LEGO My Library

What’s the connection between LEGOS, libraries, and books? A recent study by Dorothy Singer, senior research scientist at Yale University’s Department of Psychology and Child Study Center, believes that play contributes to early literacy development by increasing a child’s attention span, memory, creativity, language, and vocabulary skills. Playing also lays the foundation for logical mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning, and problem solving- skills needed throughout one’s life. Tactile and kinesthetic learning activities, such as playing with LEGOS, helps increase understanding. In other words, play paves the way for learning.

Recently the Birmingham Public Library invested in our children’s education and learning process by adding LEGOS to our programming. Some of these Library LEGO Learning Sessions have produced such creations as dinosaurs, self-portraits, castles, ships, and more. It’s hard to say who learns the most—the children or adults. So parents, when you see the Birmingham Public Library hosting a LEGO program, don’t think twice, drop everything and rush to the library immediately for LEGO play time (I mean learning time).

For more LEGO fun, check out these books and other LEGO items at your local library.

The LEGO Adventure Book by Megan Rothrock
The LEGO Book by Daniel Lipkowitz
Heroes in Action by Shari Last
The Race for Chi by Amos Ruth
Calling All Master Builders by David Fentiman

Carla Perkins
Avondale Library

Free Workshops on the Affordable Healthcare Act to be Held at Birmingham Public Libraries in March

Free workshops that explain the Affordable Healthcare Act will be held at various Birmingham Public Library locations in March. Trained officials with Birmingham HealthCare, a nonprofit health organization, will lead the sessions and be available to assist with enrollment. Those eligible to enroll may do so, for free, during the sessions. Coverage providers in Alabama are Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and Humana Insurance.

Open enrollment will end March 31. Those without health insurance may incur a tax penalty when filing taxes in 2015, which is why officials encourage the public to attend the sessions to learn more about the law.

The sessions will be held on:

Monday, March 10 at 10:00 a.m., Five Points West Library

Monday, March 10, 10:00  a.m. at Smithfield Library

Monday, March 10, 1:00 p.m., Avondale Library

Tuesday, March 11, 10:00 a.m., Smithfield Library

Tuesday, March 11, 4:00 p.m., North Avondale Library

Wednesday, March 12, 3:00 p.m., Springville Road Library

Monday, March 17, 10:00 a.m., North Birmingham Library

Wednesday, March 19, 9:00 a.m., Pratt City Library

For more information about the new law, please visit www.healthcare.gov. To contact a Birmingham Healthcare outreach specialist, call 205-439-7217.

Book Review: Just Kids

Just Kids
Patti Smith

In the mid-sixties musical artist, poet and punk icon Patti Smith and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, still in their teens, are strolling through Washington Square on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Seeing them, a tourist lady turns to her husband saying, “Look, they’re artists!” Her husband replies, “Aw, they’re just kids.” Thus comes the title of this National Book Award-winning memoir of Smith and Mapplethorpe’s friendship, love, and their fierce artistic alliance. Immensely entertaining and chock full of anecdotes from the fabled young avant-garde of New York of that era, Just Kids, is nonetheless a deeply intimate portrayal of a struggle to survive, to eat, to sleep inside, and to advance their art.

Reading Just Kids, we hang out with Patti and Robert at Max’s Kansas City, perform before Andy Warhol at the early CBGB and live at the Chelsea Hotel. Allen Ginsburg makes a play for Smith at the automat, thinking she’s a young man. She has an affair with Sam Shepard and doesn’t even know his name. Robert spends hours at the mirror developing his look for an evening out. She makes some money reselling books. He hustles.

Another meaning, a secondary meaning, can be taken from the book title. “Just” can mean “merely,” but it can also mean “morally right and true,” an odd association with the scandalous Mapplethorpe, but apt in their dedication to their own, and each other’s art. Even with all their adventures Patti and Robert are continuously drawing, writing, photographing, performing, and making—weighing every nickel spent on needed art supplies.

Just Kids is a personal story of two destitute young heroes in a legendary time and place who prevail with and through one another.

