessler repeatedly reports the complaint of career SSSAs that too many supervisory Secret Service personnel acquiesce to the often irresponsible demands of protectees and the staff of protectees that SSSAs cease to implement comprehensive security measures (for example, scanning only every other attendee with a “magnetometer” at an event where Vice-President Joseph Biden was the featured guest speaker to save time in a strategy that blatantly created a situation where an entity armed with a gun, knife or grenade could have evaded detection prior to admittance to said event). Kessler describes an agency where far too often, political and personal whims of non-security experts (including some protectees) are unreasonably permitted to undermine the professional efforts of the SSSAs who remain ultimately responsible for the respective lives of protectees.
On a more esoteric note, Kessler discusses the myriad of investigative tools employed by SSSAs when endeavoring to ascertain any potential credible threat to a protectee, including SSSAs interviewing a psychic. Kessler also mentions the various other duties that an SSSA may be properly assigned to, including but not limited to investigating counterfeit currency creation and circulation, fraud against the United States and other crimes of a financial nature.
When I next had occasion to speak to my niece, I dreaded her reaction to the corruption, misuse of power and misallocation of various sorts of resources within the Secret Service, as my niece had decided to celebrate her newly-imbued right to vote by reading The First Family Detail. I was fearful that some of the apparently non-bowdlerized sections of the book, describing some of the (reported) less than noble acts of the past leaders of the free world, would serve to discourage my niece from her newly-found political interest. I was completely wrong. Amanda stated to me, “Auntie, this book describes an absolutely terrible situation! It must be rectified immediately!” I sighed, agreed with my niece and commenced to attempt to soothe her jangled nerves. “Yes, the corruption level in Washington, D.C. today would cause Machiavelli to state, “I was wrong; the ends do not justify the means,’ President Clinton’s reported serial philandering is rather disconcerting…” Amanda sharply interrupted me, “Oh, grow up, auntie! I’m not referring to corruption per se or President Clinton’s reported serial philandering! I am referring to the fact that Bo and Sunny Obama are totally devoid of Secret Service protection! When I began glancing through the book, I thought the acronym ‘POTUS’ referred to, ‘Pets of the United States!’ I reasoned that all is just and proper, with a “phalanx of special agents surrounding the POTUS,” until I read that the ‘P’ in ‘POTUS’ refers to the President – the human! Geesh! Have we learned nothing from Buddy Clinton’s tragic death?!?” Pausing for a nanosecond, my niece impassionedly plunged on. “I recall reading that two Secret Service Belgian Malinois, Hurricane and Jordan, stopped an intruder on the White House grounds this past autumn, an intruder who might have harmed President Obama or the other protectees therein! I think it is high time that inter-species consideration is adopted in this country! And, auntie, incidentally, I very much doubt that either Bo or Sunny would require an SSSA to hide in the drapes!” My niece then hurriedly admonished me that she was ending our instant phone call because she had to attend to the rather pressing matter of writing to the Director of the Secret Service as well as President Obama concerning the “woeful neglect of the safety of the President’s most loyal confidants in Washington, D.C.!”
We asked our Children’s Librarians to select three books every child should know about before kindergarten. Here are their picks.
Freight Train by Donald Crews
Who doesn’t love a train book? Simple images and text make this a classic. The movement of the train across each page mimics the direction that text is read—from left to right. Children love helping identify the colorful train cars and watch as they travel through cities and across trestles.
I Can Do It Too! by Karen Baicker
A brightly colored story in which a young girl proudly shows off all the things that she can do now that she is grownup. It introduces various family as well as every day activities. Great for children’s self-confidence.
My Car by Byron Barton
This book introduces readers to the many parts of the car as well as pedestrian safety, street signs and community helpers. Children will no doubt add their own observations to each page. This is a popular read aloud and we were thrilled when the author came out with My Bus.
—Louise Lareau, Children’s Center at 42nd Street
Ask Mr. Bear by Marjorie Flack
Originally published in 1932, I can see why this has stood the test of time. Young Danny meets a menagerie of farmyard animals, each willing to give him something for his mother’s birthday gift, all of which she already possesses. Recognition of animals and their respective sounds, sequencing, autonomy, and generosity are all themes in this brightly engaging cumulative tale. And surprisingly, the kids are reciting parts of it to you by tale’s end.
Caps For Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
In my opinion, Caps For Sale is a masterpiece! The story is great. And the art! Let me just say, that Slobodkina really knew what she was doing with the layout—especially the scenes leading up to when we finally get to meet those mischievous monkeys. Cause and effect, sequencing (darn if I can quite remember which caps go on the top, but the kids do), frustration tolerance and emotions all come into play. The conflict is believably real, and it’s eventual resolution quietly satisfying—another classic that is a heavy hitter in a subtle way.
Corduroy by Don Freeman
I haven’t met a person yet who has not developed an affinity for this inquisitive and adorable teddy bear. Corduroy possesses all the qualities of a preschooler—a sense of adventure and wonder, emerging independence, and curiosity, which is maybe why he continues to be a hit generation after generation. Other hidden themes include using one’s imagination, a sense of accomplishment, problem solving, and of course, friendship. What four year old, or adult, can’t help but identify with all that?
