Posts from Seward Park Library

Last year, Victoria joined a basic reading and writing class at Tompkins Square Library's Center for Reading and Writing. She agreed to speak with me about her experience so far and what brought her here.

Where are you from?

I grew up in Kenya, in the Masailand, in a village with 10 huts.

What other languages do you speak besides English?

I speak the Masai language and Swahili, and other tribal languages: Kikuyu, Luo, and Kamba. I came to America in 1986. I speak English every day, but 

So it’s been a mild winter and maybe snow has only just fallen, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still imagine ourselves in a tropical paradise: sipping fruity drinks and dancing our faces off! But what thump, thump, techno beats would we be dancing to underneath the stars? Luckily, I have just returned from Mexico where I was doing just that, and here’s what the DJs were spinning:

 Wepa — Gloria Estefan

From her dance album 

It is the beginning of a new calendar year. A time for reflection. A time for resolution. A time for hope.

In this next installment of the Lower East Side Heritage Film Series, we celebrate and reflect on the rebirth of a derelict East Sixth Street tenement building in Alphabet City. Producer and director Josephine Hayes Dean documents the toils and tribulations of its future residents into something that would become a home for their hopes and dreams.

We are pleased to offer the following film on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 6:30 p.m.

The fairytale of New York City is just as strong for New Yorkers as it is for those who don’t live here: the glittering world of who’s in or out, swanky hotel bars and Hamptons summer houses. It is a world of movers and shakers and large, beautiful apartments that is longingly aspired to as we go about our daily drudgery. The narrative of the fairytale is learned in childhood, from movies and TV, like some Grimm or Charles Perrault story: ambitious nobody moves to Manhattan, meets the right people, makes the right connections and boom, enters the world of New York 

Did you miss CBGB? I did. Well, I should say I missed it in its heyday.

By the time I landed in New York City, the iconic establishment was just a tired bar living off the fumes of its former glories. Listen, I am certainly glad to have made the pilgrimage a handful of times and experienced it well before John Varvatos moved in, but the energy and congregation of locals that helped cultivate a movement of music that still resonates to this day was long gone. All that remained were the aromatics 

The Lower East Side Heritage Film Series is returning to Seward Park Library for its second season. To celebrate, we will project Hester Street from 16mm reels.

This 1975 feature film, adapted from Abraham Cahan's 1896 novella Yekl: A Tale of the 

When The Hunger Games came out a few years ago, author Suzanne Collins had no idea she was popularizing a whole sub-genre of fantasy — the dystopian romance. With all the sub-par Hunger Games copycats out there, it’s hard not to be cynical. However, I am here to tell you that there is HOPE. Blood Red Road by Moira Young has it all! A fast moving, edge-of-your-seat story, a super kick-ass heroine, amazing action, and an epic romance that just might have you saying, “Peeta 

Devlynn, 16, is a volunteer extraordinaire at Seward Park Library. She is a life-long resident of the Lower East Side and will be a junior this fall at Bronx Science High School. This is her list of must-reads, must-watch, and must-do's for summer 2011.

1. Halfway to the Grave (Night Huntress series, book one) by Jeaninene Frost

Cat Crawfield is a young, inexperienced half-vampire who hunts vampires, and she is systemically killing all the vampires who live around her 

This summer, two of my favorite teen authors have taken their talents into the realm of adult fiction. Ann Brashares is taking her popular Sisterhood series into the world of young adulthood, and Melissa de la Cruz is expanding her Blue Bloods universe, where vampires are really immortal fallen angels and witches may not just be ordinary witches.

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares (Random House, 2011)

In 2001, Ann Brashares published

At the Center for Reading and Writing at Seward Park Library, volunteer tutors work with small groups of students improving basic English reading and writing skills. Tutors are encouraged to reflect on their own learning, and to think how they have felt while learning something new. Here is tutor Alexandra (Alex) Steedman’s reflection.

"You’re never too old to learn" the old adage says. Taking this to heart, I decided to finally pursue a long standing 

Are you ready to fall in love? Last summer, I put together the romance booklist Summer is for Lovers, full of sun, sand, and moonlit make-out sessions. This summer, in honor of the Summer Reading theme, “One World, Many 

It was way back in 2004, at the Donnell Library's Teen Central room, when a bunch of librarians, myself included, came up with the idea for Anti-Prom. At the time, a bunch of teen books about prom and prom-related activities were being published and we were all sharing our own (somewhat anti-climatic) prom experiences. Then someone said, "We should throw a prom here." There was laughter as we imagined decorating the library with streamers, crepe paper and a disco ball and then someone said, 

It might be hard to believe, but the historic Fulton Fish Market migrated away from Lower Manhattan more than five years ago.  In our final installment of the 2010-2011 LES Heritage Film Series, we will take a look back at the Fish Market as it was in the 1950s (sans the olfactorial sensations). We'll be casting the rarely seen extended 23 minute reel for all to sea.  All this on our very own scaled down silver screen. (Apologies, as I am sure I have overfished these waters.) And back by popular demand - to 

Lucy Liu and her two children. Photo: Beowulf SheehanLucy Liu, who emigrated from China to New York City nine years ago, is proud that her two young children speak perfect English.   Now she wants to learn too.

  In order to keep up with her kids, Liu is learning to read and write in English for the first time thanks to the free classes at an NYPL Center for Reading and Writing at Seward Park Library in Chinatown.   “I wanted to 

The idea of girls masquerading as boys to infiltrate the male world is not new; in fact, it's a literary staple. From William Shakespeare to Amanda Bynes, all it takes is some cloth to bind and flatten the chest, short hair, a lowering of the voice, some rolled up socks artfully placed, and voila — a boy is born! Of course, it also helps if there is a clueless boy who befriends the masquerader and then suddenly begins to question his sexuality when he wants to kiss the girl in disguise. And, to make things even more complicated, another girl arrives on the scene. 

Zisn Pesach!  In honor of Passover we are pleased to offer the following film on May 3, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. This FREE monthly series held at Seward Park Branch Library will offer documentary and feature films that were shot on location in lower Manhattan on both 16mm and DVD formats.

8th part in the series:

The Biggest Jewish City in the World (1975, 58 

I can't be the only person excited for the wedding of William Windsor to Catherine Middleton. In fact, I know I'm not. Out there, in that big, bad world of cynics, there are plenty of people just as psyched as me about the upcoming royal nuptials—they are just too cool to show it. This wedding brings me full circle. I remember being 9 years old and staying up all night with my Mom to watch Princess Diana marry Prince Charles, I had a slumber party to watch Sarah Ferguson marry Prince Andrew (where an adorable 3 year old Prince William 

Introducing: JUSTIN PEEPER! Cue the high-pitched screams, swooning, crying and tears. For their spring craft project the Seward Park Library Teen Advisory Group wanted to make a Peeps diorama. The inspiration came from The Washington Post's annual peeps diorama contest. The entries are so amazing and we wanted to see if we could create something just as cool and we had a blast doing it.

We started with the idea. The majority of the

Okay, I confess, I am a history geek and an Anglophile, meaning I am sucker for anything with a bit of British history and culture. However, that doesn’t mean dry, boring or high brow. I still insist that the historical novels I read be interesting, fun to read, and perhaps romantic, and if they have magical elements, even better! The fairies, witty dialogue, and romance may pull you in, but you finish the book with a better understanding of history and society without even realizing it.   The Legend of Tam