%1

Contact: Michele McKenzie
Art & Music Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6241
Photos Available

 Exhibit and Talk: Motion Pictures (Bay Area Dance)
The Photography of David Jouris at Berkeley Public Library
 

Berkeley, April 28, 2014 – Berkeley photographer David Jouris exhibits large-scale archival pigment prints from his Bay Area dance series at the Central Library from April 28th – July 6th, 2014. The exhibit co-insides with Bay Area Dance Week (Friday April 25 - Sunday May 4, 2014). 

The exhibition will be on display from April 28th – July 6th in the Catalog Lobby on the first floor of the Central Library, 2090 Kittredge at Shattuck in downtown Berkeley.   
All are invited to meet Jouris and discuss his work during an Artist Reception on Sunday, June 1st at 2:00 p.m. in the 1st floor Catalog Lobby of the Central Library. For questions regarding this program, call 510-981-6241 or visit the library’s website.

David Jouris uses long exposure techniques to create multi-layered ethereal images that capture the magic and fluidity of dancers in motion.  The cross-section of local dance companies represented in this exhibition includes Na Lei Hula, Company C Contemporary Ballet, Lily Cai Dance Company and Zhukov Dance Theater.  Jouris’ photographs have been exhibited at the San Francisco Public Library and published in numerous books and periodicals including LIFE and San Francisco Magazine. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.

The Central Library is open Monday, noon - 8 pm, Tuesday, 10 am - 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm, and Sunday from 1 pm - 5 pm.    
Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

###
 

Contact: Shani Leonards
Supervising Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
Claremont Branch
510-981-6280
 

Berkeley Public Library’s Claremont Branch Book Group Discusses
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Berkeley, April 28, 2014—The Berkeley Public Library’s Claremont Branch is having its next Book Club meeting at 6:30pm on Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 at the Claremont Branch. The club will be discussing Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Please join us for a discussion of one of Woolf’s most admired novels.

Mrs. Dalloway tells the story of a day in the lives of two people: Clarissa Dalloway, who is making preparations for a party she will host later in the day, and Septimus Warren Smith, a veteran marked by the horrors of World War I. Woolf reveals in a diary entry from 1923 that with this work she planned "to give life and death, sanity and insanity," and “to criticize the social system, and show it at work, at its most intense." This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library. For more information about the book club call 510-981-6180.

The Claremont Branch is located at 2940 Benvenue Avenue, Berkeley CA 94705; and is open: Monday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 am-8:00pm, Thursday 12-8 pm, and Friday and Saturday, 10 am-6 pm.  

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s websitehttp://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

###
 

Contact: Erica Dean Glenn
Senior Librarian, Children’s Department
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6229

Family Place Parent-Child Playshop to be held at the Berkeley Public Library West Branch

Berkeley, CA April 23, 2014—Self-directed and unstructured play is a very effective way for young children to develop their imagination and a variety of skills. The Berkeley Public Library will offer a free five-week session of Family Place Parent-Child Playshop at the West Branch located at 1125 University Avenue, beginning Friday, May 23 from 10:15-11:30 am. Space is limited. Registration is required and open from May 5 through 16, 2014. Please call 981-6260 to register.

Playshops allow children from birth to three the time and space to interact with their first and best teachers – their parents. The involvement of these loving adults serves as the catalyst for critical early learning that’s essential for later success in school and life. Family Playshops also allow parents to connect with library resources and ask questions of community partners on topics such as nutrition, child development, and speech and language development. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.


The Berkeley Public Library is part of the Family Place Libraries TM initiative. Family Place Libraries TM is a national network of libraries that was created through collaboration with Libraries for the Future and Middle Country Public Library on Long Island, NY. Since the initiative began in 1996, over 435 librarians from 25 states have participated in the training program and become Family Place Libraries.

The West Branch is located at 1125 University Avenue, Berkeley CA 94702; and is open: Monday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 am-8:00 pm, Thursday 12- 8 p.m, and Friday and Saturday, 10 am-6 pm.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

# # #
 

Contact: Shani Leonards
Supervising Librarian
Berkeley Public Library
Claremont Branch
510-981-6280

Berkeley Public Library Helps You Create a Backyard Vegetable Garden

Berkeley, CA April 23, 2014—Food tastes better when you grow it yourself! Get ready to plant a backyard vegetable garden in this fun program led by gardener and edible landscaper Gary Crandall at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, May 7th, 2014 at the Claremont Branch located at 2940 Benvenue Avenue. Mr. Crandall will cover how to plan, start and plant a vegetable garden including tools, materials, soil prep, seed starting and ongoing maintenance as well as selecting what to plant when. His talk is free and has something for novice and experienced gardeners alike. For more information about this program call 510-981-6280.