—Rebecca Gueorguiev, Great Kills
Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin
Rhythm, colors and a catchy chorus that kids can pick up the first time through! This brilliant book with an upbeat message wins is a surefire read-aloud favorite!
Hi, Pizza Man! by Virginia Walter
Waiting for pizza has never been so much fun! Youngsters get to figure out what animal sounds to use as they imagine a variety of different pizza delivery characters. Guessing what to say and who will be on the next page keeps kids entertained and thinking, while enjoying the wild and wacky illustrations.
Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
Explore colors, clothing and repetition in this simple book that nevertheless has all the familiar comic silliness the author is known for. This is one your toddlers will be anticipating the “oops!” every time.
—Stephanie Whelan, Seward Park
Mr. Cookie Baker by Monica Wellington
A day in the life of Mr. Cookie Baker, a city baker who rises early to make cookies to sell in his shop. Take simple text, add a dash of colorful illustrations, mix well, and voila—a happy baby/toddler reader! There are four cookie recipes at the end of this story too. Yum.
Shoe Baby by Joyce Dunbar (and illustrated by her daughter Polly Dunbar)
A whimsical rhyming story with charming illustrations by a mother-daughter team. My favorite part is making the “boo hoo hoo” sound of the giant at the end. :)
Trashy Town by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
Join Mr. Gilly in his trash truck as he collects the garbage around Trashy Town. This one will have everyone chanting, “dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town!”
—Susie Tucker Heimbach, Mulberry Street
Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins
I’m sort of cheating with this one because it’s a collection containing many folktales all retold for preschool listeners with Cousin’s bright and colorful illustrations. I chose this because a lot of teachers assume children come in knowing or have been exposed to the European folktales and a child from a different cultural background who doesn’t know them may be at a disadvantage. Folktales are also simple but repetitive so children can anticipate what will come next and make predictions. Warning: Cousins has the original endings on these tales—the wolf gets decapitated (Red Riding Hood) and boiled (Three Little Pigs).
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
This is an old (originally published in 1955) but timeless classic exploring the power of your imagination. All you need is a crayon and you can go anywhere and do anything. Kids will want their own purple crayon to draw their adventures.
Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler
I love the rhythm of this book that begs to be read aloud. Some kids do join in but the majority just like to sway to the beat. It also introduces some musical terms such as: “sings scat,” “toe taps,” “soft shoes,” “hip hop,” “bebop,” and “tempo.” The text fit perfectly with the rhythm as it swings up or down and wraps around the illustrations.
—Sue Yee, Children’s Center at 42nd Street
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
With its humorous black and white illustrations this is a story that all parents can relate to and comfort all children. Ferdinand, a little bull, has a mother that understands him and lets him grow to be a gentle creature instead of a bull that wants to fight. But when Ferdinand accidentally sits on a BEE—the young reader sees the funny consequences. This classic book has been a favorite for many generations and is one I really love.
Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
With Tom Thumb leading the way, fairy tale characters come together for a picnic with a delicious plum pie. The illustrations and full of detail and the “I spy” feature makes finding the character very satisfying. Listening to a rhyming story and looking for the hidden characters make for a book to be read over and over.
Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Learning the names of colors and what primary colors mix together to make other colors is the job of three curious white mice. After they have fun playing and dancing in found paint they leave some of the paper white because of the cat. Not only does the reader get to anticipate the color change but they can enjoy the humor of a story about 3 sly mice.
Alan Cumming comes to Books at Noon next Wednesday, May 6 to discuss his latest work, Not My Father's Son. We asked him six questions about what he likes to read.
When and where do you like to read?
If it’s the right book and I’m hooked I can read anywhere but my druthers would be my house in the country where it’s quiet and I can glance up from my book and have a view of the hills.
What were your favorite books as a child?
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Mysteries. They were four cousins and a dog that went around the English countryside solving mysteries. They were always looking through telescopes at fiendish goings-on just off the coast and always had bars of chocolate and strings in their pockets in case of capture. They also had an Aunt Fanny—which I found hilarious.
What books had the greatest impact on you?
I think it’s books like The Catcher in the Rye or The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway because both of them make you feel like you’re actually inside another human being. I guess the actor in me responds to that immersive narrative.
Would you like to name a few writers out there you think deserve greater readership?
Janice Galloway, an amazing Scottish writer, Mike Albo, who writes with such nostalgic wit and Alasdair Gray, another Scot who is as brilliant a writer as he is an artist. His masterwork Lanark is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read.
You might say that I am an addict of Book TV, but I am not sure if the 12-step program works for this type of addiction. Ever since I downsized my cable into a more affordable option, I was freed from the plethora of junk television shows. I was then forced to pay attention to more quality programming. I traded in NY1, with its contentious political commentary, for the more staid PBS News Hour, which has a lot of more interesting topics anyhow. It was painful to part with Animal Planet and the Food Network, but I was thrilled to discover Book TV! This is the best thing ever, and it makes me so glad that I decided to save money on my cable! It is better than all of those other networks that I used to watch, combined.
