Tag: Memphis Public Library

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Seed Library Launches at Memphis Public Library

CREDIT: poppet with a camera/Flickr

poppet with a camera/Flickr

This week, prospective gardeners will not only be able to check out books on gardening at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, they can also check out seeds.

The Grow Memphis Seed Library at the Central Library opens at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 11th. Through it, customers may “check out” fruit, vegetable, and flower seeds for free. Once those seeds are planted, tended, and harvested, customers will return some seeds from their produce to the library. Grow Memphis will maintain the seed library.

“Certain areas of Memphis have been referred to as ‘food deserts’ where fresh produce is not readily available, but the Grow Memphis Seed Library is a free and easily accessible resource for customers to get and grow their own produce – perhaps in flower pots or their own backyards,” said Jessie Marshall, business and sciences department manager. “The seed library will also encourage Memphians to grow their own food and eat healthier by giving them access to seeds at no cost.”

Each week, master gardeners will be on-hand at the seed library to answer questions, and they’ll also host a few Explore Memphis 2016 programs. There’s a Grow Your Own workshop for teens on Wednesday, June 22nd and a Seed Saving and Starting 101 workshop on Tuesday, June 28th.

“Our objective each day when we open the doors of Memphis Public Libraries is to help customers connect, learn, and grow. New programs like the Grow Memphis Seed Library encompass all three of these goals, and the impact is immeasurable,” said Director of Libraries Keenon McCloy. “Customers will be equipped with the tools and knowledge they need to become producers, instead of solely consumers. Also, there are no limitations based on socioeconomic status. Whether customers are seeking a new hobby or an essential food source, everyone is welcome, and there is no price tag involved. We are very excited about this project and the opportunity for Memphis Public Libraries to branch out in new and exciting ways.”

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Book Features Books

Dave Eggers and Peter Guralnick to make appearances

Reading is a solitary venture, a quiet moment spent with a book, and between reader and author. But sometimes even the most introverted readers among us want to be sociable, right? And this year Memphis Reads — the Christian Brothers University-led, city-wide reading initiative — has selected Dave Eggers’ What Is the What.

What Is the What is the story of Valentino Achak Deng, who, along with thousands of other children known as the Lost Boys, was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of 7 and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, while crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges.

On Wednesday, November 4th, Deng will lead a discussion at Rhodes in Hardie Auditorium at 6 p.m. The following day will bring Eggers, a literary entrepreneur and the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

“By having both Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng here together, readers can have the unique opportunity to meet both the writer of What Is the What and the man upon whom the story is based,” says Karen Golightly, associate professor of English for CBU and director of Memphis Reads. “They can hear, firsthand, Deng’s life story as a Sudanese Lost Boy, but also Egger’s experience in writing that story.”

Valentino Achak Deng appears at Hardie Auditorium/Rhodes College on Wednesday, November 4th, 6 p.m.; and Dave Eggers at the Creative Arts Building (2375 Tiger Lane South), Thursday, November 5th, 7 p.m.

And then sometimes a book isn’t so quiet. Sometimes it is a rollicking good time. Sometimes reading can rattle the cage and stomp the floor, and no one rattled the cages more than Sam Phillips, the man who gave us “Rocket 88” and Elvis Presley and rock-and-roll itself.

On November 10th, the much-anticipated Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll will be released. Written by honorary Memphian (he hails from Boston), Peter Guralnick, who has penned such laudatory and auditory tomes as Last Train to Memphis, Searching for Robert Johnson, and Sweet Soul Music, among many others, the book looks at the life of the founder of Sun Records. On Wednesday, November 11th, Guralnick will be at the Brooks for a discussion moderated by Memphis author and music historian Robert Gordon.

As he prepares for his umpteenth trip to Memphis, whose music royalty have been the subjects of so many of his books, Guralnick told me by phone that everything he’s ever done “has stemmed from personal passion, everything I’ve ever written about has been written out of belief and out of a desire to tell people.” It is a passion that springs forth from the pages of his books.

He first met Sam Phillips in 1979 and says he was “mesmerized, I’d never met a more charismatic figure.” Phillips at that time hadn’t been interviewed much outside of local newspapers and trade publications, and really had no interest in looking back. “He didn’t need to tell about history because history was going to take care of itself,” Guralnick says. Knox Phillips, Sam’s son, wrote Guralnick a letter, and the two became fast friends, with Knox becoming an advocate for his father to tell his own story to select writers, one of whom was Guralnick.

“This is an epic story, but it’s a story which, as Sam said, ‘isn’t worth anything if it isn’t big fun.’ He said that about every session he ever had,” Guralnick says. “And I wanted to write something on a grand scale that could be epic, tragic, comic, discursive, that could suggest some of the breadth of Sam’s ambitions, his aspirations, and the depth of his thinking, too. Because more than anything, I think Sam considered himself a teacher, and it’s what he dedicated himself to.”