David Blake
Fiction Department
Central Library

Linn-Henley Library Receives Significant Building Award

The Alabama Architectural Foundation recently honored the Linn-Henley Research Library with their 2014 Significant Building Award. We are proud of this designation and are thrilled that such a distinguished group recognizes our beloved “Old Library.” I spoke with the current president of the Alabama Architectural Foundation, Mr. Jamie Aycock, and learned that the award is given annually to a public building that has been in service for at least 25 years and has had a significant impact on the community. Nominations are submitted by the 5 Alabama chapters of the American Institute of Architects and are then voted on by that group’s board of directors. I was thrilled to learn that this year’s vote was unanimous in favor of the Linn-Henley Library.

 Significant Building Award
Click to enlarge

We are in good company. Previous recipients include the Rosenbaum House in Florence (Alabama’s only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), the 16th Street Baptist Church, and the Alabama Theatre. According to Mr. Aycock, who grew up in Jefferson County and who has many fond memories of the Library, the Linn-Henley building is, “one of those environments that can’t be replicated. There is nothing about any building that says 'library' any stronger than this one.” The award itself offers this eloquent description, “A living reminder of the past, the Linn-Henley Library continues its mission of service to our citizens, while occupying a sacred place in the community.” We extend our thanks to the Alabama Architectural Foundation for recognizing our lovely building.

M.B. Newbill
Southern History Department
Central Library

After Downton Abbey

Enjoying Downton Abbey? When the season is over, you may enjoy some other PBS Masterpiece productions. Did you know that BPL has several PBS and BBC programs in our DVD collection? I thought that I would spotlight programs that you may not have heard of and the books that made some of these television programs possible.

DVDs
Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple
Call the Midwife, Seasons 1 and 2
Downton Abbey, Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Endeavour, Season 1 (Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse Series)
Garrow’s Law, Seasons 1 and 2 (Inspired by real life British barrister William Garrow, 1760-1840.)
I, Claudius (A wonderful miniseries that tells the history of Rome through the eyes of the elderly Caesar Tiberius Claudius, played by Derek Jacoby.)
Last Tango in Halifax
Luther, Seasons 1, 2, and 3
Page Eight
Sherlock, Seasons 1 and 2
Silk, Season 1
Vera, Seasons 1 and 2
Wallander, Seasons 1, 2 and 3
Zen (Italian detective Aurelio Zen solves cases as he navigates corrupt law enforcement officials and politicians.)

Books
Aurelio Zen Mysteries by Michael Dibdin
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Call the Midwife : A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
The Calling by Neill Cross (Luther TV series prequel)
Hercule Poirot Mysteries by Agatha Christie
Kurt Wallander Mysteries by Henning Mankell
I, Claudius: From the Autobiography of Tiberius Claudius, born 10 B.C., Murdered and Deified A.D. 54 by Robert Graves
Inspector Morse Mysteries by Colin Dexter
Miss Marple Mysteries by Agatha Christie
Silent Voices : A Vera Stanhope Mystery by Ann Cleeves
To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl (Downton Abbey creator, Julian Fellowes, was reading this book when he was asked to write the TV miniseries that became Downton Abbey.)

Maya Jones
West End Library

Birmingham Public Library to Host Holocaust Lecture Series in March

When the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center started in 2002, there were about 35 Holocaust survivors living in Birmingham. Today, there are about 16 in Birmingham. Just a few days ago, the oldest known-living Holocaust survivor died at the age of 110 in London.

The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center and the Birmingham Public Library realize the last-living Holocaust survivors are dying more and more every year, which is why they continue to keep survivors and their stories before the public. Every Wednesday in March at 12 p.m., the two groups will present a Holocaust lecture in the Arrington Auditorium of the Linn-Henley Research Library, 2100 Park Place. The lectures are free.

“We are doing what we can to preserve the history and the knowledge,’’ says Phyllis Weinstein, president of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center. “Even people who feel like they know about the Holocaust can always learn something new.’’ (The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to keeping the history and the lessons of the Holocaust alive.)

The lectures will be held on March 5, 12, 19, and 26. Survivors will speak on March 12 and 19.

Robert May. Camberg, Germany, 1932.  

The March 5 speaker will be Shades Valley history teacher Amy McDonald, who’s received national recognition—the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous—for her Holocaust education program. She will share her deep commitment and reasons for teaching the Holocaust.

On March 12, Ann Mollengarden will host a discussion with her 88-year-old father, physician Robert May of Birmingham. They will discuss his experience in Nazi Germany. “Many people think of Holocaust survivors only in terms of Nazi ghettos and concentration camps. But a Holocaust survivor is anyone who experienced life under Nazi domination,’’ says Mollengarden, education vice president of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center.