Treasures
I cannot laud the series of book-related programs that airs each weekend on CSPAN2 (channel 115 for me) enough. You can also view all of the programs online. From 8 am on Saturday to 8 am on Monday, every single weekend, the following programs are featured: interviews with authors, which may be followed by audience questions, information about book fairs and other book-related events across the nation, panel discussions that feature authors discussing literary themes, interviews with curators, mobile book librarians, even an interview with Tony Marx, president of NYPL, and more. Mostly nonfiction books for adults are featured, but fiction and literature for children are also occasionally discussed. Book TV has been in existence since the 1990s.
Learning and Professional Development
They say that they broadcast the program on only on the weekends, but it is also shown on some holidays. It is difficult to articulate how the program supplements my career and augments my knowledge of books, the writing process, literary repositories, and library administration. Basically, everything knowledge and libraries is discussed on the programs that air on Book TV. Many of the programs are author presentations and interviews that occur in bookstores, libraries, synagogues, and book fairs across the country.
Memorable Programs
Even if I do not read the books that are featured, listening to the authors speak educates me about topics that I might not learn about otherwise. I first was disturbed to learn that the United States tortures their prisoners of war from a program on Book TV. Another program showed a panel of authors talk about what they read, why and how. One time, I listened to a physical therapist describe the challenges and joys of working with multiple-amputee war veterans in a hospital. On another occasion, I was fascinated to learn from a forensic psychologist what life is life in a forensic hospital. I later blogged about that book, as I do about many of the books that I learn about from Book TV, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, through my own research or ones that I find simply lying around the library. The Book TV programming is fascinating, intellectually stimulating, and supplements the Children's Literary Salons that I attend at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in person, usually on the first Saturday of the month. I love blogging, and learning about the authors' writing processes causes me to reflect on my own.
Actresses (Front L-R) Laurie Carlos, Paula Moss, Aku Kadogo, Trazana Beverly; (Top L-R) Rise Collins, Janet League, Seret Scott in scene fr. the play "For Colored Girls Who Have Condsidered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." (New York) Image ID: swope_1145109
The Schomburg Center's Public Programs Pre-Professional, Jamara Wakefield, shares what inspires her as a spoken word artist in honor of April's National Poetry Month:
My mother’s collection of African-American literature was my first black history library. Her books became a literary sanctuary where I discovered Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Zora Neale Hurston’s I Love Myself When I Am Laughing And Then Again When I Am Looking Mean & Impressive. I thought I was a little Zora, and I aspired to embody her quirky style. Ntozake Shange’s writing also made me want to twirl and dance in my room. As I grew older, I lost myself in books like Alice Walker's Possessing The Secret of Joy, books that taught me what it means to be a black girl and now a black woman—things I could never learn from reading the required 17th century Victorian literature in school.
April is National Poetry month and here at the Schomburg Center we recently hosted two exciting poetry events: Teen Night: Open Mic and The Eyes Have It: Poetry and Photography. The energy at these events inspired me to me to explore the work of playwright and poet Ntozake Shange, featured in our podcast selections, and the Gwendolyn Brooks papers found in our Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. My mother once told me how she performed Brooks’s poem “We Real Cool”at a her predominantly white school in the ’60s, at a time when the message of the poem was at powerful as it was risky. After hearing my mother's story, I became obsessed with memorizing poems and reciting them for my audience of dolls, neighbors, family or anyone who would listen. I too wanted to find my voice. I wanted to be a poet.
As I reflect on those early encounters with poetry and my current work as a performer, it is clear to me that I stand in the long tradition of using performance, poetry and theater as a resistance strategy to revise, interrogate, and re-examine the historical events of our past. This foundation not only nurtures my self-esteem, but allows me to critically think about my role in the world today.
Manhattan: Central Park - [Philharmonic in Central Park] Image ID: 718405F
This year, the New York Philharmonic is celebrating 50 years of free concerts in New York City’s parks. Since 1965, over 14 million people have enjoyed this honored city tradition. To celebrate the parks, and the audiences that have attended the concerts for the past 50 years, the New York Philharmonic Archives has created Crowdsourcing Memories: 50 Years of the Philharmonic in New York City’s Parks.
The New York Public Library and the New York Philharmonic are partnering to gather New Yorkers' favorite recollections for this important collection. We invite you to share photos, videos, and personal recollections of park concerts so they can be preserved in the Philharmonic’s Archives for future generations.
The following libraries—each one close to Parks Concert history—are helping to build this collection beginning the week of May 4:
Woodlawn Heights Library(near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx where Parks Concerts were held from 1971 - 2015)
St. George Library Center (near Snug Harbor in Staten Island where Parks Concerts were held from 1979 - 2007)
Do you remember hearing your favorite piece of music? Who did you go with? Do you remember the fireworks? Did you picnic? Here are just a few memories that people have submitted already:
In the summer of 1965, Rick Rand was celebrating his graduation from Cooper Union, bought himself a Triumph sports car, and saw Benny Goodman perform in the inaugural season of the Concerts in the Parks.
