NYPL News

New York Public Library Salutes Three Visionary Photographers with Exhibition Commemorating Evelyn Hofer, Helen Levitt, and Lilo Raymond

Jennifer_Lam@nypl.org — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:47:50 +0000

January 26, 2010, New York, N.Y., The New York Public Library celebrates the life and work of three distinguished women photographers (all of whom passed away last year) with an exhibition showcasing a sampling of their insightful, exceptional photographs. In Passing: Evelyn Hofer, Helen Levitt and Lilo Raymond is on view February 22 through May 23, 2010 in the Stokes Gallery (3rd floor) of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building located at Fifth Avenue and 42^nd Street. Admission is free.

The show features three dozen images selected by Stephen C. Pinson, the curator of the Library’s Photography Collection, from which the exhibition is drawn. Helen Levitt’s widely recognized compositions from the streets of New York suggest a concrete city at once unflappable, mischievous, and enigmatic; in one such unsettling image, young children stand on a doorstep in eerie masks. Also on view are Evelyn Hofer’s portraits: diligent inquiries into people and spaces; her consummate technique is evident in every finely composed photograph. Lilo Raymond’s tranquil studies of interiors reveal her acute understanding of texture, light and space.

Though lesser known than male contemporaries such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans, Hofer, Levitt, and Raymond each bestow a legacy as singular and influential. This exhibition, presented in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the National Women’s History Project (coordinator of the annual celebration of Women’s History Month in March), justly honors their contributions.

About the photographers
Evelyn Hofer was born in Marburg, Germany in 1922, and came to New York in 1946. She taught innumerable photographers who were drawn to her technical expertise and masterful use of the large-format view camera.

Helen Levitt was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn in 1913. Her work in “street photography” made her the unofficial visual poet laureate of New York City. She worked for nearly 70 years as a photographer. Most of her images on view here are from the now-classic photobook A Way of Seeing.

Lilo Raymond was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1922, and came to New York in 1939. She taught for several years at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, studied with David Vestal, and published her first book of photographs, Revealing Light (in which all of the photographs on display in this exhibition appeared), in 1989.

This exhibition has been made possible by the continuing generosity of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.

The curator wishes to acknowledge the Olden Collection and the Shirley C. Burden Collection, from which most of the exhibition images are drawn.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. Its renowned research collections are located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Eighty-seven branch libraries provide access to circulating collections and a wide range of other services in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English for speakers of other languages. All in all The New York Public Library serves more than 17 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org.

Contact: Jennifer Lam, Jennifer_Lam@nypl[dot]org, 212.592.7708

Peter G. Rose Talks About Going Dutch in the Kitchen

Jennifer_Lam@nypl.org — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:08:52 +0000

When food historian Peter G. Rose, a native of the Netherlands, arrived in the United States in the mid-1960s and settled in the Hudson Valley, she became much more aware of the undeniable Dutch influence on the contemporary American kitchen and American life. Her interest duly piqued, Ms. Rose eventually began to record her expertise in The Sensible Cook: Dutch Food Ways in the Old and New World.

On Saturday, February 13, Ms. Rose brings her foodie enthusiasm to the NYPL’s Spuyten Duyvil library, where she’ll lead a discussion on food and drink seen in paintings by 17th century Dutch Masters and their relevance to the American kitchen today. What she’ll reveal will probably be both familiar: “Compared to the Middle Ages, there was more food available [in the 17th century], and people would eat four meals a day with bread as the mainstay of the diet.” And surprising: “Many of today’s foodstuffs were already known in the 17th century!”

The talk will probe the countless culinary traditions brought to America by the Dutch more than three centuries ago, and how these foods were adapted in the New World. Using slides of some 40 paintings by Jan Steen, Adriaen von Ostade, Jan Davidsz, De Heem, Pieter Claesz, Harmen van Steenwijck and many others, this lecture demonstrates how these works of art lend insight into 17th century food practices and shed new light on the colonial diet. Ms. Rose hopes attendees “will leave with be better understanding of the many contributions the Dutch have made to America’s kitchen and life.”

The New York Public Library to Reduce Branch Hours Following Budget Cuts

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:33:29 +0000

The recent announcement of a $5.9 million mid-year City budget cut has necessitated service reductions by The New York Public Library at two-thirds of its locations across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

The Library has developed a detailed plan to bridge its Fiscal Year 2010 budget gap (intensified by the loss of $900,000 in State aid), carefully reviewing branch locations, peak hours, and demographics to determine cuts that, while difficult, will be minimally disruptive to the communities it serves.

In the end, the Library has been left with little choice but to reduce service to an average of 45 open hours per week for its neighborhood sites, down from an average of over 51 hours. For Fiscal Year 2010, six-day service will be maintained at all of its locations. While Sunday service will be discontinued at five of nine sites, at least one location in each borough will remain open on Sundays.

“We have worked very hard to maintain as many services as possible in these tough economic times," said New York Public Library President Dr. Paul LeClerc, “and are struggling to sustain the high level of service our patrons have come to expect.

“The unfortunate reality is that more cuts loom on the horizon, and unless there are substantial changes to City and State financial plans, we will be forced to make extremely difficult choices over the next two years,” he added, citing the recently proposed Fiscal Year 2011 City budget. “We will make every effort to ensure that any further cuts are as painless as possible for our patrons, who need our services such as job search assistance and free classes more than ever.”

The new schedule will start on Tuesday, Feb. 16, with Sunday reductions starting on Feb. 21. Please visit the Library’s website for details by clicking www.nypl.org/new-library-hours-effective-february-16-2010 .

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. Its renowned research collections are located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Eighty-seven branch libraries provide access to circulating collections and a wide range of other services in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English for speakers of other languages. All in all The New York Public Library serves more than 17 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Angela Montefinise | 212.592.7506 | Angela_Montefinise@nypl.org

The New York Public Library to Reduce Branch Hours Following Budget Cuts

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:33:29 +0000

Schomburg Center Celebrates Obama First Anniversary with Souza and Pinkney Exhibitions

nadia_riley@nypl.org — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:51:34 +0000

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2010

Schomburg Center Celebrates Obama First Anniversary with Souza and Pinkney Exhibitions

365 Days: 390 Years in the Making
February 5 to April 18, 2010

New York, N.Y. – Barack Obama’s first year as President of the United States will be celebrated with two major exhibitions mounted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture under the collective theme: 365 Days: 390 Years in the Making.

[img_assist|nid=72292|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=205] Barack Obama: The First Year, featuring photographs by Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza, begins with the festive inaugural ball evening on January 20, 2009 and moves through the next 364 days. African-American Journey to Freedom will provide historical context with watercolors by illustrator and artist Jerry Pinkney, winner of the American Library Association’s prestigious 2010 Caldecott Medal. The exhibitions open to the public on Friday, February 5 and will be on view through April 18 in the Schomburg Exhibition Hall and the Latimer/Edison Gallery.

“The Schomburg Center is pleased to present these two stunning visual records of African-American service and achievement as its 2010 contribution to the commemoration of Black History Month,” said noted historian Howard Dodson, Director of the Schomburg Center, “the Souza photographs and the Pinckney watercolors are together an excellent introduction to Barack Obama’s first year as President and the centuries-long struggles of African Americans that made it possible.”

Barack Obama: The First Year provides an intimate look at the President’s first year in office, as photographed by Pete Souza, also Director of the White House photo office. Out of thousands of photographs, Souza, who has exceptional access to the President, carefully selected 77 of his favorites. This exhibition will mark the first time that these unique, arresting images, shot through January 2010, have been presented to the public as a collection with Souza’s personal comments.

In candid shots the exhibition captures behind-the-scene moments, with attention to details; from the intricacies of a wedding band, to the playful times of a father with his young children, or high drama aboard Air Force One. Pete Souza’s own captions add exceptionally rich background information on each scene as he lived the events he was seeing through his lens. Souza uses his own voice, not official, administrative descriptions, which gives each image a lively, fresh feel that enables viewers to establish a more personal connection with his work.

