Zombies Walk to City Hall for Librarians!

From Save NYC Public Libraries.

Join us on October 31st for our Librarian Zombie Walk to City Hall!!!

"So it’s time for mid year budget adjustments. What’s that you say? I thought we were done until next year! Nope. The mid year budget adjustment will result in a further cut of 5.4%. These new cuts will result in even less service hours and more layoffs.

Our library budgets have already been cut to the bone, and these further reductions in funding will just degrade library service further. We’ve already lost Saturday Service in most of the city. It’s likely these cuts will be the end of what we have left. So those working parents taking their kids to the library on the weekend? Tough, not open. Can’t return your books during the week because you work 60 hours just to live? Tough, closed on the weekend.

What does any of this have to do with zombies? Well, without libraries there are simply no brains, and zombies need to eat brains to live. So New York’s zombie librarians will be walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall this Halloween to protest these drastic cuts to their food supply."

Meet us in the circle at the west end of Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn, next to the High Street A, C Station at 11am on October 31st.

"EMINENT DOMAIN:The American Dream on Sale" Wednesday night at N.Y.P.L.

My pal Brian Berger from over at Who Walk in Brooklyn is on a panel discussing "Eminent Domain Abuse" tomorrow night at the New York Public Library. Check out the related photography exhibit while you are there, details at the bottom.

Brian has also recently reported about that little known Brooklyn neighborhood near the Jackie Robinson Expressway called "Highland Park" over at Kevin Walsh's awesome Forgotten New York site!

Here are some details on what you can expect....

What is the American Dream? Does it mean having a “better life” by creating a home and a community, living together for generations, building and tending relationships to one another and to a place? Or do we create a "better life" by moving up, moving out, removing the old, replacing with the new?

Between 1949 and 1973 urban renewal, a program of the U.S. government, bulldozed 2,500 neighborhoods in 993 American cities and dispossessed one million people. Roots got cut, neighbors and families became separated, languages and cultures were destroyed, and social bonds were broken.

The current exhibition at The New York Public Library,Eminent Domain: Contemporary Photography and the City through August 29, features the work of five contemporary New York–based photographers—Thomas Holton, Bettina Johae, Reiner Leist, Zoe Leonard, and Ethan Levitas—whose works intersect and resonate with current concerns about the reorganization of urban space, and its public use, in New York City. Artist Glenn Ligon offers the literal narrative of his own housing in the city. In addition to proposed regulations that threaten First Amendment rights to photograph in public places thus becoming a form of privatization of public space, questions also arise with the current private/public arrangements that characterize much of modern urban development, particularly the legal power of eminent domain, or the taking of private property for public use.

Marshall Berman, Professor of Political Science, City College and the Graduate Center; Mindy Fullilove, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Public Health at Columbia University; Tom Angotti, Professor of Urban Affairs & Planning at Hunter College; and Brian Berger, photographer/blogger, will discuss the use of eminent domain and how urban renewal is changing the cityscape of New York City. Filmmaker Michael Galinsky will moderate.

The Atlantic Yards, a hotly contested developer driven project in Brooklyn, will serve as a focus through which the evening will begin. A short trailer from the film Battle of Brooklyn, directed by Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley, will portray the arguments of some of the main players in this current eminent domain debate.

After a summary of how the use of eminent domain is shaping our City, an open discussion with the audience will address what all of this means for the future of NYC.

Starts at 7pm at the main branch on 5th Avenue, Manhattan.

Clilck here for details about the talk.
Click here about the photography exhibit.

Rapper KRS-ONE launches Summer Reading Program this Thursday @ BPL.

As a daughter (and a sister) of a librarian I find this event VERY cool! New York City Public School children have off from school this Thursday due to Brooklyn-Queens day and this is something fun for them to do that afternoon. Here are the details as per an announcement sent to me from the Brooklyn Public Library.


WHAT:

Krist Parker, aka KRS-ONE, will help Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) officially host the kick-off of Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library and Queens Public Library’s annual Summer Reading Program at BPL’s Central Library on Thursday, June 5 at 11:00am.

A staunch believer that knowledge equals power, and that literacy helps curb violence, KRS-ONE will speak about the importance of reading, rap his important message, answer questions, sign autographs and take pictures with children who will be off from school for Brooklyn-Queens Day, and signing up for summer reading.

The Summer Reading kick-off will offer tons of fun, free activities for kids of all ages beginning at 12:00pm with performances from the Big Apple Circus; 1:00pm with entertainment from magicians; and at 2:00pm there will be a screening of the Bee Movie in the new Dweck Center. Mr. Met will also be on hand to sign autographs and take pictures. And, of course, when children sign up for the summer reading program, they will receive the summer’s booklists, special reading goodies and much more.

WHEN:

Thursday, June 5, 11:00 – 2:00pm

11:00pm - Press Conference with KRS-ONE and Brooklyn Pubic Library’s Executive Director Dionne Mack- Harvin

12:00pm - Big Apple Circus performances

1:00pm - Magicians will perform

2:00pm - Screening of the Bee Movie in the Dweck Center

WHERE:

Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Library

Grand Army Plaza