Peter Guralnick discusses Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll

Wednesday, November 11th, 7 p.m. at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

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Book Features Books

“Memphis Reads”

Dinaw Mengestu was 2 years old when he moved, along with his mother and sister, from war-torn Ethiopia to join his father in America. That was nearly three decades ago. Mengestu has since graduated from Georgetown University, earned his MFA in fiction from Columbia University, and published his debut — and semi-autobiographical — novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007). That book was followed by another novel, How To Read the Air, which was excerpted in The New Yorker (the same magazine that named Mengestu to its “20 Under 40” writers of 2010). And earlier this year saw the publication of a third novel, All Our Names. All three novels examine issues of identity and displacement and questions of the individual in relation to country and culture, politics and race. But those issues, in this author’s hands, apply not only to immigrants to the U.S. As Mengestu shows in All Our Names, the same issues operate in the lives of the native-born and all-American.

In 2012, Mengestu, who today teaches at Georgetown, was awarded the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. That same year, he was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow. And on Tuesday, November 4th,

Memphians have a chance to meet him as guest of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library and Christian Brothers University. In a way, many Memphians have met him already.

That’s because The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears is the inaugural title for “Memphis Reads,” which was launched on October 1st. The program is a citywide initiative of the Memphis Public Library and Information Center, and its aim is a straightforward one: promoting literacy. It’s an aim that’s had Mayor Wharton’s enthusiastic support. It’s a program affiliated with “Fresh Reads” at CBU, which has partnered with the Memphis Public Library for “Memphis Reads.”

“Fresh Reads” is part of CBU’s First Year Experience. All incoming freshmen read one title (this year, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears), then they discuss it, then they write about it in the context of their own lives. The Central Library has published the top 10 student essays on its “Memphis Reads” blog.

According to Karen B. Golightly, associate professor of English at CBU and director of “Fresh Reads,” it was the Memphis Public Library’s adult services coordinator, Wang-Ying Glasgow, who suggested Mengestu’s book — and for good reason.

“In partnering with the library to form ‘Memphis Reads,'” Golightly says, “we wanted to choose a book that people would not only want to read but a book that would engage them on more than just the plot level. We hoped to introduce a book — and a common reading experience — that might break down some of the walls that separate us. If the people who read The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears can see each other as individuals, as humans, rather than as teachers, government workers, administrators, homeless people, immigrants, black, white, Asian, Democrats, Republicans, etc., then the spaces between us could be bridged.

“I know, it’s a lofty idea. But it’s one that we hope to achieve,” Golightly adds. “One book, one person at a time.”

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Book Features Books

Behind the Scenes at the Friends of the Library Book Sale

The spring 2014 Friends of the Library Book Sale is next week. But last week, in the basement storage rooms (and hallways) of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library on Poplar, pre-sale activity was very much under way.

In the hallways alone, there were 150 or so boxes of books — books donated daily by individuals and local businesses — ready to be transferred upstairs to the site of the sale in the Central Library’s ground-floor meeting rooms. More books in boxes waited to be inspected and categorized. (Out of the 3,500 items — not all of them books — donated weekly.) And recycling bins were in place to hold books too damaged or mildewed to sell.

In the hallway too was Cynthia Hawes, who volunteers at the library several days per week. Hawes was taking a break, showing me around, and filling me in on the background work that goes into the library’s semiannual book sales.

The sale coming up is May 23rd and 24th, and, as Hawes reminded me, all proceeds go to fund library programs and ongoing efforts: among them, children’s summer reading programs across the entire Memphis library system; the digitizing of archival material in the library’s Memphis Room; and general staff development.

The book sale isn’t all books, however. Magazines, CDs, vinyl records, VHS recordings, and DVDs will be on sale too — and priced to move: top price in the case of adult hardbacks (including oversize and coffee-table books), $2; in the case of adult paperbacks, 50 cents. Children’s and young-adult books will be available too, with hardbacks going for $1 and paperbacks for 50 cents.

All told, the sale will involve more than 15,000 items, and for books alone, that means everything from literary fiction to romance novels, cookbooks, textbooks, reference books, and art books, plus books on religion, history, and travel — and more. Hawes said setting out those items for the hundreds of browsers and buyers expected at the sale takes library staff four to five days.

“When I look at the Friends of the Library, the first thing that jumps out is the $400,000 positive impact we have generated for our library system annually for the last several years,” Herman Markell, another library volunteer, said by email. “All with a handful of volunteers and three part-time employees and all from donated material and library discards! We do this with basically three revenue streams.”

Markell was referring to the donated books slated for the shelves of the Second Editions bookstore at the Central Library, the two book sales per year, and the library’s online inventory (more than 7,000 titles) sold through Amazon.

The books on Amazon have a separate storage area in the library’s basement, and, on the day of my visit, Sanda Smith, Kathy Fay, and Louise Brown were manning computer stations.

Looking for a two-volume Icelandic dictionary? You’re out of luck. The library’s copy sold on Amazon, Hawes said. But just try not eyeballing the thousands of books in the room next door, where donated books are broken down by category.