On March 19, Max Herzel, 83, will speak. He had at least 13 relatives to perish in concentration camps. He will share postcards, a diary he kept, and materials he’s never shared about his past. He escaped from Belgium when he was 10.

Max Herzel. Villards sur Boege, France, 1943.

“We are really, right now, delving deeper into their stories. The two survivors will be revealing more personal stories,’’ says Mollengarden. “It’s vital that we document these experiences so that future generations can learn from these past experiences.’’

“This is the last generation that will be able to give first-hand accounts of their stories,’’ says Mollengarden. “You may not get another opportunity to ask those personal questions from the Holocaust survivors.’’

March 26 will feature the screening of the new, 38-minute film The Path to Nazi Genocide. Using rare footage, the film examines the Nazis’ rise and consolidation of power in Germany. It also explores the Nazis’ ideology, propaganda, and persecution of Jews and other victims.

This is the 10th year the center and the library have partnered on the series. Past events have included exhibits, display windows, and workshops. For more information about the center, please visit www.bhamholocausteducation.org. For more information about the library, visit www.bplonline.org.

The History of Haiku

wake up! wake up!
let’s be friends,
sleeping butterfly
- Matsuo Bashō

Corresponding with the Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival to be held at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, the Birmingham Public Library is celebrating the haiku with several events: the Twitter Haiku contest, Bards, Brews, and Haikus, and a Haiku workshop.

The history of the modern haiku dates back to the thirteenth century when poets would write rengas or “linked verse” together. “It became the fashion, after some hours of deep poetic concentration on their individual works, to relax by writing a humorous renga together,” notes William Higginson in The Haiku Handbook. The haiku eventually evolved into a being independent from these collaborations and stood alone with rules and structure that are still in debate today, but generally recognized, the criteria are as follows:

• A kigo, or season reference is used. This word or phrase helps the reader identify the feeling associated with the season. There are a list of words haiku poets sometimes use called a saijiki.
• A cutting word (kiru) is used to punctuate by making a pause between two juxtaposed images within the poem. 
• Three unrhymed lines of seventeen syllables usually arranged five, seven, five. This is actively debated today due to the sounds available to the Japanese and English languages and how different in speed the syllables can be. 

Many modern haiku poets refuse to follow tradition and break all manner of rules - leaving out the nature reference and forgoing the seventeen sounds as above referenced.

The rhyme usually never matters in a haiku due to its ascetic nature. These small nuggets of verse are meant to be read and absorbed, mulled over, and not necessarily read aloud. Haikus are often seen as elemental poems, especially by Matsuo Bashō’s day when the rules had evolved to include the hushed dignity that we generally see during his generation’s verse. A revelation within the seventeen sounds occurs, a brief flash into the poet’s psyche about the world around them.

The haiku celebrates the animism of the world, and makes no move to use metaphor or the like, but transcribe the moment when the poet was inspired and what ephemeral voice spoke to him. In Haiku in English, Billy Collins describes it as follows: “A cherry tree in blossom and a dog barking in the distance may not seem to add up to much, but what such a haiku declares is that someone was present - actually there, living and breathing - at that particular intersection of sight and sound. In that sense, haiku not only convey the beauty of individually experienced moments, they are also powerful little assertions of the poet’s very existence.”

Late August -
I bring him the garden
in my skirt.
- Alexis Rotella

To learn more about this beautiful and timeless poetical form, please join in on all our events in regard to the haiku and check out these books from the Birmingham Public Library:

• Bashō’s Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Bashō, translated and with an introduction by David Landis Barnhill 
• The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English, edited by Cor van den Heuvel 
• The Haiku Form, by Joan Giroux 
• The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, by William J. Higginson 
• Haiku in English, edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, Allan Burns 
• Haiku Moment: An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku, edited by Bruce Ross 
• The Haiku Year, variousA History of Haiku, vols 1&2, by R.H. Blyth

Rachel Joiner

Arts, Literature, Sports

Central Library

Bards, Brews & Haiku at Central Library, March 7

The Central Library's Fiction Department hosts the next Bards & Brews Open Mic event on Friday, March 7, 2014. The event will include haiku, sake tasting, and a Japanese craft sale along with the standard offering. The craft sale will raise funds to restore Miss Iwate, the Japanese Friendship Doll residing at BPL since 1928. Music by Andy Harris is from 6:30-7:00 p.m.; performances start at 7:00. The event is free to attend and is open to the public. Must be 18 and up to attend and 21 to participate. ID required. Refreshments will be served.

