Posts from Mulberry Street Library

Something MAPnificent is happening at Mulberry Street Library through August 27, 2012. MAPnificent features paintings, works on paper and sculpture that reflect the artists' concerns for the current state of our society, conveyed though charts and diagrams, and their admiration of the map as a symbol of longing and the unknown. Includes works by Elaine Angelopoulos, Joseph Burwell, Marie Christine Katz, Paul Fabozzi, Peter J. Hoffmeister, Alastair Nobel, and Amy Pryor.

On view at Mulberry Street Library through August 27th is the multi-artist collaboration called MAPnificent. MAPnificent features paintings, works on paper and sculpture that reflect the artists' concerns for the current state of our society, conveyed though charts and diagrams, and their admiration of the map as a symbol of longing and the unknown. 

Visit NYPL's BiblioCommons for these lists and many more. You can also create your own and share them with us in the comments! See below for some interesting staff picks from the past month, on topics both timely and timeless:

We have a Crafternoon every Tuesday at the Mulberry Street Library. Sometimes we make bracelets, sometimes we make greeting cards. But last month we were able to play with 3D.

Mulberry Street Library is proud to present the art exhibition "Beauty in Reading," featuring the photography of Kamia J. Funchess and the watercolors of Mychel Russell-Ward. The works are on view throughout the library through June 30th, 2012, and capture people caught in the act — of reading.

Mulberry Street Library was very excited to receive a grant from Lifetime Arts this year to participate in their Creative Aging program. Lifetime Arts is an organization devoted to enriching the lives of older New Yorkers through both the visual and the performing arts. We received our grant to offer Drawing From Life Experience, an 8-week drawing class for older New Yorkers. The students learned the principles of still life and live-model drawing, using a variey of papers and drawing materials. The culminating event on May 12, 2012 was held in our Community Room, where the students displayed one matted artwork they created in the class. The students spoke about their artwork to 

Visit NYPL's BiblioCommons for these lists and many more. You can also create your own and share them with us in the comments! See below for some interesting staff picks from the past month, on topics both timely and timeless:

The library has started a  "Protect Your Roots" campaign, where you can find your local branch's badge and download/pin/post it with pride. The teens at Mulberry Street took it a step further and made their own personalized buttons to support our library.

Primarlly I chose You Know Nothing of My Work! to highlight in the Reader's Den because I am a huge fan of its author, Douglas Coupland. He is famous for being associated with the phrase Generation X*, now a term nearly as well known as Marshall McLuhan's "global village." Coupland is the author of Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, among numerous other works of fiction and non-fiction.

Visit NYPL's BiblioCommons for these lists and many more. You can also create your own and share them with us in the comments! See below for some interesting staff picks from the past month, on topics both timely and timeless:

It is worth noting that both Marshall McLuhan and his biographer Douglas Coupland, each keen observers of modern communication technologies, are both from Canada. It is also a place called home to Harold Adams Innis, a contemporary of McLuhan's, who was another early pioneer of media studies. Coupland says of Innis and McLuhan "This ability to contemplate wide distances with no overriding imperialist agenda gave both men a sense of intellectual freedom."

The last time I was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, being classy, I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw this painting:

A meme, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is defined as "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." Memes these days spread like wildfire. Everything from celebrity gossip to socio-political movements jump from one mind to the next seemingly faster than the speed of light with the ease of electronic communications. This was Marshall McLuhan's modern vision, though his thought processes were extrapolated from historical roots.

In case you know nothing of his work, we shall open April's book discussion of Douglas Coupland's biography of Herbert Marshall McLuhan with a video clip of the famous scene from Woody Allen's Annie Hall. Coupland, author of Generation X, employs literary techniques that mimic the digital world in the unfolding of McLuhan's story. Footnotes lead to Wikipedia entries, and dialogue is pulled directly from online discussion groups. McLuhan's bibliography appears throughout the book in the form of Abebooks rare book sales, and a test for symptoms of autism (McLuhan is suspected of being on the spectrum) are included in the text as an example of the impact of the 

Anyone who visits Mulberry Street Library can't help but notice the wonderful bulletin board hanging in the Children's Room. Created by the Library's very own Anastasia Sorrenti, a full-time clerk with a penchant for design, these original displays tie a seasonal theme to well-loved children's books each month. This month's display is a celebration of Dr. Seuss, whose birthday was on March 2.

We sat down with Sorrenti to discuss her process for creating these special works of art. We hope you'll stop by Mulberry Street Library to check out the Children's Room bulletin board soon!

Visit NYPL's BiblioCommons for these lists and many more. You can also create your own and share them with us in the comments! See below for some interesting staff picks from the past month, on topics both timely and timeless:

On View at Mulberry Street Library from March 5 through April 28, 2012 are paintings by the artist Rebecca Memoli. The series, called Evaluation, is influenced by Dutch Golden Age still life. Evaluation is a visual meditation on an emotional state or situation in the artist's life. Although still-lives are traditionally created void of narrative, these pieces infer a subtle narrative using everyday objects. Often dirty, used, dank, or broken, the objects resonate with emotion and history. The combination of photography and painting allows these mundane objects to be romanticized, giving them a radiance that did not originally exist. Although the symbolism is personal, the emotions 

The other day someone asked if I still read "regular books." Have I become anti-paper with my new Kindle love? The answer to that is, look at the paper cuts on my fingers. I am a fan of reading, whether it's in book format or electronic. During my commute I use my Kindle because it's lighter to carry around, but I still love the feeling of a heavy book on my lap when I read in my apartment. When looking for material to read or download, I can now do all of my searching and downloading in New York Public Library's catalog. Thus my latest eReading searching tip: keep it simple, use one catalog.

I'm sure you've created a wish list in your mind that contains some impossibly unattainable items. For example, one of my wish list items includes a home on a private island. While my improbable wish list grows, I have started another list — an eNYPL wish list — where at least my reading dreams will come true.

My fellow eNYPL users: my number one eNYPL tip is to utilize the wish list feature, if you haven't already done so.