Sherman Dixon was there inside a chain-linked area, where signed editions, mint-condition editions, and rare volumes are stored. Bill Fidler was within reach of a multivolume set of Casanova’s memoirs. Frances Manley was gluing the spine of a well-worn volume. And Diane Parker, Thomas Jones, and Sharon Trower were busy shelving.

Hawes was busy answering my questions, but I was wondering: How do these people get anything done given the daily fresh supply of donated books? Hawes answered by showing me a set of lockers, each with the name of a volunteer, and opening one. It contained a stack of books, which volunteers can take home, enjoy, then return.

An “occupational hazard” to working among so many books? Sherman Dixon, who said he had more at home waiting to be read, wouldn’t call it that. “My wife would,” he added.

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News News Blog

New JobLINC Bus Rolls Into Memphis

JObLINC_Ribbon_Cutting_2012_003.JPG

A new way to find jobs has rolled into the city — literally.

The Memphis Public Library & Information Center unveiled the new and improved version of its JobLINC Bus, a converted school bus, in late October.

The new bus is an improvement from its predecessor, which served the city for two decades. It boasts ten computer workstations with Internet access and printers. It also features solar panels, LED lighting, a fuel engine, and is ADA compliant.

Five days a week, the bus will travel to various community centers, library branches, grocery stores, and other public areas to help Memphians find employment.

The JobLINC bus will serve an estimated 12,000 people a year, providing one-on-one assistance with job searches, training opportunities, resume preparation, and online applications.

In 2011, the Memphis Library Foundation received a $314,000 grant from the Plough Foundation to purchase the JobLINC bus. The previous one served the city from 1990 to 2010. It was retired due to repeated mechanical problems.

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News

StoryCorps in Memphis Thursday

CREDIT: image: Rob Lowell

The StoryCorps Griot is spending the next year traveling the country to gather the life stories of African Americans. It begins a six-week stay in Memphis on Thursday.

The initiative, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and in association with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is the largest of its kind since the WPA’s Federal Writers Project, which gathered the stories of more than 2,000 former slaves in the 1930s. In Memphis, StoryCorps is partnering with WKNO and the Memphis Public Library.

Local participants are invited into StoryCorps’ mobile recording studio to share their stories. While the initiative is aimed at getting stories from World War II veterans and participants of the civil rights movement, everyone is invited. There is no fee, but a $10 donation is suggested.

Select portions of the interviews will be broadcast on the StoryCorps’ website and on NPR with permission.

The StoryCorps mobile studio will be parked at the Central Library, starting on Thursday at 11 a.m.

For more information, go to the StoryCorps website.

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We Recommend We Recommend

The Literary Nightlife

Any month is a good month to support your neighborhood branch of the Memphis Public Library. But this November, the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, at 3030 Poplar, is a great place to be.

There’s a performance by Alaskan storyteller and fiddler Ken Waldman on November 13th, a showing of the Scandinavian film Mother of Mine (this month’s offering in the library’s “Wider Angle” film series) on November 14th, and free classes on computer basics for adults throughout the month.

But to start the month, the Central Library is not only the place to be, it’s the place to give. “After Hours,” the Foundation for the Library’s annual fund-raising gala, is Saturday, November 3rd. For $100 per person ($700 for a table of eight), guests will be treated to cocktails and dinner (catered by Another Roadside Attraction), live music (including a performance by the Memphis Men’s Chorale), and a silent auction — so keep your voice down, this here’s a library. Not so silent during “After Hours”: the night’s keynote speaker — political satirist and author Christopher Buckley (pictured).

If you don’t know Buckley’s titles (No Way To Treat a First Lady, Washington Schlepped Here, and, most recently, Boomsday), surely you know the movie Thank You for Smoking starring Aaron Eckhart and Robert Duvall. It was based on Buckley’s book of the same title. And maybe you know another Buckley book: The White House Mess, which was a work of fiction. The current White House mess isn’t fiction, it’s a fact. And surely Christopher Buckley has some words to say on the subject. That’ll be fine. It’s “After Hours.”

“After Hours,” the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, Saturday, November 3rd, 7-11 p.m. For reservations or more information, call 415-2834.

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News

WKNO To Host Oral History Workshop

Inspired by Ken Burns’ documentary The War, WKNO, along with the Memphis Public Library & Information Center and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, is presenting an oral history workshop on November 10th.

Representatives from True Story Pictures and The University of Memphis Department of History will help participants learn about telling their family’s stories. While The War focused on World War II soldiers, this workshop is open to veterans and non-veterans alike.

The workshop is free and is being held on Saturday, November 10th at 10 a.m. at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 458-2521.

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Book Features Books

Library Book Sale Moves

The Friends of the Memphis Public Library will host its quarterly book sale September 6-8. But there is one important change. Instead of being held at the downtown Cossitt Branch library, where it is usually held, the sale will be at the Benjamin Hooks Central Library.

Paperbacks can be purchases for 50 cents. Hardback books cost $2.

Organizers say the new location means more space and more available parking. But won’t it also mean more competition from the Friends-run Second Editions?

Proceeds from the sale benefit the Memphis Public Library & Information Center. For more information, call 415-2700.