“My job is to photographically document for history the presidency of Barack Obama, said Souza, “as the Chief Official White House Photographer, I photograph every meeting and event on the President’s schedule. But I also try to capture the intimate moments of his day that help convey a better sense of what he is like as a person.” About the intimate quality of his photographs, Souza stressed, “this administration has been far and away the most open about making behind-the-scenes photographs available right away to the public. This exhibit is one example of that openness. My hope is that through these photographs you will have an inside look at what only I see every day.”

But before Barack Obama, there were Crispus Attucks, David Walker, Sojourner Truth and a host of ordinary people, heroes and heroines nonetheless, of the African-American struggle for freedom and human dignity, fighting to make America and American democracy real for all of its citizens. Jerry Pinkney's African-American Journey to Freedom retraces this epic story.

Pinkney, who will be present at the VIP preview on February 4, stresses, “African-American history and culture takes up the most space in my body of work. This springs from my childhood. Over the years I have been fortunate to create works for a variety of subjects. Each project, at its best, enhances and enlarges how I perceive the world. Yet it is those projects which speak to the African American narrative that give me a since of purpose and the most satisfaction.”

Pinkney’s watercolors illustrate a wide range of people, as well as major events in African-American history; from colonial times to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Its first section, “Fighting on Land and Sea,” covers African-American participation in the country’s Revolutionary War. As soldiers, sailors, laborers, and spies, enslaved and free men, women, and children such as Crispus Attucks, Prince Whipple who crossed the Delaware with George Washington, and spy John Armistead contributed to the war effort. African Americans were there at the founding of the nation but did not get anything in return.

The second section, “Fighting With the Pen,” retraces African Americans’ pursuit

of freedom through petitions, education, pamphlets and the building of institutions such as the Black Church and the Masons. Prominent among the people who led these legal battles were Richard Allen, who became founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) denomination and Absalom Jones with whom he founded the Free African Society, and later established the African Church of Philadelphia; David Walker who published David Walker’s Appeal denouncing slavery, and Dred Scott who fought for his freedom all the way to the Supreme Court.

In the third section “Searching for Freedom in the West,” Pinkney portrays the black explorers, pioneers, settlers, scouts, and cowboys who went West hoping to find the freedom that was denied them in the South; from York who was part of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to famous cowboy Nat Love and pioneer women Biddy Mason and Clara Brown. The fourth section, “From Emancipation to Civil Rights” starts with the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and after a journey through Black Nationalism, the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement, ends with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Jerry Pinkney’s 35 watercolors were originally commissioned by Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Inc. in the mid-1970s for a series of Black Historical Calendars. This beautiful and inspiring artwork is part of a larger donation made by Vivendi to the Schomburg Center, and will be housed in the Art & Artifacts Division.

Related Programs:

Jerry Pinkney Book Signing
Saturday, February 6 at 3:00pm

Jerry Pinkney will sign his book The Lion and the Mouse, which received the prestigious Randolph Caldecott Award on January 18, 2010; as well as Sweethearts of Rhythm; The Old African; and Black Cowboys, Wild Horses. Books can be purchased in the Schomburg Shop.

About the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research unit of The New York Public Library, is generally recognized as one of the leading institutions of its kind in the world. A cultural center as well as a repository, this Harlem-based modern research library also sponsors a wide array of interpretive programs, including exhibitions, scholarly and public forums, and cultural performances. For over eighty years The Schomburg Center has collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting black life, and promoted the study and interpretation of black history and culture.

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The New York Public Library Celebrates Reopening of Renovated St. Agnes Library with Public Ceremony and Open House, February 11

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:22:12 +0000

New York, NY, February 1, 2010--The New York Public Library’s St. Agnes branch has served generations of users since opening at its Upper West Side location in 1906. The striking and stately building, one of the Library’s original Carnegie branches, has received a complete renovation, resulting in an upgrade that renews all of its spaces and integrates many new services and features. On February 11 the Library will celebrate the branch’s reopening with a morning ceremony and a day of free public events including programs for children and teens, a neighborhood history talk, job workshop, branch tours and more (see schedule below). The Library is located at 444 Amsterdam Avenue, between 81st and 82nd streets.

[img_assist|nid=72220|title=St. Agnes Branch|desc=Photo: Elizabeth Felicella |link=none|align=right|width=231|height=300]“We are so pleased to reopen this magnificently restored branch to the students, job seekers, reading lovers, entrepreneurs, parents, toddlers, and others who we know are eager to take advantage of its resources,” said Library President Paul LeClerc. “The branch is set to serve a new generation of users who will use it to pursue their passions and quests for knowledge. We are deeply grateful to our elected officials, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer for their funding of the restoration. We also greatly appreciate the private funding provided by Judith and Stanley Zabar; Mary McConnell Bailey; the Murray G. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust; The William and Dewey Edelman Charitable Trust; and Lawrence Gutman.”

Renovation
The library’s Renaissance Revival facade and soaring central staircase, both of which have been restored, are testaments to its history as one of the original 67 branch libraries in New York City funded by Andrew Carnegie. The renovation has been guided by the classic style of the original design by Babb, Cook, and Willard, while integrating 21st-century upgrades and improvements. For example, among the major changes are a new elevator and entrance ramp that make the library accessible to all users. The elevator has been unobtrusively integrated into the building so it maintains its historic feel, and the outdoor ramp is bounded by a reconstructed historic wrought-iron fence. Other features, such as walls of new wood bookcases, original wood panels, and the restored original wood flooring contribute to the timeless unity of the renovated building. The restoration design is by Helpern Architects.

Major Features
Among the other major improvements are a new roof; large new windows that restore original design features; new air conditioning and heating; new furniture, bookshelves, and lighting; and a floor-length, first-floor graphic installation. Dropped ceilings have been removed in order to add openness and height, and glass partitions have been utilized to allow for open views and the passage of light. The branch will offer free wireless Internet access, and 40 computers for public use (plus additional laptop computers for circulation within the library).

Every floor of the nearly 18,000-square-foot library has been completely restored. The first floor is devoted to children’s resources, with two separate reading areas, a new story-hour room illuminated by a new skylight, bright new furniture including colorful cushiony oval seats for casual reading, 12 computers for use by children, and collections numbering 20,000 items. A large graphic stretching along the entire south wall of the library encourages users to “Imagine.” The first floor also features a new circulation desk and staff offices.

The second floor is devoted to young adult and adult materials with separate reading areas for each group. It includes eight computers for young adults and another ten for adult use, as well as collections of 10,000 items for teens and 30,000 for adults.

The library’s third floor features a large community room, which seats up to 65 for events, programs, meetings and other activities. The room sits at the front of the building and benefits from natural light streaming in from street-side windows. The rest of the third floor is devoted to one of the Library system’s Centers for Reading and Writing, which offers instruction for adults learning to read and write. In addition to an open area for teaching, the Center features a computer learning lab with ten computers.

A basement space has been restored for the library’s ongoing book sale.

“The reopening of the St. Agnes Library is truly a gift to many New Yorkers. This renovation will expand the worlds of culture, art and literature on the Upper West Side,” said Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “I am so excited to have been a part of this renovation that I know will impact the lives of so many.”

“Few things will brighten up midwinter, and the hearts and minds of West Siders, more than the reopening of the St. Agnes Library,” said City Council Member Gale A. Brewer. “This glorious restoration and modernization of our beloved library is a testament to the vision and hard work of the staff, architects, and contractors who have given us a renewed landmark and state-of-the-art facility. I am delighted to have played a part by allocating tax dollars to St. Agnes, and now I can join the millions of patrons who can return to and use their favorite library!”