In 1974, Steven Blumrosen witnessed Leonard Bernstein perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 25 while conducting the Orchestra with his head.
After his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2003, James Ehnes took a bow after his Tchaikovsky solo and then stunned his girlfriend and 45,000 audience members when he asked her to marry him.
Selected memories will be posted on the Philharmonic’s memory website, and you can submit your memories online.
Additionally, in collaboration with the New York Public Library Oral History Project, the Archives is hosting a memory circle on Tuesday May 5, 2015 at St. Agnes Library. This recorded event will be the perfect time to discuss your favorite parks memories with a representative from the Archives and your fellow New Yorkers.
This event is part of the New York Philharmonic’s programming for their crowdsourcing memory project celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Parks Concerts. For more information, please visit www.nyphil.org/parks50memory.
This event is also part of our programming for the NYPL Community Oral History Project. For more information, please visit oralhistory.nypl.org
Merchant Industry Inc. will present a recruitment on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 10 am -2 pm, for Lead Generator - Telemarketing (25 openings) at New York State Department of Labor, 9 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
The New York State Department of Labor and Hostos Community College will present The Bronx Career Expo on Thursday, May 7, 2015, 11 am -3 pm. to connect Bronx job seekers to employment opportunities. The first hour of the fair is reserved for Hostos Community College students, and the fair will open up to the general public at 12:00 pm. This event will be held at Hostos Community College, East academic complex - building C, 450 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY 10451.
All Metro Health Care will present a recruitment on Friday, May 8, 2015, 10 am - 2 pm for Certified Home Health Aide (10 openings) and Certified Personal Care Aide (10 openings) at Staten Island Workforce 1 Career Center, 120 Stuyvesant Place, Staten Island, NY 10301.
The New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCE&TC) is an association of 200 community based organizations, educational institutions, and labor unions that annually provide job training and employment services to over 750,000 New Yorkers, including welfare recipients, unemployed workers, low-wage workers, at-risk youth, the formerly incarcerated, immigrants and the mentally and physically disabled. NYCE&TC Job Listings.
Digital NYC is the official online hub of the New York City startup and technology ecosystem, bringing together every company, startup, investor, event, job, class, blog, video, workplace, accelerator, incubator, resource and organization in the five boroughs. You can search jobs by category in this site.
St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development provides Free Job Training and Educational Programs in Environmental Response and Remediation Tec (ERRT). Commercial Driver's License, Pest Control Technician Training (PCT), Employment Search and Prep Training and Job Placement, Earn Benefits and Career Path Center. For information and assistance, please visit St. Nicks Alliance Workforce Development, 790 Broadway, 2nd Fl., Brooklyn, NY 11206, 718-302-2057 ext. 202.
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement. Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking. BWI is at 621 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217. 718-237-5366.
CMP (formerly Chinatown Manpower Project) in lower Manhattan is now recruiting for a free training in Quickbooks, Basic Accounting, and Excel. This training is open to anyone who is receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Class runs for 8 weeks, followed by one-on-one meetings with a job developer. CMP also provides Free Home Health Aide Training for bilingual English/Cantonese speakers who are receiving food stamps but no cash assistance. Training runs Mondays through Fridays for 6 weeks, and includes test prep then taking the HHA certification exam. Students learn about direct care techniques such as taking vital signs and assisting with personal hygiene and nutrition. For more information for the above two training programs, please Email: info@cmpny.org, call 212-571-1690 or visit 70 Mulberry Street, 3rd Floor, NY, NY 10013. CMP also provides tuition-based healthcare and business trainings for free to students who are entitled to ACCESS funding. Please call CMP for information.
Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) trains women and places them in careers in the skilled construction, utility, and maintenance trades. It helps women achieve economic independence and a secure future. For information call 212-627-6252 or register online.
Grace Institute provides tuition-free, practical job training in a supportive learning community for underserved New York area women of all ages and from many different backgrounds. For information call 212-832-7605.
Please note this blog post will be revised when more recruitment events for the week of May 3 are available.
Dance in unexpected places... walking through literary New York... New York's incredible abandoned spaces... photographing fashion's trendsetters... recipes in literature... unusual hiking destinations... coming of age in postwar America... the art and science of what we eat... southern Italy's most celebrated gardens... urban transformation in Chelsea... the influence of our infrastructure...
If you're interested in hearing more about any of these subjects, please join us at an Author @ the Library program at the Mid-Manhattan Library in May! Listen to scholars and other experts discuss their recent nonfiction books on a wide variety of subjects and ask them questions. Author talks take place at 6:30 pm on the 6th floor of the Library unless otherwise noted. No reservations are required. Seating is first come, first served. You can also request the authors' books using the links to the catalog included below.
Photographer Jordan Matter started his Dancers Among Us Project by asking a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company to dance for him in a place where dance is unexpected. His presentation celebrates life in a way that’s fresh, surprising, original, and universal.
Incomparable Couples: Rose Hartmanshowcases the work of photographer Rose Hartman, who has captured fashion's trendsetters for three decades and has helped to define what we remember most about glamour and those who create it.
In Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary MealJennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa Goldthwaite reveal the range of ways authors incorporate recipes, whether the recipe flavors the story or the story serves to add spice to the recipe.
In Why Not Say What Happened: A Sentimental Education, historian Morris Dickstein tells his own deeply engaging story of growing up in the turbulent American culture of the postwar decades and how he came into his own as a teacher and writer.
In Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat, journalist John McQuaid investigates the mysteries of flavor through kitchens, supermarkets, farms, restaurants, massive food corporations, and science labs, from the first bite taken by our ancestors to scientific advances in taste, and the foodie revolution.
In Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space, Keller Easterling explores areas of infrastructure with the greatest impact on our world, examining everything from standards for the thinness of credit cards to the urbanism of mobile telephony, the world’s largest shared platform, to the “free zone,” the most virulent new world city paradigm.
If you'd like to read any of the books presented at our past author talks, you can find book lists from our January 2013 - May 2015 Author @ the Library programs in the BiblioCommons catalog.
As part of NYPL’s Money Matters program, we are also hosting a series of talks and workshops with Theodore Henderson, who works with entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals. Mr. Henderson is the author of the e-books, 30 Smart Ways to Protect Yourself from Cyber Criminals and 9 Simple Strategies to Becoming A Strong Leader. These programs will take place on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor. Money Matters programs will continue in June. The schedule for May is:
The Author @ the Library posts include mainly nonfiction authors discussing their recent works at the Mid-Manhattan Library. Don't miss the many other interesting classes, films, readings and talks on our program calendar. Enjoy art lectures and artist conversations and virtual tours of New York and other places, discuss contemporary classics in our book discussion group, hear short story readings at Story Time for Grown-ups, and share your favorite books at Open Book Nights. Did I mention that all of our programs and classes are free? We hope to see you soon at the library!
Don't miss Eric-Shabazz Larkin in the KidsLIVE! Author series. He will read from his new book A Moose Boosh at the Classon’s Point Library on May 5. We asked the author a few questions to get to know him before the event, read his responses below.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I became a writer because my big brother was a writer first. He used to sneak me into sketchy open mic poetry clubs that I was too young for. They would unleash their poems like mystical cupid darts across the room and each word inspired love and passion and anger and laughter and other things I was too young for. I wanted that kind of power. So I started writing poems of my own.
Do you have a special time to write or how is your day structured?
I carry a book and pen in my back pocket at all times. When you live in NYC, the best time to write is when you’re among the craziness of the city. There is literally inspiration everywhere.
Why do you write?
I write to escape reality. My imagination world is far more interesting than the real world.
Where do your ideas come from?
I steal all my ideas from everyone. I’ve never written anything original. My ideas are all exaggerations of things I’ve already seen in my, oh so ordinary life.
Do you read much and if so who are your favorite authors?
I didn’t read much as a child, I started reading when I went to college. Someone told me that leaders are readers and I decided I wanted to be both. This is tragedy to me—a child who did not read. But the truth is, there are so many kids who have the same issue as I did. To me, kids books were boring and un-relatable. I suppose that is why it is so rewarding for me to try to breathe life back into them again.
Do you work out an outline or plot or do you prefer just to see where an idea takes you?
For me, everything starts with the idea. Once I get the big idea, it’s all about slowly peeling it like an onion, until we get to something interesting in the middle.
How long on average does it take you to write a book?
A book can be written in a few days. But perfecting the book takes forever.
What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?
Timelines and deadlines are hard.
Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
It’s a serious thing to ponder the future. I would contend it’s a spiritual act. No one knows what their future holds. The past and the future are figments of our imaginations. But if I were to dream, I would dream that In the future I’m making art and the world a better place.
What is your favorite motivational phrase?
Impossible is a big word thrown around by small men. —Muhammad Ali
On May 2, 1885, the first issue of Good Housekeeping was published, and today it is one of the five surviving "Seven Sisters" of women's magazines. In some ways, the word "housekeeping" alone seems like an artifact, but you don't need to be a gourmet chef or interior decorating savant to enjoy these highlights from the last one hundred and thirty years of Good Housekeeping. As Loretta Lynn would say, "We've come a long way, baby."
1885
In the first issue of Good Housekeeping, Maria Parloa writes, "It is unfortunate that a prejudice exists against the high-sounding names given to some delicious dishes of a simple character." Unfortunate indeed! Luckily, Parloa provides a recipe for the simply named Fried Bread. It may sound too basic to even require a recipe, but au contraire. The 1885 instructions will provide incredible insights, such as the fact that blue smoke is nothing to be afraid of when you're cooking: "Cut a quantity of stale bread into little squares the size of caramels. Have at hand a deep pan containing fat so hot that blue smoke rises from the center, and put into it enough bread to cover the surface of the fat. When browned, remove with a skimmer, and drain on coarse brown paper. A minute should suffice for the cooking. A frying pan may be used if you have no deeper pan. The fat should be about an inch deep. Immediately after removing all the bread remove the pan from the stove, and when the fat has become partially cooled, strain it through a cheese cloth. Such a practice will enable you to use the fat dozens of times. The straining clears it of crumbs, which would otherwise become burnt and spoil the fat after a few minutes' using."
