The New York Public Library Launches A Month-Long ‘Roar for NYC’ To Support and Inspire NYC and Its Resilient Residents

To conclude its 125th anniversary year, the Library will offer free NYC-themed virtual programs, storytimes, and more throughout December, including the 125 NYC Books We Love reading recommendations list released today


MEDIA CONTACT: Angela Montefinise, angelamontefinise@nypl.org

ASSETS:

  • Photos and b-roll of Library lions Patience and Fortitude decked out in masks and holiday wreaths here (credit Jonathan Blanc / NYPL).

  • Stills from the NYC-themed storytimes can be viewed here.

  • A sample storytime featuring children’s librarian Marisa Hall from The New York Public Library’s Riverside Branch in Manhattan can be viewed here. She creatively reads Subway by Christoph Niemann, interacts with the viewers, and sings songs about taxis and buses, among other things.

DECEMBER 3, 2020: The New York Public Library is painting the town read.

To inspire and support a City coping with unprecedented challenges, the Library is launching a month-long “Roar for NYC,” with NYC-themed storytimes, virtual programs with Desus & Mero, Marlon James, Susan Choi, Min Jin Lee, Isaac Fitzgerald, and others, and a host of other free offerings throughout the month of December.

The centerpiece of the campaign—which can be found at nypl.org/nyc and via the hashtag #RoarForNYC—is the Library’s 125 NYC Books We Love reading recommendations list, released today and offering 125 suggested titles for adults, kids, and teens about or involving New York City. All of the books are available to borrow digitally via the Library’s e-reader app SimplyE.

The Roar for NYC campaign is an appropriate conclusion to the Library’s 125th anniversary year: for 125 years, the Library has been at the center of NYC life, strengthening communities and New Yorkers through good and difficult times. The Library’s beloved lions were named Patience and Fortitude in 1933 by Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia because those were the virtues that he felt New Yorkers needed to get through the Great Depression. That sentiment certainly resonates in 2020, an unexpectedly difficult year that found the Library delivering a wide range of new and expanded digital resources to the City.

“New Yorkers are so resilient, so strong, that it’s truly awe-inspiring,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. “This year has been unspeakably difficult for everyone, and we are not at the end of the road. We need to continue to be vigilant, continue to be strong, and after months and months of being on heightened alert, it is no easy task. Our Roar for NYC is just one way we will serve New Yorkers coping with this ongoing situation. We know that with Patience and Fortitude, we will turn the page on this difficult chapter and turn the storyline to renwal. To succeed, we need to be in it together. And the Library is planning to do just that, be here, as it has been for 125 years, to help with whatever is needed: books, materials, job search assistance, English language learning, services for families engaged in remote learning, and more. We are proud to be a foundational part of this ever-vibrant City, and we will do everything possible to support it.”

The 125 NYC Books We Love list was created by expert librarians across The New York Public Library system (which serves the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island), and includes a wide-range of genres and topics, capturing the diversity of New York CIty. 

The list includes fiction, non-fiction, anthology, photography, architecture, poetry, fine art, and more, and some highlights include:

For Adults

  • Jazz by Toni Morrison

  • The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

  • A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

  • 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman

  • Here is New York by E.B. White 

  • The Portable Dorothy Parker, an anthology

  • Up in the Old Hotel and Other Stories by Joseph Mitchell

  • East 100th Street by Bruce Davidson

  • Poet in New York by Federico Garcia Lorca 

  • Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel

For Kids

  • Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

  • Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

  • New Kid by Jerry Craft 

  • Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold 

  • Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love

For Teens 

  • Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

  • Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes

  • 145th Street Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers

  • When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds

  • Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Straight Out of Brooklyn by Saladin Ahmed & Javier Garron

125 NYC Books We Love is the final installment in a series of reading recommendation lists the Library has shared during its anniversary year, including 125 Books We Love, 125 Kids Books We Love, and 125 Books We Love for Teens. The Library also released a series of lists in 2020 to help the public better understand current events, such as the Black Liberation Reading List from the Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the 2020 Election Reading List. Books from all lists are available to borrow for free from the Library through its e-reader app SimplyE.

Librarians developing the NYC reading recommendations list tried to choose titles that have not often appeared on the prior lists. 