“The St. Agnes branch has served the Upper West Side for more than a century, and its complete renovation will mean it will continue to be a major community asset for the next century,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “The original style has been maintained with the restoration of the façade and central staircase, and the library has been modernized with new reading areas, computer rooms and introduction of up to date amenities. New York City’s libraries are valued community centers for kids and families, and thanks to the renovation, the St. Agnes branch – one of the original 67 funded by Andrew Carnegie – will continue to fill that important role.”

"The reopening of the St. Agnes branch is a boon for the residents of the Upper West Side and the entire NYPL family,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer. “It is remarkable to find an institution that so deftly blends a reverence for history with an enthusiasm for the technology of the future. I am proud to join all of New York's book lovers, both young and old, in welcoming this new library back into circulation."

Library Hours
The St. Agnes Library will be open: Monday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

History
The St. Agnes Library has its roots in the St. Agnes Chapel at 121 West 91st Street, where a library was established by Reverend Dr. Edward A. Bradley in 1893. The library reached out to serve the neighborhood community and received a charter from the State in 1894. After operating in three subsequent neighborhood locations, the Library consolidated with The New York Public Library in 1901, and opened in its current location in 1906. The library closed in October 2007 for its current renovation.

The $9.5 million renovation was funded with a combination of public and private funds. City funding was provided by City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Council Member Gale A. Brewer, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer. Private funding was donated by Judith and Stanley Zabar; Mary McConnell Bailey; the Murray G. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust; The William and Dewey Edelman Charitable Trust; and Lawrence Gutman.

Reopening Celebration
The February 11 festivities kick off with an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring community members, elected officials, library staff, neighborhood school children and special guests. Following the ceremony, the public is invited to participate in a series of performances, children’s programs, talks, workshops, and more. Among the events planned are tours of the library; face painting, balloon animals, story hour and magic for children; a talk relating to the history of the library’s Upper West Side neighborhood; a workshop on job resources and networking; a drumming program; and a gaming session.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Free and open to the public
444 Amsterdam Avenue (near 81st Street)

11 a.m.
Opening Ceremony and Ribbon Cutting, with elected officials and special guests, including Fox News anchor Alisyn Camerota

12:30 p.m.
Magic Show, with Evan Paquette
Neighborhood History: Upper West Side Odyssey, a talk by Jim Mackin, Park West Neighborhood History Group

1 p.m.
Center for Reading and Writing, an overview with staff and students

2 p.m.
Children Sing and Celebrate Around the World, a singing program for preschoolers
Get Noticed in 2010: Networking Made Simple, a workshop for job seekers
Center for Reading and Writing, computer demonstrations and casual conversations with students and staff

3 p.m.
World Beat and Percussion with Dale Gordon, a participatory perform ance
Face Painting and Balloon Animals

Also: Gaming with Nintendo Wii

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About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. Its renowned research collections are located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Eighty-seven branch libraries provide access to circulating collections and a wide range of other services in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English for speakers of other languages. All in all The New York Public Library serves more than 17 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org.

Contact: Herb Scher | 212.592.7709 | HScher@nypl.org

NYPL Says Goodbye to J.D. Salinger

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:21:15 +0000

The world bid farewell to the legendary author J.D. Salinger on January 27, a loss that resonated throughout The New York Public Library.

“Teens still come in to the library every day to check out Salinger books, especially The Catcher in the Rye,” said Jack Martin, the Assistant Director of Public Programs and Lifelong Learning at the Library. “With Holden Caulfield he created a cultural icon that captures what it means to be an outcast that still resonates with today’s teens.”

“J. D. Salinger was one of those very few writers whose enormous artistic achievement is out of all proportion to the small place their writings occupy on the bookshelf,” said Isaac Gewirtz, Curator of The N[img_assist|nid=71748|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=300|height=200]ew York Public Library’s Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. “His one great novel was, of course, The Catcher in the Rye, but several of the 'Franny and Zooey' Glass family stories, especially the first, 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish,' are also classics. As with all great writers at their best, Salinger seemed never to stumble, and from the moment you begin to read their work, you are immersed in their world, with every detail of it perfectly imagined and rendered. One of Salinger’s early fans was Vladimir Nabokov, whose papers and working library are in the Berg. The latter includes his copy of The New Yorker’s anniversary volume of short stories, containing what the editors regarded as the fifty-five best that the magazine had published from 1940 to 1950. Nabokov graded each of the stories (there are a lot of Cs and Ds), and the only stories he awarded an A+ were his own ('Colette') and Salinger’s 'Bananafish.' A tribute from one master to another.”

The Library has several Salinger holdings within its collections. The Berg Collection holds a small group of Salinger correspondence, including a letter to the American poet Howard Moss in which Salinger praises the new volume of poetry that Moss has sent him, commenting on several poems specifically, and writing about having drinks with the writer Jean Stafford.

Within the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division there are original submissions by Salinger to The New Yorker starting in 1941 as well as an editorial correspondence with Harold Ross.

And of course Salinger’s classic work is available at branch libraries throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island for patrons to check out.

For more information or to schedule an interview about this please call (212) 592-7710 or e-mail Angela_Montefinise@nypl.org

Image courtesy of the New Yorker Records, NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division.

A Presentation by the San Diego Zoo on Polar Bears and Climate Change and A Closer Look at the Twilight Novels Are Featured in Free February Programs at The New York Public Library

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:41:06 +0000

Polar bears and teen vampires take center stage at The New York Public Library throughout February during a series of free programs offered at its 87 branches in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

On February 3 at the Jefferson Market Branch, children are invited to meet polar bear expert JoAnne Simerson of the San Diego Zoo to learn how climate change is affecting the animals. This one-of-a-kind presentation will include videos of polar bears in their natural, endangered habitat and offer interactive activities to show what guests can do in their daily lives to help the polar bears.

Fans of the popular vampire series Twilight will also not want to miss, “Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' Novels," on February 4 at the Mid-Manhattan Library. Author John Granger will examine and dissect the moral and allegorical elements of the best-selling paranormal romance series.

The Library presents more than 20,000 free public programs throughout its branches annually, complementing its broad collections and other services. A complete listing of events is available at www.nypl.org/events. More information on young adult programs at the Library is available at http://teenlink.nypl.org

Highlighted Programming for The New York Public Library in February

An Art Book - Malcolm McLaren: Musical Paintings
Tuesday, February 2, 6:00 p.m., Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Manhattan
   Malcolm McLaren, visionary artist and pop cultural icon, joins curator and editor of Fantom magazine Cay-Sophie Rabinowitz for a conversation on McLaren’s film Shallow, which consists of 21 “musical paintings” that he describes as a “grab-bag of pop culture’s debris over the past 50 years.” McLaren, most popularly known as the former manager of legendary punk bands The Sex Pistols and The New York Dolls, experimented with film-based art methods and incorporated music-related work from Delia Brown, Rodney Graham and others to create Shallow. McLaren will discuss the work, as well as his new book McLaren: Musical Painting, at the program, which will take place in the Margaret Liebman Berger Forum at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

A Presentation by the San Diego Zoo on Polar Bears and Climate Change
Wednesday, February 3, 3:30 p.m., Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas (at 10th Street), Manhattan
   Children will be able to follow in the footsteps of polar bears and learn how the loss of sea ice due to global warming affects their lives. Special guest JoAnne Simerson, who pioneers behavior management in the bears at the San Diego Zoo, will offer an exclusive presentation to educate children about climate change and is affect on polar bears. Simerson just returned from Manitoba, Canada, where she has spent nine years studying the polar bear population along disappearing sea ice with Polar Bear International. The interactive presentation will include video coverage.

