Has it already been a year?

It may be hard to remember, but one year ago the fate of Providence’s neighborhood libraries was uncertain. Providence Community Library was planning to take over management of the nine libraries and keep them all open for the benefit of all the people of Providence, but there remained a number of critical open issues that had to be addressed. Luckily for all, and thanks to the hard work of many, those issues were successfully addressed and our nine neighborhood libraries all opened their doors on July 1, 2009.

To celebrate that anniversary, Thursday, July 1^st will be a Fine Amnesty Day for overdue materials. Patrons can return overdue materials at any of PCL’s nine neighborhood locations throughout Providence and our Library Police will waive your late fees! This applies to materials that have not yet gone into collections and are brought in-person to the circulation desk.

In addition to waiving fines all day long, PCL and our nine Friends groups will be having a birthday cake cutting at each of our locations at 4:30pm, as well as other forms of entertainment! Click here for a complete listing of celebrations by location! COME ON OUT!

Ever dreamed of churning out your life story but never had the time?

Your problems will be solved tonight at the Providence Athenaeum, where a roomful of people will get thirty minutes to write their story in 200 words or less.  Everybody can, if they want to, read their story out loud afterwards and, if you want, your stories will be archived at the Athenaeum and on the Not About The Buildings website.  Micro-Memoir!’s co-presented by the Athenaeum and Not About The Buildings; the first one we did in March was actually amazingly fun, though I suppose I am sort of biased about these things.

It’s all ages; at the last one we had high school kids and senior citizens and people from every decade in-between.  The action starts at 5:30, but the space opens at 5 for wine and snacks.  And, of course, since it’s a library you can show up even earlier than that.

Providence Athenaeum
251 Benefit Street
Friday, 5:30pm
free

After a few years in disrepair/bureaucratic limbo, the Washington Park Library re-opened in historic Firehouse No. 11 on May 6, 2009, less than two months before its ownership transitioned from the anxious-to-close Providence Public Library to the anxious-to-stay open Providence Community Library.  To celebrate one year of (renewed) existence, there’s a celebration tomorrow from 6-8pm at the library, which is located at 1316 Broad Street, in the relative vicinity of the entrance to Roger Williams Park.  It’s sponsored by the still-looking-for-members Friends of the Washington Park Library, and rumor has it that there will be an endless supply of fancy cupcakes.

Thursday, 6pm to 8pm, 1316 Broad Street

The Providence Community Library — among the city’s most worthy causes — is holding a fundraising gala and auction.

A Night at Knight

You are invited…
to a gala celebration of books and art in Providence to celebrate the creation of Providence Community Library and to benefit its nine neighborhood libraries

When and where…
{ Friday, March 26, 2010 } { 7:00 to 10:00pm }
{ Knight Memorial Library } { 275 Elmwood Avenue, Providence }

What…
delicious hors d’oeuvres & cocktails; intriguing auction with storyteller Valerie Tutson; intimate tours of the building; valet parking

more »

Come out and join us Thursday, March 25th, at 7pm at the Rochambeau Library in Providence to celebrate the life of Rhode Island’s noted sci-fi and horror writer, H.P. Lovecraft.

We’ll be having a free, public showing of the 2005 black and white, silent version of “The Call of Cthulhu” directed by Andrew Leman of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. Certainly one of, if not the, best and most faithful film adaptations of a Lovecraft story yet!

Your host for the evening will be local mentalist and mindbender Rory Raven and there will be free pizza on hand courtesy of The Nice Slice.

7pm, Thursday, Rochambeau Library, 708 Hope Street

As always, PDD readers should feel free to attend for free. The Athenaeum is at the intersection of Benefit and College Streets.

Friday, 5pm-7pm

Part Twelve: WRNI’s political team, Scott MacKay and Ian Donnis, on the switch from print to radio journalism, and the changing media landscape.

MacKay reported on politics for the Providence Journal for many years; Donnis was the news editor of the Providence Phoenix for a decade. They now make up the political reporting and analysis team at WRNI Public Radio. Join them for a conversation about how the medium affects the way a story is reported, today’s ever-changing media landscape, and to hear some of the best yarns ever about RI politics. Strictly off the record, of course!

Friday, 5pm, The Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

I just got this appeal from the PCL, which, as explained below, has been doing an awesome job since it took over operations of Providence’s libraries this summer:

Whether you give online or by mail, whether you give for the pure pleasure of supporting something good  or for the pleasure plus the tax deduction, please do not for get to send your check or go on line to support the Providence Community Library.

In the 6 months since we took over the nine neighborhood libraries library use has increased greatly.  Circulation statistics for all nine libraries in September show an increase of 13% over the previous September, a 21% increase over the previous October and a 24.5 % increase over the prior November. The door count from September –November at just two of the smaller libraries that were slated to be closed by PPL show 14,400 at Smith Hill over 16,000 at Washington Park. Clearly neighborhood libraries are, needed cherished and very much used by the community.

Many of you witnessed the early efforts to establish this system and all of you value community libraries. Please help us keep the libraries open and thriving by sending a check to Providence Community Library, P.O. Box 9267 Prov. RI 02904 or go on line and click on “Support Us” on our website.

Just so we are all clear on this — Pan’s Labyrinth is not a children’s movie. Not even close. The Providence Public Library is holding an open house today from 1pm to 4pm. Almost every event described at the library website is for children — cartoonagrams, children’s songs — but then at 2pm they are showing this horrifying, and very adult, movie as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month movie series. Jeez, there must have been a better choice than this. I loathed this movie and found scene after scene ugly, violent and distressing. I hate to think that an uniformed parent might stumble into it with kids on a rainy day.  What were the planners thinking?  Come on in kiddies and watch the man getting his skull caved in with a hammer. Every frame of this movie is nightmare fuel; this was the most benign image I could find.