1895
Hamlet may have thought the question was "To be or not to be," but at age ten, Good Housekeeping published an article called "To Cycle or Not to Cycle." Hester M. Poole considers the attire of the "wheelwoman" for afternoon bicycle rides: "In regard to a cycling costume, much has been written. While it must be comfortable, its fashion and material is a matter of taste. Generally the rider finds that a blouse waist and a skirt of dark cloth reaching to the ankle, cut rather close about the hips and loose at the knee, is most serviceable. It is easy, modest and becoming." If you're inspired to dress as wheelwoman for next Halloween, you're not alone.
1905
Before there was Cesar Milan, there was the "professor." In her article "The Training of Domestic Animals," Sarah Comstock reports on his puppy boarding school. Comstock elaborates the progression of tricks that domestic animals may learn, very wisely writing, "The somersault is one of the hardest tricks taught. A double somersault once took an intelligent dog two patient years of study. This is a trick that no animal will perform of its own accord." Video retorts are welcome.
1915
Germaphobes, this one's for you! In 1915, Good Housekeeping published "Keep Away From Infections" by Woods Hutchinson A.M., M.D. According to Dr. Hutchinson, there are a few things to help ease your mind. First of all, don't worry about babies. "The babies themselves," he writes, "seldom play a very active part in the spread of infection, by reason of the obvious shortness of their pudgy legs." Secondly, feel free to keep breathing: "Comparatively few diseases are spread through the air, actual contact and carriage into the mouth, nose, or blood, are usually necessary. Kissing, fighting, and the syndicate purchase or cooperative consumption of blocks of candy-stocks are potent factors." Sure, you'll miss cooperatively consuming candy-stocks and fighting. But what's a small sacrifice for your health?
1925
It's not always easy wearing glasses. When it rains, you have to dry the drops off. A case is necessary to prevent scratches. But what you may never have thought of is how to deal with descending steps. One of Good Housekeeping Institutes's "Well-Timed Discoveries" addresses precisely this problem, however: "For Persons Wearing Bifocal Glasses - For the benefit of those who wear bifocals, I suggest the following: I had an inch-wide white strip painted along the edge of our gray porch and on each step. The white lines show plainly even at night, and there is no danger of falling." How do you spell ingenuity?
1933
Did you know that hands can stew in bitterness? Yes, those five-fingered things have their sensitivities too. Demetria M. Taylor, an expert in one's relationship to one's hands, writes, "Dishes need extremely hot water, but hands resent it." Of course, it may be hard to choose between the needs of your dishes and the feelings of your hands. But that's what warm soapsuds are made for!
1950
Why be cool when you can be cooler? Pretty when you could be prettier? This is the central question of "Keep Cooler, Look Prettier." Actually, there is no central question. There is no questioning at all. But there are tips and food metaphors: "You dislike shiny skin, which reminds you of hot buttered toast: you work for a suede finish. On oily skin, you use cake powder of cake make-up; on dry skin, a creamy base plus a dulling film of powder." Like GH says, do not be tempted to eat your face for breakfast. Protect it with caked-on layers of product when the temperature rises above eighty. Or don't. It's 2015.
To access more issues of Good Housekeeping, try the following resources, and tell us what your favorite housekeeping tip is!
This Children's Literary Salon was on April 26, 2015 at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Children's Book Council (CBC) Communications Director, Nicole Deming, gave a presentation about Children's Book Week (May 4-10, 2015). Then, Betsy Bird, Youth Materials Specialist for NYPL, interviewed her. It was great to learn about this opportunity to promote reading with kids, especially to kids in underserved communities. Reading to kids before they enter school improves their vocabulary and their ability to succeed academically.
Started by a Boy Scout Leader
Deming told us that the first Children's Book Week was in 1919. This was around the time that the first children's reading rooms started appearing in public libraries. Juvenile Instructor was a magazine from the time period for educators. Franklin Mathiews, author of The Boy Scout Courageous, was the chief librarian of The Boy Scouts of America. He formed Book Week Committee, which started the children's book week tradition. People in society at the time wanted more children's books in households. The history of Children's Book Week reflects the children's publishing industry over the last century. Currently, Every Child a Reader and the Children's Book Council administers Children's Book Week.
Posters
Each year has a unique poster to promote children's book week. Many illustrators of children's books have also illustrated these posters. Children's Book Week is celebrated in all 50 states. We want kids to really get excited about and engaged with books. There are 115 official event sites and over 200 events planned to celebrate reading with children. The events that libraries, schools and bookstores hold include story times, readings, signings, writings a song, reading to your sister, and scavenger hunts. They also create terrific book displays to entice young people to enjoy books. The Children's and Teen Choice Book Awards are chosen by kids, which is very important because it gives kids a say in which books are the best.
Bird then interviewed Deming about Children's Book Week.