Author @ the Library presents: "Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephenie Meyer's 'Twilight' Novels," with John Granger
Thursday, February 4, 6:30 p.m., Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
   Twilighters, Twi-hards, and Twilight-curious readers will be able to discuss moral elements of the popular vampire romance series with blogger, speaker and writer John Granger, who will talk about his new book, Spotlight: A Close-Up Look at the Artistry and Meaning of Stephanie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ Novels. Granger, who also wrote How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania for JK Rowling’s Bestselling Books about the Harry Potter series, will discuss the culture craze surrounding the Twilight books and their recent movie adaptations. Granger, author of the blog The Hogwarts Professor, is known for his scholarly focus on culture and faith and how it is embedded in popular literature: a focus particularly relevant to the Twilight books.

At Least at Julliard There Was Music: William Schuman at Lincoln Center
Monday, February 8, 6:00 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan
   Current Juilliard School president Joseph Polisi will join the Library for the Performing Arts for a lecture on accomplished classical composer William Schuman, a former Juilliard president and the first president of Lincoln Center. Schuman’s time at Lincoln Center was marked by the formation of the Chamber Music Society and the Film Society, both crucial to the development of Lincoln Center as a New York cultural center. Despite these demanding administrative positions, Schuman was first and foremost a composer, winning the first Pulitzer Prize for musical composition, and churning out works including symphonies, concertos and the ballets Undertow and Judith. The lecture will take place in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. For more information on William Schuman, participants can view the William Schuman Papers, currently housed in the Library's Music Division.

Picturing Dorothea Lange: A Conversation with Linda Gordon and Ian Frazier
Thursday, February 25, 7:00 p.m., Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Manhattan
   Ian Frazier will lead a program with former Cullman Center fellow Linda Gordon about Gordon’s research and new book on Dorothea Lange’s life as a celebrated documentary photographer, called Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits. Dorothea Lange was crucial to the foundation of documentary photography and photojournalism as she captured the Great Depression through the eyes of her American and immigrant subjects, struck by the consequences of America’s fallen economy. Linda Gordon’s book, as a biography, traces the touching, influential work and the intriguing life of this acclaimed artist. Ian Frazier, a current Cullman Center fellow, also frequently writes for The New Yorker. This program will be held in the South Court Auditorium of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. To register, please e-mail csw@nypl.org with your name(s).

Highlighted Movie Screenings for The New York Public Library in February

Movie Time: The Princess Bride (1987)
Thursday, February 4, 3:30 p.m., Yorkville Library, 222 East 79th Street, Manhattan
The Princess Bride tells the story of the love between the beautiful Buttercup and Wesley, torn apart by the apparent death of Wesley at sea. But death is no barrier to true love, in a story filled with swordsmen, giants, genius kidnappers, plotting royalty, vile swamps, Rodents of Unusual Size, and the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Documentary Film Series: Grey Gardens (1975)
Friday, February 5, 2:00 p.m., 58th Street Library, 127 East 58th Street, Manhattan
Grey Gardens is David and Albert Maysles' cinema-verite study of Edith Bouvier Beale, socialite, and her daughter Edie, two eccentric people who live in a decrepit mansion in East Hampton, New York surrounded with their memories of the past. The documentary and the story of the Beales were later adapted into the musical Grey Gardens by Doug Wright, Scott Frankel, and Michael Korie; an HBO film; and other theatrical and literary mediums.

Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun (2008)
Sunday, February 7, 2:00 p.m., Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
Awarded the title of “Best Educational Film” at the 27th Annual Festival International du Film sur l'Arts, this film biography is a portrayal of the path-breaking African-American novelist and anthropologist; Hurston is known for her usage of black vernacular in literary works and ethnological work in southern African-American communities.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2003)
Wednesday, February 20, 2:00 p.m., Van Nest Library, 2147 Barnes Avenue, Bronx
In this story, set in 19th-century China, two master warriors are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny Sword is stolen. Ang Lee’s Academy Award-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has captured audiences with its entrancing plot and gorgeous choreography.

CARNIVAL Film Series
Wednesday, February 20, 3:00 p.m., Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manhattan
Audience members will have the opportunity to explore the culture and events surrounding two of the grandest Carnival celebrations in Trinidad and Brazil through the films Mas Feve: Inside Trinidad Carnival and Spirit of Samba: Black Music of Brazil. A discussion at 5:00 p.m. will follow the screening. This program will be held in the American Negro Theater at the Schomburg Center.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. Its renowned research collections are located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Eighty-seven branch libraries provide access to circulating collections and a wide range of other services in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English for speakers of other languages. All in all The New York Public Library serves more than 17 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Jon Pace | 212.592.7710 | Jonathan_Pace@nypl.org

Ban This Website! New York Public Library Unveils Provocative Approach to Experiencing Voltaire’s Candide

Jennifer_Lam@nypl.org — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:17:18 +0000

January 20, 2010, New York, N.Y., The New York Public Library is fashioning a new way to wrestle with Voltaire’s scandalous satirical novella at http://candide.nypl.org. On the Road with Candide—NYPL’s latest digital exhibition—showcases pioneering digital content, using the on-site exhibition Candide at 250: Scandal and Success (on view at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, through April 25) as an embarkation point for a unique online journey. The site solicits the involvement of diverse communities of readers, including students, visual artists, and scholars. This unconventional presentation of Candide befits the book’s whimsical and rebellious reputation while aspiring to enthuse a whole new generation of readers.

Highlights of the site include:

· Rockwell Kent illustrations
This feature takes the viewer through the great American artist Rockwell Kent's illustrations for a 1928 edition of Candide, a landmark of the American illustrated book (the first book published under the Random House imprint). His nearly four-score inset illustrations and numerous illustrated capitals, all exquisitely integrated, serve as an unexpectedly elegant journey through Voltaire's nefarious world of "liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools." Galleries of work by other notable artists will follow shortly.

· 2-Minute Candide
This playful two-minute animated digest of Candide using Rockwell Kent’s illustrations spotlight the characters’ trials and tribulations as they voyage half way around the world (and back).

· “Candide Journey” created in Google Earth
Through a partnership between NYPL’s Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division and Google Earth, 10th-grade students from Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School chart their favorite locales along Candide’s madcap journey, devising personal maps augmented by resources from the Library’s digital collections, or by uploading videos, images, or audio of their own creation or uploaded from the Internet. For example, students may employ the work of illustrators featured on the site, or prized historical maps and prints from the vast collection of images in the NYPL Digital Gallery. Student Anna Sherman, 15, remarks, “I’ve never used technology like this … this is the direction in which education is heading. This is a new way to learn.”

· Do-It-Yourself Candide
This feature solicits any reader’s modern-day riffs—drawings, photographs, videos, poetic reimaginings, and textual commentaries—for inclusion on the site. Any and all brainy, cheeky, quirky, and witty interpretations are now being accepted and will be posted as they arrive.

For as long as Candide has existed in the world, innumerable readers have commandeered the tale for their own artistic and scholarly exploits. Now, The New York Public Library advances the tradition by handing over the reins on this classic via Web 2.0, the best of all possible worlds indeed. Visit http://candide.nypl.org to partake in transforming this 18th-century swashbuckling saga into a 21st century experience! And follow @nypl on Twitter to receive special Quotable Candide updates.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. Its renowned research collections are located in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem; and the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. Eighty-seven branch libraries provide access to circulating collections and a wide range of other services in neighborhoods throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English for speakers of other languages. All in all The New York Public Library serves more than 17 million patrons who come through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org.

Contact: Angela Montefinise, angela_montefinise[at]nypl[dot]org, 212.592.7506

Haiti: An NYPL Employee's Wait

Jennifer_Lam@nypl.org — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:25:35 +0000

The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, has left hundreds of New Yorkers waiting by the phone with baited breath for news of families and friends.

Among those enduring the tense wait is New York Public Library clerk Wilson Francis.

The 13-year library employee has about 30 family members in Haiti, including several who live at the center of the quake.