For more info, call 205-226-3670 or email hm@bham.lib.al.us.

Dr. Seuss' 110th Birthday To Be Celebrated at Selected BPL Branches

Three Birmingham Public Libraries will be celebrating Dr. Seuss' 110 birthday with treats, crafts, and readings.

March 3
Central Library/Youth Department/Story Castle
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Central Library's Youth Department will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday with crafts, activities, Dr. Seuss Bingo, and Dr. Seuss cupcakes.

Smithfield Library
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Members of the Links Inc. Birmingham Chapter will read to children as part of Read Across America and Dr.Seuss' birthday. Refreshments will be served.

March 6
North Birmingham Library
4:00-5:00 p.m.
The North Birmingham Library will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday with cake, crafts, and a movie.

History Teacher Amy McDonald Shares Commitment of Teaching the Holocaust, March 5

 

The Birmingham Public Library is marking its ten-year partnership with the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center in presenting Remembering the Holocaust, presentations by Birmingham residents  sharing their experiences and perspectives. The programs are held every Wednesday in March at noon in the Arrington Auditorium of the Central Library and are free and open to the public.

Remembering the Holocaust - A High School Holocaust Studies Teacher Perspective
March 5
Amy McDonald, history teacher and chair of the Social Studies Department at Shades Valley High School, recently received the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education from the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous at their Annual Dinner in N.Y. She will share her deep commitment and reasons for teaching the Holocaust that brought her to the attention of this prestigious organization.

Remembering the Holocaust - A Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor
March 12
Dr. Robert May, who with his daughter, Ann Mollengarden, Education Vice President of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, discuss his passage from the age of ten, experiencing Kristallnacht in Frankfurt, Germany, joining the Kindertransport to England, and finally to the United States where he became a practicing Birmingham physician and a member of the United States Army.

Remembering the Holocaust - Holocaust Survivor Speaks
March 19
Max Herzel, a member of the BHEC and an Alabama Holocaust Commissioner, will speak of his experience, and show a film on the Power Point created by Ann Mollengarden, giving new facts and interesting aspects of his life from his escape from Germany at the age of ten, until his liberation five years later.

Remembering the Holocaust - The Path to Nazi Genocide, a USHMM Film
March 26
This 38-minute film examines the Nazis' rise and consolidation of power in Germany. Using rare footage, the film explores their ideology, propaganda, and persecution of Jews and other victims. It also outlines the path by which the Nazis and their collaborators led a state to war and to the murder of millions of people. By providing a concise overview of the Holocaust and those involved, this resource is intended to provide reflection and discussion about the role of ordinary people, institutions, and nations between 1918 and 1945.

Children's Book Review: Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me (Ages 3-6)

Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me 
Daniel Beaty
Illustrated by Bryan Collier

Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me was awarded the Coretta Scott King illustrator award. The story is taken from a child’s point of view. Every morning he plays a game with his father. The young boy looks forward to their daily ritual. Then one morning the knock doesn’t come. He waits for his father to help him get ready for school and cook his favorite dish of scrambled eggs. As the young boy grows into adolescence he thinks, “Maybe he comes when I’m not home.” So, he writes his father a letter, letting him know how much he misses him. He wants his father to come home because there were so many things he needed to learn. He always thought his father would be there to teach him how to shave, drive a car, and dribble a basketball.

This book deals with the loss children feel due to the absence of a parent. Read Knock Knock to see how the young boy develops without his father.

Here is Daniel Beaty's spoken word performance of Knock Knock:



Felita Y. Hawkins
East Lake Library

The Passion of Delacroix

Ever wondered who inspired the masters? Birmingham Museum of Art sheds a little light by welcoming Delacroix and the Matter of Finish, 25 paintings and 18 works on paper by French painter Eugene Delacroix, considered by many “the Father of Impressionism.”

Perhaps not a household name today, Eugene Delacroix was a major figure to the likes of van Gogh, Monet, and Degas. He is weighed as one of the most influential of the French Romantics and called the “Master Colorist,” due to his use of color and broad, expressive brush strokes.