Importance of Children's Literacy
Bird has always been curious about Children's Book Week. Since children's book are omnipresent now, why is it necessary to still celebrate this?
Deming stated that the #1 purpose of the week is to promote the pure joy of reading. It is a public awareness campaign to let people know how important reading to kids is in order to develop school readiness. Low income kids who enter school have an average of 3,000 to 4,000 words in their vocabulary, whereas higher income kids have about 10,000 more words in their vocabulary at the start of school. CBC has also helped support mothers in reading to their babies in prison via the Prison-Nursery Library Project. The founder of the project was born in prison.
Bird wondered why the week is now in May when it was previously in November.
Deming said the CBC was informed by bookstores that November was a bad month for them due to their holiday planning. They wanted to tie in the book promotions that they were already doing in May to children's books.
Bird mentioned that CBC is unique in that it has connections with publishers. Many publishers are members of CBC; how do they become members?
Deming told us that CBC is now accepting Canadian publishers as members. Publishers must have at least three titles published. CBC does not accept vanity presses (people who pay to have their books published). Publishers can apply for membership, and there is a review process. All of the major children's publishing houses are members, and most of all children's publishers are members. CBC has about 80 members.
Events
Bird wanted Deming to describe the stranger and more creative events that people have had for Children's Book Week.
Deming mentioned an all-day scavenger hunt at a school in which all of the students participated.
Bird commented that there have been many changes in the kid lit world in the past decade. She asked where Deming wants Children's Book Week to go, and where she thinks it is going in the future.
Deming stated that the most important thing is to reach kids in underserved communities with books. Unfortunately, most bookstores exist in higher income areas. Luckily, we have over 100 public libraries in New York City which provide free access to books to New Yorkers and tourists.
Audience Questions
Bird opened the floor for audience questions.
Someone asked how much input from educators goes into the planning of Children's Book Week.
Deming mentioned that the Children's Book Week Activities page came directly from teachers' suggestions. Educators communicate with CBC frequently, and they welcome email suggestions from everyone.
Another person asked if they have programs to give out books to kids in underserved areas.
Deming has worked with First Book, and CBC definitely seeks out such projects. Her favorite part of working with children's literature is unifying the children's book industry.
Farrah Lopez, the Schomburg Center's Communications Pre-Professional, spoke to Steven Fullwood, Assistant Curator for our Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, about his “Epistolary Lives” collection in our current exhibition, Curators’ Choice: Black Life Matters, and his latest book, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Black Gay Genius.
What inspired you to write Black Gay Genius?
Joseph Beam, an amazing editor and activist who conceived and edited In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology in 1986. Black Gay Genius (BGG) is a long overdue love letter to Joe. BGG was the brainchild of my co-editor, the marvelous Charles Stephens, founder of the Counter Narrative Project, which amplifies black gay men's voices through media, advocacy, and political education. I discovered Joe’s and other black gay writers work from In the Life. A friend made photocopies of some of the essays and poems and gave them to me, basically saving my life in 1988. Fast forward to 20 years later: I started working at the Schomburg as an archivist, and was excited that Joe’s papers were preserved at the library! Beam died two years after publishing In the Life. Because his mother, Dorothy Beam, loved her son and understood what he was trying to do, she donated his papers to the Schomburg. Working with Charles on a project about Joe Beam was exciting because he has such a reverence for the 1980s black queer art and politics. BGG took about 4 years from conception to completion.
Why is the observance of Joseph Beam’s life with an anthology important?
It is never up to mainstream culture to maintain or honor our dead; we must do that. I am specifically talking about black queer people. It is our duty. Joe Beam’s passion to learn, grow and provide an opportunity for others to speak their truths was inspired by the Black Power and Black Arts Movements. If you saw a need for something, you did it or you supported others that did. Beam identified the need and did that. Barbara Smith, writer, feminist, and co-founder of Kitchen Table Press, once wrote an essay about James Baldwin titled “We Must Always Bury Our Dead Twice,” which I took as a responsibility to make visible black queer life. In Black Gay Genius, Smith stated that “burying our dead twice, or three times or more means that we lift up their contributions, their legacy, their reputations and make them known in every way we possibly can” and I agree with her 100%.
How did Black Gay Genius influence your work at the Schomburg and your contribution to our exhibition, Curators’ Choice: Black Life Matters?
I’m obsessed with memory and how we learn who we are and why. To that end, my personal and professional work centers around three areas: cultural producer, cultural animator, and culture keeper. My role as an assistant curator is to preserve black culture. My work as a writer/publisher focuses on creating or producing culture that’s meaningful and imaginative. The animator aspect of what I seek to do is interpret culture, assist other artists with their work, and be a conduit for a specific kind of imaginative process that allows for learning beyond the brackets of the cultures we are born into and sometimes are imprisoned within. I think Charles saw the work I was doing with the In the Life Archive, a project that collects and preserves culture created by and about queer people of African descent, and thought I would be good to partner with him on this necessary project.
How does “Epistolary Lives” relate to Black Gay Genius?