“I am trying to stay calm,” said Francis, who works at the Library’s Clason’s Point branch in The Bronx. “I don’t want to panic.”

As soon as Francis learned of the earthquake, he scoured TV and the internet to find information, and began to attempt calling relatives to confirm their safety.

He reached many of them. But not all.

“I haven’t been able to reach my cousins,” he said. “They live right in the center where the earthquake hit. But I’m staying positive. I know the relatives I did reach by phone or text don’t have electricity to charge their phones, and the landlines are down. So it’s not easy to call.”

Either way, he’s terribly anxious. “I know food and water are scarce right now,” he said. “So, yes, I’m really concerned.”

Francis hopes to travel to Haiti to volunteer with relief efforts, but with commercial flights cancelled and Haitian infrastructure upended, he’s unsure when and if that will happen.

“I would love to go,” he said. “But I have to wait and see what’s possible.”

In the interim, he and his fellow colleagues at Clason’s Point are determining the best way to aid the victims in Haiti.

“Everyone is really concerned,” Francis said. “And most of the people who know me here have expressed their concern to me. They’ve all offered to help anyway they can. I really appreciate that.”

He urged the public and the NYPL community to stay educated on the evolving situation and to determine their own ways of helping, either through supply or monetary donations, or volunteering their services.

“I was in Haiti last year,” he said. “My family and I drove through the capital. We saw the palace and took pictures of it. We passed all the UN bases. We drove around the country, basically. And now to see images of how things are now. It’s unbelievable. And I’m glad so many people want to help. Because it’s really needed.”

Mediabistro: Candide Goes Digital at The New York Public Library

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:20:45 +0000

Click here to read the article at Mediabistro

The Independent: Online exhibition commemorates 'Candide' at 250

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:19:10 +0000

Click here to read the article at The Independent

WNBC: What's the Deal: The New York Public Library

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:43:38 +0000

watch video at nbcnewyork.com

New York Public Library Launches New Website, www.nypl.org

nadia_riley@nypl.org — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:43:23 +0000

New Site Provides Improved Navigation, Direct Access to Reference Librarians, Improved Searching, and Rich Content from Staff Members Across the Library System

[img_assist|nid=70805|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=300|height=170]January 7, 2010, New York, N.Y., The New York Public Library has launched its new Drupal-based website, at http://www.nypl.org. The dramatically redesigned site, created by the Library’s in-house digital team, embodies the Library’s forward–thinking vision and commitment to the growing needs of its patrons. Based on extensive research with librarians and Library users, it offers:

rich content provided by staff from across the Library system
direct access to reference librarians from almost every page
streamlined searching and more intuitive navigation
interactive exhibitions using multimedia and technology like Google mapping software

The site’s homepage welcomes visitors with bold new colors, a clean uncluttered design, and moving images with featured content centered on the Library’s mission to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities. A short video on the site's new features can be viewed at www.nypl.org/node/65983.
“With changing information needs, the introduction of many new library services, and the availability of new web technology, it was time for a comprehensive restructuring of the online window to our services,” said Library President Paul LeClerc. “The new www.nypl.org is easier to use, reflects a diverse range of staff voices, and provides increased flexibility for future growth. It will greatly improve the experience of Library users as we move ahead into new realms of digital service. I am immensely proud of it.”

Annually, millions of users visit www.nypl.org to reserve books, search for classes, check library hours, order prints of digital images, sign up for classes, get homework help, read blogs and take advantage of the myriad of other features the website offers. The development of the new site began in 2008. Numerous prototypes were created and shared with staff and users who participated in a variety of in-person and online studies producing more than 100,000 responses.

Improved Navigation and Searching
Analysis showed that 25% of all searches of nypl.org are for basic information about the Library, so a new “Using the Library” section was created as one of eight core navigation items at the top of each page. Deep footers and sidebars on every page also provide shortcuts to multimedia content, job information resources, exhibitions, and other popular content. Librarian-created content also increases instances of broad Internet searches leading back to reliable Library-vetted information. A link to Ask NYPL, where users can reach librarians directly, is for the first time accessible on almost every page. Searching within the site is one of the most crucial activities, so those functions were significantly improved. Previously a search for information on Edgar Allan Poe, for example, would produce results in different categories and require the user to choose which category seemed most likely to have the relevant results. In the new site all relevant information relating to Poe appears in one set of search results, with filtering options for further refinement. Additionally users may easily toggle back and forth between searches of the Library’s catalog and other content.

Staff Voices and Serendipity
Librarians have been charged with generating content such as blog posts and photo uploads and with tagging relevant information from throughout the website that will help visitors access the depth of services available, recreating the serendipitous nature of research that happens at the physical libraries. The pages for each of the 89 libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island will now be created and managed by staff in the local libraries, allowing each page to continue to provide the basic information and also showcase the unique qualities of the library and the neighborhood it serves. For example the 96th Street Branch page highlights a podcast series, Turn it Up at 96th Street, created and hosted by its teen users.

New Types of Content
The website will feature new types of digital content, inspired by the Library’s collections and other resources. The first of these projects, a new one-of-a-kind digital exhibition, Picturesque Journeys-On the Road with Candide (http://candide.nypl.org), features a pick-and-choose visual storytelling plus a “Candide Journey” project created in Google Maps by 10th-grade students and many other features.

New Underlying Technology
A major aspect of the new site is the use of Drupal, an open source software platform. Drupal eliminates the dependency on commercial software vendors that provide rigid frameworks with little room for customization. Switching to an open source platform allows the digital team to write code for the Library’s specific needs as well as share and benefit from innovations across the Drupal community. “Until now the Library’s web site has gone through a cycle of major re-designs,” said Dr. LeClerc. “This launch lays the groundwork for a philosophy of ongoing evolution and expansion of nypl.org with new features and improvements being made continually. We look forward to feedback from our users and exciting new developments to come.”

Contact: Nadia Riley nadia_riley@nypl.org | 212.592.7177

The Economist: Voltaire's Subversive Glamour

Jennifer_Lam@nypl.org — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:35:57 +0000

"'Candide, or Optimism' is a work of fiction, but it is not a novel," begins "Candide at 250: Scandal and Success", an exhibition at the main New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. In the Sue and Edgar WachenheimIII Gallery, the show examines the ways Voltaire's text has been warped, reimagined, staged, filmed, redrawn and otherwise revised over the course of 250 years. "Candide", we learn, is nothing if not a supple source.

The gallery is tiny and filled with well-lit treasures, which gives viewers the impression of being inside a jewellery box. The exhibition starts off with the lone surviving manuscript of "Candide" from 1758 (pictured)—transcribed by Voltaire's secretary, with bold revisions in his own hand—and continues with a display of all 17 first editions of the text. The New York Public Library is one of two libraries in the world to own copies of all 17 editions, a placard proudly notes (the other is the Bodleian Library at Oxford). The fragile books, arranged in a central vitrine, are magical.

The next of the treasures on display is a cranberry-red briefcase of Morocco leather that is embossed with Monsieur Voltaire's full name. This briefcase, the author's own, is an object with an aura so strong that it pulls gallery-goers back again and again, perhaps to hypothesise about how the writer might have toted the well-worn case, and what documents it might have transported. Our first writer-celebrity ("Candide" was a best-seller in its day), Voltaire retains his transgressive glamour a couple of centuries on. The briefcase itself glows by association. It's not hard to see why the Vatican kept "Candide" on its blacklist for 200 years.

The show familiarises us with both the original text and the spin-offs it launched, starting with examples of 18th-century "fan fiction" and leading up to an account of Leonard Bernstein's comic operetta, an Esperanto translation of the story, Terry Southern's steamy satire "Candy" and Chris Ware's book-jacket design for a Penguin reissue of "Candide" in 2005. "Any homage honors the original," notes the exhibition, "but it also always changes it."