Delacroix’s passionate nature is evident in his work; he chose heavy, politically-charged topics or emotional moments in other mediums of art to express the plight of the individual and was entranced with the fate of civilizations as a whole. He was a well-traveled man who took inspiration from the cultures he encountered, and relied heavily on literary, philosophical, and aural arts to inspire his works.

On the cusp of the old world of classical painting and the new, revolutionary world of impressionism, he held allure for many of the artists to follow, and they spoke of his personality and work as a mystery. Delacroix was a bridge between the strict rules and themes of classical painting and the ephemeral nature of the impressionists. He displayed suffering and violence delicately, never truly giving his stance on the situation itself but leaving the grim showing for the audience to decide.

To see this influential master, check out the Birmingham Museum of Art exhibit, Delacroix and the Matter of Finish which runs from February 22nd - May 18th 2014 and costs $15 a person. If you want to read more about Eugene Delacroix, feel free to peruse the following titles, available from the Birmingham Public Library:

• The Attainment of Delacroix by Frank Trapp
• Delacroix by Lee Johnson
• Delacroix: A Pictorial Biography by Yvonne Deslandres
• Delacroix in Morocco
• Delacroix Pastels by Lee Johnson
• Eugene Delacroix: Selected Letters 1813-1863 edited and translated by Jean Stewart
• The World of Delacroix 1798-1863 by Tom Prideaux
• Romantics and Realists (DVD)
• The Private Life of  a Masterpiece (DVD)

Rachel Joiner

Arts, Literature, Sports Central Library

Birmingham Public Library’s March 2 Doll Festival Will Highlight Japanese Culture

Birmingham Public Library employee Haruyo Miyagawa with her hina dolls when she was a year old. Hina dolls are part of the Japanese culture and are displayed during the annual Doll Festival. Miyagawa will have some of these dolls on display at the library on Sunday.

The Birmingham Public Library will host a Doll Festival on Sunday, March 2, 3:00-5:00 p.m., Central Library. Children may bring their favorite doll or action figure, watch a Japanese tea ceremony, enjoy refreshments, and more. The event is free and for all ages.

During Sunday's library event, Japanese dolls will be on display, including the library's Miss Iwate. Miss Iwate is one of the Japanese "Friendship Dolls" Japan sent to American institutions in the mid-1920s as a thank you after American children sent blue-eyed dolls to the children of Japan. The Birmingham Public Library is the only place in Alabama that still has the doll that was given to Alabama. Miss Iwate is now in need of repair. Sunday's event is designed to bring attention to Miss Iwate and to highlight Japanese culture.

Yari Crawford, 4, is ready for Sunday's Doll Festival.

Children will be able to make Samurai hats for themselves and their dolls, sample Japanese-themed foods and participate in an origami workshop. All events will take place in the library's second-floor Story Castle.

In Japan, the annual Doll Festival or Girls' Day Festival is known as Hinamatsuri, which is held on March 3. Their festival focuses on wishing for the health and future happiness of young girls. Sunday’s event will carry a similar message for all children.

For more information and images on Miss Iwate, visit http://www.bplonline.org/programs/iwate.aspx.

For more information about the library’s Doll Festival, call 205-226-3670.

BPL Joins with Black Data Processing Associates

The Birmingham Public Library is proud to work with the BDPA of Greater Birmingham. BDPA (Black Data Processing Associates) is a non-profit organization of professionals who are interested in or work in the Computer Science fields, and information technology. They are dedicated to bringing racial diversity into this ever-growing field.

The BDPA will be holding several workshops in the Youth Department Story Castle this spring and summer for interested teens. If you are interested, please contact the BDPA at president@bdpabham.org or the Central Youth Department at 205-226-3650.

March 3 Marks Start of Spring/Summer Hours for Six Birmingham Libraries

Six libraries within the Birmingham Public Library system will return to spring/summer hours beginning Monday, March 3.

The neighborhood libraries are: East Ensley, Ensley, North Avondale, Powderly, Woodlawn, and Wylam. The new hours will be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., 1:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Wednesday hours will be 1:00-6:00 p.m. They are closed on the weekends.

Renovations continue at the Inglenook Library, a neighborhood library that has temporarily moved its location to the Inglenook Recreation Center. That library rec location is open 1:00-6:00 p.m., Monday-Friday. They are closed on weekends.