“Epistolary Lives,” a collection of personal letters I curated for the Curators’ Choice exhibition, is an attempt to showcase the complicated ways in which black gays and lesbians imagined themselves and shared their lives with their friends, family, lovers and community. Topics range from self-discovery to health concerns to works in progress. BGG explores similar topics as well. About a third of the book is filled with testimony about Joe, as well as In the Life and its impact. Through the contributor’s works, we see similar themes arise: love, struggle, identity and liberation. An excerpt from one of Beam’s letters to poet Essex Hemphill appears in both “Epistolary Lives” and in Black Gay Genius. In 2011, while working on the book, I had the honor of assisting with the acquisition of the personal papers of Brad Johnson, who was a contributor to In the Life, and who died shortly after the papers were deposited at the Schomburg. One of Johnson’s letters, a very poignant one to his parents, is featured in “Epistolary Lives.” The most significant way these two projects connect is that they were produced to honor underrepresented queer people of African descent and to affirm their experiences by introducing these experiences to audiences unaware of their extraordinary lives.
What aspect do letters bring to Black Gay Genius that would not be present otherwise?
The letters that appear in BGG serve two purposes. In “Between Friends: An Ongoing Dialogue with ABilly S. Jones-Hennin and Carol Lautier,” we share in the experience of two individuals from two different generations. They tell us about their unique coming out processes. Jones-Hennin was a significant contributor to Beam’s In the Life, and Lautier is currently a PhD candidate at George Washington University. The other way letters inform BGG is through essays written by scholars Robert Reid-Pharr, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and andre m. carrington, who share excerpts from letters from Beam, Barbara Smith, Essex Hemphill and Audre Lorde—all of whom are significant foremothers and fathers of the black LGBTQ renaissance that exploded in 1980s. The book itself enters the long and complicated conversation about liberation and freedom.
Was there a particular letter that spoke to you on a personal level?
I was struck by the 11-page letter that poet Brad Johnson wrote to his parents in 1994. It reads like a novel. In it, Johnson talks to his parents who he clearly loves, and his profound disappointment of their refusal to accept him as a gay man. The letter is a testament to the complexities of love, honor and profound sadness. Meeting Brad, who was by his own account a loner, I received him as a remarkably thoughtful man who was still writing his letters in longhand in 2011.
Many of the pieces within “Epistolary Lives” have resonating themes of loneliness, isolation and struggle. Do you feel these themes still persist in black queer writing today?
Oh, absolutely. As the saying goes, some things have changed (e.g.., digital life) yet a great deal of things remain the same, or have even gotten worse (rampant homophobia, a rise in hate crimes, etc). In his brilliant essay, “An Archeology of Grief: The Fear of Remembering Joe Beam,” Colin Robinson captures what was always a painful time in what he rightly observes as an “unmourned AIDS grief of the 1980s and ‘90s, with all the trauma of working for black gay groups and networks, swimming at the bottom of so many drinks.” But it is also true that there is a lot of joy, laughter and insurgent vision in black queer writing that is often overlooked due to the reductive ways the black queer experience is rendered. In essence, there is so much more to our collective work.
What do you feel Black Gay Genius adds to the black queer conversation that is not already present?
Resurrecting Joe’s legacy to insert him into mainstream discourse, but a far more pressing one is that works like BGG can and should be done. Black queer/SGL literature, like all literature, is perpetually growing and developing and is often in conversation with Black radical/imaginative spaces—not always, but sometimes. BGG is a community offering in the tradition of the Black Arts Movement created by the community and published through a black queer press. It features new and seasoned writers, a variety of genres and a bibliography of Beam’s work. My hope is it will take its place among the many books that resonate in the hearts and minds of people who need and deserve literature that reflects their experiences.
How do you feel about the idea that Black Gay Genius is referred to as “wake work”?
It’s a very accurate assessment of what part of what Charles and I sought to do, which is to honor Joe by helping to resurrect him and his groundbreaking work. The book is not only a place for his friends and admirers to wax about Joe, but it also offers a bibliography of Beam’s work and works about him, essentially to have the opportunity to learn about him in his own words.
What would you like readers to take away from Black Gay Genius?
My hope is that the book entertains, informs and enlightens, and that it helps shed light on Joe Beam, who deserves to be studied more for his contribution to American letters.
May and Olive text each other all day long. May's fiery temperament is calmed by Olive's gentle ways; they seem to complement each other... until they stop understanding each other.
Ajani and friends play football in South Africa... after he has finished his homework and gotten water from the well. He joyfully calls his friends outside to join him in the game. Overturned buckets serve as goal posts. One boy acts as a guard for danger. The boys forget about their problems as they race for the ball. Then, a gang of boys tries to steal their venerated leather Federation football. However, they cannot dampen the fun of the game. Scoring is the best of all; vying for the black-and-white sphere, dribbling and running together cements the boys' friendship.
Dance in unexpected places... walking through literary New York... New York's incredible abandoned spaces... photographing fashion's trendsetters... recipes in literature... unusual hiking destinations... coming of age in postwar America... the art and science of what we eat... southern Italy's most celebrated gardens... urban transformation in Chelsea... the influence of our infrastructure...