The library's examination of Voltaire and his imitators is a gift to anyone with a fondness for satire. For lovers of literature, it's also a visceral way to experience history.

~ MOLLY YOUNG

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/blog/molly-young/subversive-activity-considering-candide

The Underground Story of Photographer W. Eugene Smith and the Jazz Loft is Told in a New Multimedia Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:21:25 +0000

[img_assist|nid=66065|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=300|height=193]New York, NY – The story of a little known five-story loft building in New York City’s wholesale flower district that was a popular late-night haunt for some of the biggest names in 1950’s and 60’s jazz is told in The Jazz Loft Project, a new multimedia exhibition opening February 17, 2010, at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The exhibition features never-before-displayed vintage black and white prints and rarely heard audio recordings by photographer W. Eugene Smith who spent eight years documenting the jazz musicians, artists, and underground characters who inhabited the scene at 821 Sixth Avenue. Smith’s remarkable photographs evoke the world of smoky jam sessions and after-hours rehearsals with musicians like Thelonious Monk, Zoot Sims, and Hall Overton. Curated by Sam Stephenson and Courtney Reid-Eaton of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the exhibition features more than 200 images, several hours of audio, and 16 mm film footage of Eugene Smith working in the loft. The Jazz Loft Project will be on display from February 17, 2010, to May 22, 2010, in the Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. Admission is free.

“The photos and recordings included in The Jazz Loft Project, provide remarkable documentation of the creative atmosphere in Eugene Smith’s loft, which has been little-known until Sam Stephenson’s work on The Jazz Loft Project,” said Jacqueline C. Davis, Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director for the Performing Arts. “They also provide a fresh trove of iconography and audio that will provide new insights for scholars and jazz fans. We are very pleased to host this exhibition.”

About The Jazz Loft

[img_assist|nid=66066|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=195|height=300]In 1957, former Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith moved out of the home he shared with his wife and four children in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and into a dilapidated, five-story loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue (between 28th and 29th streets) in New York City’s wholesale flower district. The building was a late-night haunt of musicians, including some of the biggest names in jazz—Charles Mingus, Zoot Sims, Bill Evans, and Thelonious Monk among them—and countless fascinating, underground characters. Smith found solace in the chaotic, somnambulistic world of the loft and its artists. He turned his documentary impulses away from Pittsburgh – where he was working on a documentary project – and toward his new surroundings.
From 1957 to 1965, Smith exposed 1,447 rolls of film at his loft, making roughly 40,000 pictures, the largest body of work in his career, photographing the nocturnal jazz scene as well as life on the streets of the flower district, as seen from his fourth-floor window. He wired the building like a surreptitious recording studio and made 1,740 reels (4,000 hours) of stereo and mono audiotapes, capturing more than 300 musicians, among them Roy Haynes, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Roland Kirk, Alice Coltrane, Don Cherry, and Paul Bley. He also recorded such legends as pianists Eddie Costa and Sonny Clark, drummers Ronnie Free and Edgar Bateman, saxophonist Lin Halliday, bassist Henry Grimes, and multi-instrumentalist Eddie Listengart. But guests to the loft included more than just jazz musicians. Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, and Salvador Dali all visited during its active years.

More than 200 vintage prints will be on display in the exhibition, including approximately 40 master prints. Smith’s 5x7-inch work prints will further tell the story of the loft. Listening stations will give access to remastered selections from Smith’s reel-to-reel tapes which caught everything from rousing jam sessions to historic radio and television broadcasts, loft conversations, and street noise.

"Smith was an idiosyncratic master of darkroom printing,” says Sam Stephenson, Director of the Jazz Loft Project, a multiyear initiative based at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. “He said 95% of his art occurred in the darkroom, not in the exposure of negatives.His vintage prints—most of them exhibited for the first time—accompanied by his recorded sound will provide unique access to a bygone time and place."

All of the photographs featured in the exhibition are also included in the new 288-page hardcover book The Jazz Loft Project written by Sam Stephenson and published by Alfred A. Knopf. More information about the book can be found on The Jazz Loft Project’s website, www.jazzloftproject.org. The Jazz Loft Project is also the subject of a ten-part radio series produced by WNYC and the Center for Documentary Studies. More information and the opportunity to hear episodes from the series are available at http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/jazz-loft/.

The exhibition was organized by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, in association with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. The Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University was made possible through the generous support of the Reva and David Logan Foundation, with significant additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (The Grammy Foundation). For more information about the Center for Documentary Studies, see http://cds.aas.duke.edu.

About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters, and photographs.

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Contact: Jonathan Pace, Publicist, The New York Public Library| 212.592.7710 | Jonathan_Pace@nypl.org
Contact: Lauren Hart, Jazz Loft Project Coordinator | 919.660.3668 | lauren.hart@duke.edu

jp: 12.14.09

New York Public Library Reveals New Look and Mission for the Future

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:34 +0000

[img_assist|nid=65968|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=300|height=300]November 6, 2009, New York, N.Y., The New York Public Library has introduced two important new elements to its identity and communications at a time of rapidly changing user needs. At an event earlier this evening in the Trustees Room, the Library unveiled a new lion logo developed in concert with its new mission, which is to Inspire Lifelong Learning, Advance Knowledge, and Strengthen Our Communities. The event featured a presentation by designer and author Steven Heller and a state-of-the-art multimedia experience that included QR Code technology.

“The new visual identity reflects the accessibility and dynamism of today’s library,” said Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. “At a time when users are coming to us in record numbers both on-site and online, the new logo and mission statement represent the Library’s active engagement in unifying communities as well as the Library’s staff around 21st-century needs.”

The Logo
The goal in designing the new logo was to emphasize today’s Library, grounded in tradition yet contemporary. It is based on the Library’s iconic lion statues, which sit at the entrance to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.The new look, designed by the Library’s in-house graphics team under the leadership of Art Director Marc Blaustein, emphasizes openness, with flowing lines speaking to momentum and forward motion.

To viewa video about the making of the new library logoplease click here

The first stage of the redesign began in 2008 with the designers sketching and photographing the marble statues from the steps of the landmark building. Dozens of iterations, realistic and conceptual, pencil and digital, drew inspiration from periods and themes including 16th-century printers’ marks, Art Nouveau, stained glass, and Japanese woodcuts. The result is a balance between organic lines and geometric shapes that visually represent the movement and fluidity of the Library, also reflected in the new mission. The new logo is versatile and can be used in various forms and colors. It also reproduces well at small sizes and reads strongly in all formats whether online or in print.

“The mission of The New York Public Library is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.”

The three parts that comprise the mission statement represent the various roles the Library plays and the promises it makes to its users. The focus on powerful verbs is a testament to the Library’s dedication to actively engage with the public in creating the Library of the future. The Library inspires lifelong learning by creating and supporting more able learners from the youngest patrons in the children’s rooms to the adults in the Rose Main Reading Room to those in their living rooms or elsewhere around the world connecting through the Internet. The Library advances knowledge through its commitment to continuously collect and preserve materials that reflect New York’s global perspective, and to maintain free and open access to those materials. The Library is also an instrument for the communities it serves, celebrates, honors, and brings together. The new mission statement was developed through focus groups and through interviews and surveys with staff and Trustees. Their preliminary ideas and language formed the framework for the new statement.

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Contact: Nadia Riley,212.592.7177 , Nadia_Riley@nypl.org

Dr. Paul LeClerc to Retire as President of The New York Public Library

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:56:35 +0000

[img_assist|nid=65956|title=Dr. Paul LeClerc|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=222|height=300]November 18, 2009, New York, NY—Dr. Paul LeClerc, the French literature scholar who has guided The New York Public Library into the digital age—one of the most dramatic transitions in its history—has announced that he will retire from his position as President in the summer of 2011.