Hours for all other libraries within the Birmingham system will not change. For a complete list of hours for all locations, please visit http://www.bplonline.org/locations/.

From Page to Stage: The Secret Garden – A Reader’s Theater Workshop for Children

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL), in partnership with the Birmingham Children’s Theatre (BCT) and Junior League of Birmingham (JLB), would like to invite you to attend From Page to Stage: The Secret Garden — A Readers’ Theater Workshop for Children.

In anticipation of the upcoming BCT performance of The Secret Garden, BPL will be hosting free workshops at several of its area libraries. Children, aged 7 to 12, will learn how storybook characters come alive through the magic of theater. JLB members will coach the children and introduce them to similar literature located in their local library. Each child will receive two free tickets (one child and one adult ticket) to the BCT The Secret Garden production on Saturday, April 12, 2014, at 2:00 p.m.

In an exciting musical production of this familiar tale, Mary Lennox, a willful, young orphan, is sent to live with her brooding uncle at gloomy Misselthwaite Manor. Discovering a hidden, neglected garden, Mary plants the seeds of new life for all those drawn into her secret refuge.

Workshop space is limited, so contact your participating library location to register a child for the workshop. Libraries and dates are as follows:

Avondale: April 6 at 2:30 p.m.

Central: March 9 at 2:30 p.m.

East Lake: March 8 at 2:30 p.m.

Five Points West: March 9 at 2:30 p.m.

Southside: April 5 at 11:00 a.m.

Springville Road: April 5 at 11:00 a.m.

Pratt City: March 8 at 11:00 a.m.

West End: April 5 at 11:00 a.m.

Opening Reception for Artist Starr Weems on March 2 at Central Library

Starr Weems is a dreamer.

And that’s OK because Weems creates watercolor works that blend reality with the fanciful world of dreams.

“(My) vibrant colors mingle and overlap, creating a magical feeling that reflects my thoughts on spirituality and the enjoyment of life,’’ says Weems, who uses transparent watercolor, poured in layers over masking fluid to build high contrast images that are bathed in light. One look and you’d think you were floating right along with the images.

Solstice by Starr Weems

An opening reception for Illuminations in Poured Color: Paintings by Starr Weems will be held on Sunday, March 2, 3:00-5:00 p.m., in the Fourth Floor Boardroom. There are 34 pieces in the exhibit. Most are for sale. The Athens resident will showcase her pieces February 27-April 11, 2014, in the Fourth Floor Gallery of the Central Library.

On Sunday, March 30, Weems will present a free class to show how she uses her unique “pouring’’ technique to achieve her dreamlike images. The class will be held 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the library’s Fourth Floor Boardroom. The workshop is for ages 14 and older. Seating is limited. Call 205-226-3670 to register.

Weems, who teaches art and Spanish to students at Ardmore High School in Limestone County, says some of her best painting ideas come from her two children, Kharma and Rio. “A lot of my paintings have to do with childhood and childhood themes,’’ she says. “Sometimes when I see them play, it reminds me of things that I did as a kid, and I incorporate them into my paintings. I have paintings of fireflies in jars, I have one of my little girl blowing bubbles and one of dandelions blowing away.’’

Don’t tell Weems it doesn’t pay to be a dreamer. “I just finished 80 illustrations for a dream expert. She will use them for a set of dream interpretation cards,’’ Weems says. “She said when she saw my work, they reminded her of dreams.’’

Weems says she’s always been interested in dreams and it comes out in her work. “If you don’t have that opportunity to let your mind wonder, you can’t come up with something new,’’ she says.

For more information about Weems, visit her website at www.starrweems.com.

Event Details:
Starr Weems exhibit, February 27-April 11, during library hours, Fourth Floor Gallery, Central Library

Opening reception, Sunday, March 2, 3:00-5:00 p.m., Fourth Floor Boardroom, Central Library

Free Starr Weems watercolor workshop, Sunday, March 30, 2:30-5:30 p.m., second floor Story Castle, Birmingham Public Library. Call 205-226-3670 to reserve a spot.

