Posts from St. George Library Center

Thanks to Lifetime Arts for securing funding and inviting our library system to participate, NYPL is once again able to offer free sustained art courses, taught by professional teaching artists, for adults age 55 and over. Seventeen branch libraries have received funding that enables them to host these classes, which will take place from February-November 2013, and which cover a wide variety of arts including: painting, sculpting, collage, memoir-writing/performance, drawing, and quilt-making.

At the New York Public Library's Adult Learning Centers, where adults work on basic English and literacy skills, we're often asked for recommendations of websites for adults to practice English at home. Below you'll find eleven sites, some with a focus on listening, some on vocabulary, others on grammar, and some with a range of activities. Happy learning!

The St. George Library Center will soon be starting a Saturday morning book discussion which will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon. The first date for the group to meet will be October 13, 2012. Other dates and titles to be used that are confirmed right now are listed below. We plan to continue through May 2013, take a break during the summer, and resume in the fall of 2013.

In recent decades, much has been said about the demographic changes that New York City shares with the rest of the world. Yes, we are getting older!

One widespread response has been a surge of programs to promote creativity in mid- and later life. NYPL has happily participated in these efforts, especially since 2010 when we started partnering with Lifetime Arts Inc. to offer our first Creative Aging courses, which took place in six branch libraries. Each course was taught by a professional teaching artist and lasted a minimum of eight 90-minute classes so that the two goals of the project — mastery of the basics of the art, and social engagement of the participants 

Who is Harlem Witness? St. George Library Center found out not too long ago when local Staten Island musician Shawn "Harlem Witness" DeBerry performed his Gospel-Rap set to audience full of eager concert goers. Shawn also provided us with a little bit of information about his musical background and the personal aspirations he has for his craft. 

The Summer is winding down, but Summer Reading throughout the New York Public Library is still in full swing and our readers at St. George Library Center are taking full advantage of their joy for reading by sharing their own personal book reviews. Here are just a few of the comments that our readers have shared on the items they have read, centered on a variety of themes which include love, identity, drama and so much more!

Excited to see just how many more gold medals Michael Phelps will take home? Stoked to see if Beach Volleyball duo Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh will bring home the gold with a third Olympic win in a row?

In just a week, the 2012 Summer Olympic Games kick off in London and there is no better way to prep for the Games of the XXX Olympiad than with some light reading on the grand event and its past and present all-star athletes.

For eight weeks a group has gathered at the St. George Library for a class called, "Memoirs: Penned and Spoken." They have exercised their writing skills, reflecting back on their lives and experiences, with a willingness to share with their fellow students. At the Celebration event they will be reading some of their work, and reflect on their lives and times.

You have not crossed the bridges I have crossed.
You have not listened to the music I have listened to.
You have not been in the top of the World Trade Center the way I have been there.
You have not seen the waves I have seen.
You have not fallen from horses the way I have fallen.
You have not felt the guns on your neck the way I have felt them.
You have not been in the sea with a big storm in a little boat the way I have been.

—Excerpt from "Don’t Give Me Advice," by Luis Marin, Tompkins Square CRW

This month is National Poetry Month, and here at the Center for Reading and Writing (CRW) some 

A woman came into the Library's Center for Reading and Writing, where she was enrolled in a basic literacy class. Visibly shaken, she pulled a staff member aside and confided that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to continue in the class. She had felt some pain in her breast, and her doctor had recommended that she have a mammogram. Not having any idea what a mammogram was, she understood it to mean that she had cancer. The staff member showed her how to find information about mammograms in library books and online. After consulting these resources, she went to her next doctor's appointment knowing what to expect and what questions to ask.

The St. George Library Center recently received a grant — "Creative Aging in Our Communities: The New York City Libraries Project" — from Lifetime Arts, Inc., a Westchester County-based nonprofit organization. Over 25 locations in The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library systems received grants.

Welcome to a new blog series that shows you books that are based from another form of media. This could include the novelization of a movie, movies that were originally books, or in this case, books that are based on video games.

There are more and more books coming out that come from video games. As video games get more intricate plots, players want to know more about the characters. What motivates the villain or hero? What happened before or after the game? Books can answer these questions and are released faster than a game, which usually takes a year or more to develop.

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.

The New York Public Library with its sponsor, Citi Foundation, has announced the New York StartUP! 2012 Business Plan Competition for New York-based startup entrepreneurs with cash prizes totaling over $30,000. The third annual New York StartUp! gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to bolster their business acumen. Entrants gain practical insights about starting and growing a business, while learning about the comprehensive small business resources at NYPL’s Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL).

Isabella Rosario, a 6-year-old from Staten Island, went to the St. George Library Center nearly every day last summer.

It more than paid off.

Isabella read almost 250 books in three months — making her among the city’s top readers in last year’s Summer Reading program, which encourages kids to keep reading during their vacation.

Currently on display at the St. George Library Center is a photo exhibit by photojournalist Sri Walpola, "A Taste of Home: Cooking Sri Lankan in New York." We sat down with him for a brief interview.

What inspired "A Taste of Home: Cooking Sri Lankan in New York"?

Since my arrival in New York, I started cooking. I started looking for Sri Lankan ingredients first, and then I started cooking with the help of my mother and both my sisters via the telephone because all of them are in Sri Lanka.

Please join us at the St. George Library Center on Monday, February 28 at 6:30PM for a book discussion of Push by Sapphire.

Thomas Matteo, the Staten Island Borough Historian, wrote a nice article in the Sunday, January 16, 2011 Staten Island Advance titled "Their Pens Were Mighty Indeed," about famous writers who have a Staten Island connection. While I was aware that Washington Irving, Emily Post, Amy Vanderbilt, Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville all had some link to Staten Island, the one I was not aware of was Edwin Arlington Robinson, writer of the poems  "Richard Cory," "Minver Cheevy" and many more. He lived on Staten Island in 1913 in the Lighthouse Hill section (picture of the lighthouse, which is still standing at Lighthouse Hill, to the left). It 

Traditional Sri Lankan cuisine is a wondrous mix of tropical produce, freshly pounded spices, and curries cooked slowly in clay pots over an open fire. Flavor comes with spare time and energy — two factors in short supply in the big city. As a result, photojournalist Sri Walpola became interested in how his fellow countrywomen manage to recreate the tastes of home on Staten Island.