At a meeting of its Board of Trustees today, Dr. LeClerc said he is “both astonished and pleased at how much our library system has changed” in his 16 years at the helm.

Today the Library is open at its 89 sites more hours than at any time in the last 35 years. Dr. LeClerc has overseen the merging of the branch and research library systems, over $500 million in capital projects, the creation of notable programs and exhibitions, and a more than twofold increase in the Library’s endowment. Users pay 18 million physical visits to the Library each year, in addition to more than 26 million global visits online.

"I'm more enthusiastic about the Library's mission and service to its public than ever before, and look forward to all we will accomplish during the remainder of my tenure,” said Dr. LeClerc. “The present momentum behind the Library, with the number of users depending on us at record levels, is a source of great pride for me, the Trustees, and all the staff. I am excited about the strength of the organization that my successor will inherit, and am pleased to be working with the Board of Trustees to ensure a sound transition with the participation of all the Library's constituents. Serving as the President of The New York Public Library, with the chance to work with so many to transform it in wonderful and important ways, is the highest honor I’ve ever been given."

“With intellect, determination, creativity, and a passionate belief in our mission, Paul LeClerc has led the Library to unprecedented levels of accomplishment,” said Catherine Marron, Chairman of the Library’s Board of Trustees. “Through years filled with opportunity and challenge Paul has been driven to provide the best possible services to the public. By expanding access to the Library through digital technology, building major new libraries, acquiring important collections, expanding hours, hiring stellar staff, and developing plans to strengthen the Library in the years ahead, he has built a legacy woven into every corner of the organization, which will continue to grow far into the future.”

A committee headed by Mrs. Marron and Vice Chairman Joshua L. Steiner will begin the search for a new Library President. “With today’s announcement Paul has provided us with the opportunity to ensure a smooth transition in leadership, giving us ample time to conduct a thorough search to fill this unique leadership position,” said Mrs. Marron.

Dr. LeClerc came to The New York Public Library in 1993 from Hunter College where he had been President since 1988. He spearheaded the creation of a digital library, launching the first NYPL.org website—and continues to oversee the digitization of the Library’s catalog; its 700,000 image Digital Gallery; and the vastly growing field of downloadable e-books, videos, and music. The Library, which recently created an integrated catalog of research and circulating materials representing 14 million items, has also entered into new partnerships with Google, Flickr, Apple (iTunes U), Kirtas Technologies, and numerous others that provide expanded access to the Library’s resources. All of the Library’s branches now provide free wireless access to the Internet, and the Library offers 3,600 free public-access computers, with training for those new to computers.

A priority for Dr. LeClerc has been to make major improvements to the Library’s physical resources. He oversaw the creation of six new libraries, including the 78,000-square-foot Bronx Library Center, and facilitated the renovation of the Library’s glittering Deborah, Jonathan F.P., Samuel Priest, and Adam Raphael Rose Main Reading Room in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Other large-scale renovations have included The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the current restoration of the monumental façade of the Stephen A. Schwarzman building.

During his years at the Library Dr. LeClerc has also helped bring numerous major new collections to its research divisions, including the archives of Merce Cunningham; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Malcolm X (on deposit for 75 years); Jack Kerouac; Henry Miller; Jerome Robbins; and The New York Times—as well as the film and video archives of Rudolf Nureyev. He also established the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and LIVE from the NYPL—featuring acclaimed writers, artists, and thinkers.

Dr. LeClerc is currently working with the Library’s Board of Trustees and staff to implement new strategies establishing the “Library for the Future” as a leader in growing New York City’s human and intellectual capital—offering tailored services to fulfill diverse user needs, developing its leading online presence, and adapting the organization to provide seamless and efficient service through a single system of 89 libraries. The strategies include a bold new plan to create a central library with combined research and circulating collections in the landmark Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Dr. LeClerc has also overseen two highly successful fundraising campaigns. The Library is now securing the funding for a $1.2 billion transformation project.

Today, the Trustees and Dr. LeClerc are steering the Library through one of the most difficult economic climates since the Great Depression. Visits and circulation have risen substantially as New Yorkers turn to the Library for help. By maintaining funding and implementing managerial and operational strategies, the Library has dramatically increased its hours of operation—becoming a critical resource for job seekers and other users relying upon the variety of free services it offers.

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Dr. Paul LeClerc

Paul LeClerc was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, the grandchild of French Canadian immigrants. French was spoken in his childhood home and formed the basis of his later interest in French language and culture. Raised in Queens, he attended parochial schools there. LeClerc graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1963 and spent the next academic year studying at the Sorbonne. He completed a Ph.D. in French literature with distinction at Columbia University, writing a dissertation on Voltaire.

Dr. LeClerc was a member of the faculty of Union College in Schenectady, New York, from 1966 through 1979, where he chaired the Department of Modern Languages and the Division of Humanities. In 1979 he joined the central administration of The City University of New York, the nation's largest urban university system, as University Dean for Academic Affairs, later becoming Acting Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. In 1984 he was appointed Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Baruch College, CUNY, home of the largest business school in America.

In 1988, Dr. LeClerc was appointed President of Hunter College, the largest public institution of higher education in New York City. Under Dr. LeClerc's leadership, Hunter, which provides an education from kindergarten through to the Ph.D., adopted the nation's most comprehensive and diverse undergraduate requirements and moved into 12th place nationally in awarding degrees to minority students.

David Remnick described Dr. LeClerc in The New Yorker as “an unassumingly brilliant administrator and Voltaire scholar.” LeClerc is the author or co-editor of five scholarly volumes on writers of the French Enlightenment and his contributions to French culture earned him the Order of the Academic Palms (Officier) in 1989 and the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier) in 1996.

Dr. LeClerc has received honorary doctorates from Oxford University, the University of Paris III-La Nouvelle Sorbonne, and Brown University, among others, and he is currently a Trustee of The New York Public Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Union College, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the American Academy in Rome, the National Book Foundation, and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation. President Clinton appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is also a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. LeClerc has been married for 29 years to Judith Ginsberg, Executive Director of the Nash Family Foundation in New York City.

The New York Public Library

The New York Public Library operates 89 libraries (including research and branch libraries) in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. It is one of the world’s most recognized and respected library systems with collections of more than 50 million items, staff of 2,700 and an annual budget of $254 million. It serves an immensely diverse range of users, from pre-school children to adults needing basic literacy skills in English or help in bridging the digital divide, to world-class writers and scholars. The Library currently receives 18 million visits annually by users to its physical sites and more than 26 million visits by those who use its resources via the Internet.

Contact: Herb Scher| 212.592.7700 | HScher@nypl.org

Periodically Speaking:Literary Magazine Editors Introduce Emerging Writers at The New York Public Library

jonathan_pace@nypl.org — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:37:24 +0000

New York, NY—The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses [clmp] and The New York Public Library present Periodically Speaking, a reading series providing a major venue for emerging writers to present their work while emphasizing the diversity of America’s literary magazines and the magazine collections of The New York Public Library. Each event presents writers from three influential literary magazines—one poet, one fiction writer, one nonfiction writer—introduced by their editors.

Program III
Tuesday, December 8th, 6 – 7:30 pm
DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, The New York Public Library,
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42^nd(Please use Fifth Avenue entrance; admittance is free)

Five Points

Five Points is named after an area of downtown Atlanta where cattle paths once converged at the site of an artesian well. The name offers a metaphor for Five Point’s goal of presenting a convergence of ideas and genres, photograph and text, north and south, east and west, young and old. With no limitations on style or content, Five Point’s only criterion is excellence.

Editor Megan Sexton introduces fiction writer Celia Dovell Bell.

Epoch

Epoch is an internationally distributed magazine of contemporary literature published by Cornell University. The magazine has been in continuous publication for 62 years and is edited by Michael Koch and the faculty and graduate students in the Department of English Program in Creative Writing at Cornell. Epoch is an open forum for fiction, poetry, and essays; submissions are welcome from September through May of each year.