UPDATE (BY DAVE): I went. Great vibes. A diverse board of residents from throughout Providence. Lots of work in front of us. There have been some large in-kind donations (computers from GTECH, a year’s worth of new books from the Projo) and some small donations have started coming in. But the PCL is trying to raise about $500k over the course of the fiscal year — the next 10 months or so. Fundraising is about to start in earnest, so please be on the lookout for ways to lend a hand . (Also, they’re now called ‘community libraries’ rather than branches. You need to stick a dollar in a jar if you slip up.)

The movement to create a more democratic governance structure and reconnect the library to the communities it serves is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve seen over the course of my involvement in local politics. I hope there’s a sociology or anthro or polisci student around town who’s writing a thesis on the effort. Let’s all help make sure it works.

ORIGINAL, 9/16: Tonight’s the first-ever annual meeting of the Providence Community Library. New board members will be elected and there will be lots of updates on how the nine libraries are faring since their July severance from the PPL. Representatives from all nine libraries should be there as well.

Wednesday, Rochambeau Library, 5:30pm to 7pm

This is very last-minute, and probably the least exciting of the many, many developments at the library this week, but the Friends of the Smith Hill Library are having a book/bake sale right now. (But hey, tasty news is better than possible layoffs and the closing of the Central library to the public, right? I’ll have more on that later, if you haven’t been following…)

Smith Hill is one of the city’s busiest branches, in one of its most down-trodden neighborhoods, so it’s totally worth buying some delicious baked goods to support all the Friends group there does.

Smith Hill Library
31 Candace St.
Until 2pm?

[*nb: The Sebadoh album cover is the first thing I think of when I hear the word bakesale; it has nothing to do with the quality of the baked goods themselves.]

After three years of not having a library, the people in Washington Park will have reason to rejoice on Monday when their renovated library branch re-opens.  (Of course, under the library administration’s plan it’s scheduled to close again in after June months, but, um, let’s be optimistic?)

There’s a celebration scheduled for 6 pm next Thursday at the branch, which is on Broad Street.  There’s also a friends of Washington Park Library group forming, so you can find out more about that, too.

I’m wicked frazzled right now, but before I head out for a (hopefully) computer-free weekend, I just wanted to let you all know about two free happenings this evening:

1. At the Athenaeum (251 Benefit St):

Readings from the newly published anthology, Wild Dreams: the Best of Italian American, with editor-in-chief Carol Bonomo (Ahearn) Albright and contributors Ann Hood, Mary Caponegro, Peter Covino, Christine Palamidessi Moore, and Christina Bevilacqua. For over 30 years the journal Italian Americana has showcased writers who have chronicled Italian-American literary culture and helped to define an Italian-American imagination. Wild Dreams offers the best of those pages.

That runs from 5-7 and it’s free and open to the public; there’s also free sherry, if you’re into that sort of thing.

2. At Machines With Magnets (400 Main St, Pawtucket):

The Sight of Sound

OPENING PARTY: FRIDAY 3/6 7pm | free
+ DJ Heidi Phelps

FEATURING ::
Awesome Brothers, Michael Bizon, James Weinberg, Delia Kovac, Dave Kiersh, Jyll Ethier-Mullen, Lauren Minco, Andrea Kang, Jonathan Beller, Todd Sanchioni, Robert Adams Jr., James Re, Michelle Marchese, Shay Platz, Briana Horrigan, Christy Georg, John Jacobson & Shawn Wallace, Keith Souza, Lauren Holt, Allison Cole

No word on the sherry situation at this one.

[The photo, btw, is what comes up when you Google Image Search "Italian-Americans."  I kind of wish Google still had the "I'm feeling lucky!" button for situations like this.]

Tonight’s event, marking the bicentennial of Poe’s birth and his doomed, romantic sojourns in Providence, is nearly sold out. Any remaining tickets must be purchased by calling Sandy Markley at 401.421.6970.  The event will feature dramatic readings from Poe — as well as Providence poet, Sarah Helen Whitman —  an exhibit of rare Poe printed matter, food and drink, and haunting music by Alec K. Redfearn, the hardest-working man in show business. (Is it my imagination or is he everywhere these days?) The dress code is ‘raven-hued’. And go for that look of tormented dissipation. Be pale.

7pm to 9pm, Friday, tickets $75, The Providence Athenaeum, 251 Benefit Street

This is a heads-up for an event one week away. The Providence Athenaeum will be holding a fundraiser to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe. (Actual birth date was January 19, same as hers.) The evening will include

… dramatic readings from Poe and his amours; an exhibit of rare Poe printed matter on loan from collector Susan Jaffe Tane; haunting music by Alec K. Redfearn; food for the soul; and the means by which you can drink to forget. Dress code: Raven-hued. Tickets are $75. To purchase click here or call 421-6970.

Poe is thought to have courted Sarah Helen Whitman in the stacks of the Athenaeum, an engagement that failed for reasons not too hard to imagine, although it is much debated.  Let’s face it, the guy had problems.  But she may have been kind of a loon as well.  And there seems to have been a lot of input from friends and family. In modern parlance. . . it’s complicated.  At any rate, her Wiki entry has it that she died at the home of a friend at 97 Bowen Street (is that house still there?) and is buried at the North Burial Ground. (To Helen, Poe 1848)