Natural Hair

For the last few years, a growing trend among women of color has been the movement to go natural. Going natural refers to the process of going without using damaging chemicals in your hair to achieve a straight, or “relaxed” look to your hair. Many women are rejecting the long established norm of processing your hair and have embraced the “natural” texture of their hair, removing chemicals from their hair regime, and growing their hair into its natural state. The thing that holds back many women of color from making the transition to natural is information. There is a lack of reliable information for women when it comes to their naturally curly, kinky, coily hair. Birmingham Public Library has several books that can be checked out so that patrons that want a better understanding of what having natural hair requires or are interested in making the transition themselves can read. Included are several well-respected websites known for providing reliable hair care information. Any of these sites will help you to become a part of a growing hair care community of naturalistas.

Books
7 Steps to Healthy Natural Hair: Written for Black Women by Black Women

Better Than Good Hair: The Curly Girl Guide to Healthy, Gorgeous Natural Hair!

The Black Hair Care Revolution: A Simple Pocket Guide to Growing & Maintaining Healthy Natural & Permed Hair

Hair Rules!: The Ultimate Hair-Care Guide for Women with Kinky, Curly, or Wavy Hair

Kinki Kreations: A Parents' Guide to Natural Black Hair Care for Kids

Nice Dreads: Hair Care Basics and Inspiration for Colored Girls Who've Considered Locking Their Hair

Textured Tresses: The Ultimate Guide To Maintaining and Styling Natural Hair

Thank God I'm Natural: The Ultimate Guide To Caring For And Maintaining Natural Hair

Websites
NaturallyCurly.com
www.naturallycurly.com
NaturallyCurly.com is usually the first website that a curly girl visits for inspiration. There is a wealth of information including articles, a how-to section, blogs, photos; product reviews recommended books, and a hair forum. In the hair forum, gals (and guys, too) discuss everything about hair, including recipes, going shampoo-less, and news related to curly hair.

Black Girl with Long Hair
http://bglhonline.com
Black Girl with Long Hair is an inspirational website for naturals and transitioners who need to see other ladies in the real world who wear their hair naturally. There is a hair care, skin care, and product section, along with a hair gallery for you to see how others style their hair. There's also a salon section that lists natural hair salons by state.

Black Hair Media Hair Forum
http://blackhairmedia.com/
Black Hair Media is all about black hair care, regardless of whether it’s relaxed, natural, weaved, braided, pressed, texturized, etc. It gives any woman of color an outlet to speak out on anything relating to hair care. It's divided into sub-forums based on whatever your interest in hair care may be.

Curly Nikki
www.curlynikki.com
Curly Nikki is the go to site for natural hair therapy. Its natural haired host, Curly Nikki is a licensed psychotherapist and has personal experience when it comes to loving one's natural hair texture. Curly Nikki always keeps the world of the natural curly girl up-to-date with news related to hair and new products are set to make a debut in stores. Curly Nikki also has a hair forum and always encourages naturals, transitioners, and relaxed ladies to comment on anything that may relate to them.

The Natural Haven
http://thenaturalhaven.blogspot.com
Probably one the most unique natural care sites on the web is The Natural Haven. The force behind this site is a scientist from the United Kingdom that does actual tests and research of the various natural hair care products that are available on the market. She answers readers' questions and gives a scientific source on everything from sulfates to deep conditioning.

Pam Jessie
Woodlawn Library

Get Up Close and Personal with Birmingham Artist Amy Pleasant, February 25

Ever wonder how an artist decides to paint this or that?

Birmingham artist Amy Pleasant will discuss the creative process on Tuesday, February 25, 6:00-7:00 p.m., during a free lecture at the Central Library. During her “On the Table’’ conversation , attendees will be able to ask questions and hold works by Pleasant while sitting around a table in the library’s first floor conference room. The goal is that attendees become as immersed in the art work as they would a book.

“There is a lot of mystery involved with the idea of the artist in the studio,’’ says Pleasant. “…this will open up that mystery and make it available to all who are present.’’

“The project will also be a way for me to share my process and how the source material for a lot of my work comes from the books in this very library.’’

Pleasant received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She has held solo exhibitions at the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Jeff Bailey Gallery in New York, in Stockholm, Sweden, and several other locations.

The lecture is being held in collaboration with The Drawing Center of New York. Pleasant is a member of The Drawing Center’s Viewing Program artist registry, which offers emerging artists the opportunity to include their work in a curated artist registry that is consulted by a wide variety of arts professionals. The Viewing Program allows artists to show their works outside of a conventional exhibition space.

For more information, call the library at 205-226-3670.