In addition to the list and social media content across all of the Library’s channels (@nypl), the Roar for NYC campaign will include:

  • We’re Readin’ Here, a series of NYC-themed virtual storytimes for children aged 2 to 7. Every weekday at 4 PM the Library will post a new video with stories, songs, crafts, activities, and early literacy tips for families at nypl.org/storytime. Some of the books featured are on the 125 NYC Books We Love list. Additionally, the Library is partnering with The Sanitation Foundation, the official nonprofit of the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to present weekly virtual “Snow Storytimes.” Every Monday at 10 AM on the Sanitation Department’s Instagram page, a Sanitation Worker will do a 10 to 15 minute storytime with books provided by the Library. 

  • Free virtual Live from NYPL programs with superstar writers and personalities including Desus & Mero, Marlon James, Susan Choi, Min Jin Lee, Isaac Fitzgerald, and more. More information and the most up-to-date list of programs can be found at nypl.org/live. Some of the programs scheduled to date include:

  • 12/8 | The Future of New York

New York Review of Books contributors Molly Crabapple, Michael Greenberg, Deborah Eisenberg, and Hari Kunzru look for signs of renewal and resilience on the road ahead for New York. This is the Library’s Silvers Lecture, in partnership with NYRB. 

  • 12/10 | Simply New York

Isaac Fitzgerald leads an all-star team of writers, including Susan Choi, Min Jin Lee, and Marlon James, to pay homage to the city that has shaped their lives and work.

  • 12/14 | Homegrown Heroes

The Bronx’s own Desus & Mero sit with Lovia Gyarkye to discuss their love for the City that made them and lessons from the borough that shaped them.

  • 12/17 | So Long, 2020

Whoever said laughter was the best medicine wasn’t anxiously awaiting a vaccine during a global pandemic. But laughter has been scientifically proven to ease pain, so while we wait for the best medicine, beloved New York comedians Matteo Lane, Aparna Nancherla, and Ophira Eisenberg look back on the year that was and what it has meant to be a New Yorker—a funny New Yorker—during these tumultuous times.

  • Dear NYC, a partnership with media outlet Gothamist, will be a month-long love letter to the city. As a part of the series, one NYC-related item from the Library’s research collections will be shared every day in December on Gothamist’s website and Instagram. For 125 years, the Library has collected, preserved, and made publicly-accessible approximately 50 million rare books, manuscripts, letters, diaries, photographs, prints, maps, ephemera, and more so anyone with a library card—from Pulitzer Prize winning writers to young students—can make discoveries, create new works, and better understand each other. The partnership calls attention to some of those items. It also includes a series of “Then and Now” photos of New York City, utilizing historic photos from the Library’s collections that are then re-photographed today, as well as submissions from New Yorkers about what they love about the city.

  • Agree to Disagree: A NY State Of Mind, a day of social media polls on the Library's Twitter and Instagram on Thursday, December 3 asking New Yorkers to choose between two or more New York City favorites (for example: bacon, egg, and cheese versus bagel with some schmear). 

  • NYC-Themed Virtual Book Club. The Library’s virtual book club with WNYC and “Get Lit” host Alison Stewart—formed in April to bring New Yorkers together and foster community during an unprecedented time of social separation—will read Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem as its December book. The book is set in New York City and is on the 125 NYC Books We Love list. The book, and all books as part of the virtual book club, can be checked out via the Library’s e-reader app SimplyE.

  • Holiday Open House, the 2020 virtual edition. Every December for more than 30 years, the Library has held Holiday Open House, a festive winter event for members of the Library’s Friends at its 42nd Street library. This year the tradition continues with the first-ever virtual edition of the event, which will have a NYC theme and include storytime events, a puppet show, collection tours, and choir performances. Viewers can also gain access to a special holiday dance party playlist, downloadable kids crafts, and cocktail and cookie recipes from the Library’s holiday archives. Free and open to everyone, the event will take place on Sunday, December 13 at 1 PM. 

The Roar for NYC pays tribute to the spirit of New York City, and is also a fitting conclusion to the Library’s 125th anniversary and its mission to make knowledge, information, and opportunity available to all New Yorkers, regardless of background or circumstance. Since its incorporation on May 23, 1895, the Library has connected all people with the tools they need to be informed, curious members of civic society, and lifelong readers and learners. Today, these tools include books and e-books  but also research databases, workshops, job search help, technology training classes, talks with notable authors and thinkers, and much more.  

The Library’s 125th year has been one of its most challenging, with the country facing a global pandemic. While the Library’s physical locations were temporarily closed or open for very limited services for most of the year, the institution still found a way to respond, offering a robust suite of virtual resources for students and families, including:

About The New York Public Library

For 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.