Gary Crandall’s career as an edible landscaper began in 1989 as an apprentice in the UC Santa Cruz Farm & Garden Project, where he received a Certificate in Ecological Horticultural and worked as a teaching assistant. Gary has managed gardens, started CSA businesses and currently owns The Kitchen Gardener Edible Landscaping Company in Berkeley, California. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library

The Claremont Branch is located at 2940 Benvenue Avenue, Berkeley CA 94705, and is open: Monday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm, Tuesday and Wednesday, 10:00 am-8:00 pm, Thursday 12 noon -8:00 pm, and Friday and Saturday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm.

Wheelchair accessible. For questions, to request a sign language interpreter or other accommodations for this event, please call (510) 981-6195 (voice) or (510) 548-1240 (TTY); at least five working days will help ensure availability. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. Visit the library’s website.

###    
 

Contact: Anwan Baker
Supervising Library, Adult Services
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6132

Berkeley Public Library Helps Spearhead
 Exhibit of Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran Memorial Tattoo Art

Berkeley, California.April 22, 2014 — With nearly 2 million veterans in California and a generation of veterans returning from two wars, a cooperative of innovative library systems have launched a timely and relevant project, War Ink, an online exhibit of Iraq and Afghanistan veteran memorial tattoo art. War Ink will launch on Veterans Day and represents a platform to explore the unfiltered record of war that veterans have documented on their body. Veterans interested in the project are encouraged to contact Jason Deitch directly at jasonadeitch@gmail.com or 510-593-8423. To submit your story go to: http://ccclib.org/warink/War_Ink_Fill_In.pdf

War Ink will consist of a multimedia exhibit of 18 veterans from throughout the state.  Already veterans from the following counties—Alameda, Los Angeles County, Monterey County, San Francisco, Santa Clara—have been sending in photographs of their tattoos.

Each veteran’s story surrounding their tattoos will be recorded by national renowned StoryCorps’ Military Voices Initiative, and their tattoos photographed by Shaun Roberts whose work has been featured in GQ, Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose Magazine and Wired.com. War Ink will be curated by Jason Deitch, the project’s scholar, as well as a former combat medic and sociologist, who co-created War Ink with Chris Brown, Contra Costa County Library’s Project Director. “This project represents both a unique collaboration for cutting edge and relevant cultural programming as well as a powerful context for the authentic and honest voice of veteran culture…reaching into and genuinely interacting with the communities that veterans are struggling to rejoin.” Chris Brown says, “We're getting veterans from different service branches, ethnicity and gender.”

War Ink will be made possible through an ever growing collaborative that includes nationally renowned StoryCorps, grant-makers Cal Humanities, Pacific Library Partnership, and a cooperative group of innovative library systems who are exploring the creative potential for the library field:  Alameda Free Library, Berkeley Public Library, Contra Costa County Library, Mountain View Library, Oakland Public Library, Sacramento Public Library, San Diego County Library, San Jose Public Library, San Mateo County Library, Santa Clara County Library District, and Santa Cruz Public Libraries.  

Founder of StoryCorps Dave Isay says, "We are delighted to be partnering with Contra Costa County Library to celebrate the diverse and vibrant stories of California's veteran and military community. In doing so, we remind one another of our shared humanity, strengthen and build the connections between people, teach the value of listening, and weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that every life matters."

War Ink was made possible through two grants awarded to Contra Costa County Library. Cal Humanities, an independent non-profit state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, first saw the potential of the project and awarded the library a $10,000 Community Stories grant to supplement StoryCorps’ commitment to record the stories of 18 veterans for the Military Voices Initiative project. Pacific Library Partnership then more than doubled the project’s resources with a $15,000 Innovation and Technology Opportunity Grant, allowing War Ink to expand beyond Contra Costa County. Together, these grants created the opportunity for audacious and collaborative cultural programming addressing a relevant social topic.

###
 

Contact: Suzanne Olawski
Deputy Director
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6195

Berkeley Public Library Stays in Touch with Patrons with New Newsletter.

Berkeley, April 14, 2014—Where do you find out what is happening at the Berkeley Public Library? Go to the website? Find events through a local online events calendar. Pick up flyers in the Library? Read the digital signs? Word of mouth from a friend?  Berkeley Public Library is excited to introduce yet another way for you to stay in touch –our new monthly e-Newsletter, which is full of great programs, events and services being provided at all the Library locations.Check it out! For more information call 510-981-6195.

Sign up can occur from the Library’s webpages (Contact Us, About / Press Releases, and Events) as well as the Library’s Facebook page.


 

###

Contact: Suzanne Olawski
Deputy Director
Berkeley Public Library
510-981-6195

Berkeley Public Library wants to hear from you!  
Complete our community survey between April 4 and May 2

Berkeley, April 4, 2014—The Berkeley Public Library has launched its strategic planning process and would like your input on a variety of issues in order to better serve the needs of the Berkeley community over the next three years. Your feedback will inform the Library’s strategic planning efforts to help guide the Library’s future services and programs.

Please take a few minutes to complete the Library’s community survey from Friday, April 4 through Friday, May 2. Visit the Library’s website at www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org to access the survey.

The Library also will be hosting interactive “town hall” community meetings as part of its planning process later this spring. For more information, visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/planning or call 510-981-6195.

###