Editor Edward Hower introduces the nonfiction of writer John Crutchfield.

West Branch

Founded in 1977 and published at Bucknell’s Stadler Center for Poetry, West Branch has earned a reputation for excellence and integrity in its semiannual offering of poetry, fiction, essays and reviews. Respected by readers and writers alike for its high literary standards, West Branch takes pride in its truly broad aesthetic and its strong commitment to emerging voices.

Editor Andrew Ciotola introduces poet Matthew Ladd.

Periodically Speaking resumes in Spring with three more great programs. Join our mailing list for updates on the full schedule. Listen to programs past at www.nypl.org/research/chss/per/programs.html; for more information, visit www.clmp.org.

This series is made possible in part by support from the New York State Council for the Arts, a state agency; the new york city Department of Cultural Affairs; the National Endowment for the Arts; The New York Public Library; and Friends of [clmp], a diverse group of individuals committed to supporting independent literary publishing.

A Lecture by Paul Goldberger, of The New Yorker, and Architect Michael Sorkin on Architecture in New York and Latin Jazz Performance by Chris Washburne and the S.Y.O.T.O.S Band Are Among Free December Programs at The New York Public Library

kristopher_kelly@nypl.org — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:51:25 +0000

Throughout December, patrons of all ages will have the opportunity to attend a variety of free programs at The New York Public Library. City residents will have the opportunity to learn about the impact of architectural design on the New York skyline through a discussion with Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker, and Michael Sorkin, founder of the Michael Sorkin Studio. The discussion, “Architectural Explorations in Books-Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture,” will take place at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on December 2. New York’s influential Latin Jazz Band, Chris Washburne and the S.Y.O.T.O.S Band, will perform at the Bronx Library Center on December 5, as part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Series.The Library presents more than 20,000 free public programs throughout its 87 branches in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island annually, complementing its broad collections and other services.A complete listing of events is available at www.nypl.org/events. More information on young adult programs at the Library is available at http://teenlink.nypl.org

Highlighted Programming for The New York Public Library in December

Architectural Explorations in Books - Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture
Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Manhattan
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker, and Michael Sorkin, founder of the Michael Sorkin Studio will lead a discussion on the role of architecture in society as part of the “Architectural Explorations in Books” Series. Goldberger’s and Sorkin’s talk will touch on the impact of architecture styles on a person’s life and the judgment and praise that stem from architectural designs around the city. The conversation, which will draw on ideas from Goldberg’s novels Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture , Why Architecture Matters , and Sorkin’s Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, will be a worthwhile experience for city residents curious about how architectural advancements have shaped the New York skyline.The talk will be held in the Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room 227) in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

A Very Lively Art: Producing Public Programs at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 6:00 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan
Alan Pally, Manager for the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Public Programs, will lead a presentation reviewing the variety of public programs LPA has organized and exhibited throughout the years. Performing-arts lovers will have the opportunity to view audio and visual clips from past events featuring participants such as Mrs. Vincent Astor, Marcia Gay Harden, Julie Harris, Frank Langella, James Levine, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Pete Seeger, Bobby Short, David Strathairn, the Aswan Folkloric Dance Group of Egypt, and many others. These past participants are part of a rich tradition at the Library for Performing Arts which provides audience members with a wide assortment of free concerts, dance and theater performances, film screenings, lectures, and panel discussions each year.

Meet The Author: Jessica Bendinger
Friday, December 4, 4:00 p.m., Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Children’s Center at 42nd Street, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Manhattan
Jessica Bendinger, the screenwriter, producer, and director who has written such films as Bring It On and Stick It, visits The New York Public Library to discuss her first teen novel coming out The Seven Rays. Teens are invited to come and listen to Ms. Bendinger discuss her writing career so far and what she has coming out next.

Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series presents Latin Jazz with Chris Washburne and the S.Y.O.T.O.S Band
Saturday, December 5, 2009, 2:30 p.m., Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx
The Bronx Library Center will host Chris Washburne and the S.Y.O.T.O.S. Band as part of the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. Chris Washburne, labeled “one of the best trombonists in New York” by The New York Times is the founder and Director of Columbia University’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program and an assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Columbia University. As a freelance studio musician, he has extensive experience on the trombone, bass trombone, tuba, didjeridu, and on percussion instruments, recording and playing with musicians and groups of all genres, including The Duke Ellington Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Celine Dion, Justin Timberlake, Bjork, Celia Cruz, and Tito Puente. Although Washburne is known for his ability to perform a wide variety of music styles and cross cultural boundaries, his Latin Jazz Group, S.Y.O.T.O.S, is one of the most popular Latin jazz groups in New York. Among S.Y.O.T.O.S’s four albums, their album Paradise in Trouble was nominated as the Best Latin Jazz Record of 2004 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

15 Days of Dance: The Making ofGhost Light
Thursday, December 17,2009, 6:00 p.m., The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan
Filmmaker Elliot Caplan, choreographer Brian Reeder, and a collection ofAmerican Ballet Theater dancers will join the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on December 17th for the second part of the screening of 15 Days of Dance: The Making of Ghost Light. 15 Days of Dance, an 18 hour documentary, chronicles the choreographic process behind Brian Reeder’s new piece, a ballet for six dancers set to Music for the Theater by Aaron Copland commissioned by the Center for the Moving Image. Elliot Caplan’s intimate filming process with Brian Reeder and his dancers during the rehearsal stages of this production allowed Caplan to experiment with a new method of dance preservation. Throughout the screening, Caplan will show excerpts from 15 Days of Dance and engage Reeder and the dancers in a discussion about the creative process behind dance productions.

Highlighted Movie Screenings for The New York Public Library inDecember

Harlem Library Cinema Series: Black to Our Roots
Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 6:30 p.m., George Bruce Branch, 518 West 125th Street, Manhattan
The Harlem Library Cinema Series presents Black to Our Roots, a Tre WhitlowLiving film detailing the journey 17 year old Sylvia Dorsey takes to explore her ancestral home in Ghana in an attempt to escape the cycle of violence and poverty of her Atlanta neighborhood. The screening will be preceded by a Music Lounge at 6:00 and a Q&A session with a guest speaker will follow the screening.

Movie Time:Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Thursday, December 3, 2009, 3:30 p.m., Yorkville Branch, 222 East 79th Street, Manhattan
“The question isn’t ‘what are we going to do,’ the question is ‘what aren’t we going to do?’” – Ferris Bueller
The late, great John Hughes wrote and directed this teen opus that documents one man’s struggle to take it easy.

Holiday Films Series: Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Friday, December 4, 2009, 2:00 p.m., 58th Street Branch, 127 East 58th Street, Manhattan
The 1940s Christmas classic, Miracle on 34th Street, returns to Manhattan during this holiday season at The New York Public Library. Through this heartwarming story about a Macy’s Santa Claus institutionalized for his claims that he is the true Kris Kringle and the legal battle that ensues, movie-lovers will be able to embrace the true spirit of Christmas.

Tortured Artists on Film: Capote (2005)
Monday, December 7, 2009, 6:00 p.m., Jefferson Market Branch, 425 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan
Capote, is a biographical film detailing Truman Capote’s investigation of a brutal murder of a Kansas family. Philip Seymour Hoffman will shock viewers with his Oscar-winning portrayal of Capote, a conflicted writer dedicated to the research behind his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, whether or not it compromises his friendship with one of the brutal killers, Perry Smith.

Family Film Night: Muppet’s From Space (1999)
Thursday, December 10, 2009, 5:00 p.m., Huguenot Park Branch, 830 Huguenot Avenue, Staten Island
Family members of all ages will enjoy the humorous tale of an alien encounter as Tim Henson’ s Muppet characters return to the screen in Muppet’s From Space.