Birmingham Public Library Blog

I love a good domestic thriller. Throw together some improbably rich people in a luxurious setting, a power outage, and a dangerous storm, and I'm hooked. Lisa Unger's latest work, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six , involves 3 young couples on a weekend getaway to a remote cabin. Little does the group know an obsessed stalker is pulling all the strings. A stalker whose motivation can be summed up in two words: genetic genealogy!

Participants in the tasting portion of 2023 A Novel Tasting , BPL's April 6 fundraiser.  Birmingham, Ala. -   The Birmingham Public Library  is pleased to announce that  Ghost Train Brewing Company ,  United-Johnson Brothers of Alabama , and  Redmont Distilling Company  are the official alcohol sponsors of this year's   A Novel Tasting. A Novel Tasting , presented by signature sponsor NUCOR , is a  BPL fundraiser taking place from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 6,  at the  Central Library  downtown.  We are grateful to these three local businesses for making this fun event possible!  Other participants in A Novel Tasting include:  AlaBev ,  Birmingham District Brewing Company ,  Southern Roots Wines,   Mersey Craft Spirits ,  Oak Mountain Brewing Company ,  Vineyard Brands,   Sweet Home Spirits ,  Avondale Brewing Company , and  Good People Brewing Company .  A Novel Tasting will also showcase the jazz music of Birmingham native Eric Essix and keyboardist Joseph St

Happy Spring Break from the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) ! If you are still looking for Spring Break plans, the BPL is offering programs just for you. 8 BPL libraries have creative and fun programs to help young patrons and adult patrons enjoy their break.  Keep reading our blog to see what the BPL is offering this week. 

What:  Author talk by Birmingham resident Sonya "Sam" Mitchell about her new book of photography,  Picture the Picture Where:   Central Library , 1st floor, Grand Reading Room | 2100 Park Place Date:  Saturday, April 1, 2023 Time:  1:00–2:00 p.m. Details:  Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing

What:   SCORE Simple Steps to Starting Your Business workshop on Crafting a Business Concept Statement  Where:   Central Library Research Building, 4th Floor, Arrington Auditorium, 2100 Park Place, Birmingham, AL 35203 Date : Tuesday March 28, 2023  Time:  12:00-1:00 p.m. Registration Details:  Please register for the workshop on the  SCORE Alabama website . For more information, contact Jim Murray of the Central Library's Business, Science and Technology Department at jim.murray@cobpl.org or via phone at (205) 226-3640.    Birmingham, Ala. - Do you have a business idea but are not sure how to succinctly describe it in such a way as to attract the interest of potential partners, investors, lenders and customers?  Or perhaps you have just a germ of an idea and you want to begin to flesh it out for your own edification, so you’ll know how to best proceed going forward. Either way, you need to put together a business concept statement.  Not as in-depth as a full-blown business plan,

  Shatoria Peavy, right, founder of Mommy's Lounge Inspires, &West End Library Branch Manager Lynn Hutchins About Mommy's Lounge Inspires Inc. Details:  Founded in 2018 by Shatoria Peavy, Mommy's Lounge Inspires is a single mother's support group that provides mentoring, tools and resources they need to cultivate happy and healthy families.  When:  Meets every second and third Tuesday from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. at West End Branch Library, 1348 Tuscaloosa Ave. SW. The group also hosts a monthly resource day providing single moms with free items including diapers, baby wipes, toiletries, school supplies, and clothing for adults and kids/babies every 4th Tuesday from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. April meeting dates:    Mom Support Group, 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. on April 11 and April 18 Free Resources for Moms, Tuesday, April 25, 5:00 to 5:45 p.m. Must pre-register for mom's resource day at www.mommysloungeinspires.com Birmingham, Ala.- Hey single mothers in metro Birmingham, are you l

Nucor's Patrick King and Stacey Petty outside the Create 205 Learning Lab.   Stacey Petty and Patrick King of Nucor Tubular Products present $10,000 check to BPL Executive Director Janine Langston and Heather McWilliams, manager of Central Library Youth Department.    Birmingham, Ala. – The Birmingham Public Library has received a $10,000 donation from Birmingham-based Nucor Tubular Products to support BPL’s Create205 Learning Lab, a unique program that offers hands-on technology programs for young patrons across the city.  Patrick King and Stacey Petty of Nucor Tubular Products presented a $10,000 check to BPL Executive Director Janine Langston last week inside the Create 205 Learning Lab at the Central Library. “As an engineer and product of the Birmingham City School System, I’m excited to help support the Create 205 Learning Lab,” said King, purchasing supervisor for Nucor Tubular Products. “It is not only great to support this awesome program that will provide Birmingham Ci

Do you remember playing the popular game Memory as a kid? Well, the Inglenook Branch Library will be hosting a Memory game program on Thursday, March 23, 2023, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m.  This game is a great activity for toddlers to improve their focus and interact with their peers. It is fun and educational! Your child will have a blast, and parents and guardians are welcome to participate. 

This collection of short stories was a lucky find for me, because I was looking on the shelves for books by Mary Doria Russell , came across this book by Karen Russell , and was instantly enchanted by the title St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves —how could I not pick it up with a title like that? It reminded me of all the childhood times when adults reproached us for bad manners or wild behavior and would ask, "Were you raised by wolves?!"

Are you looking for ways to keep the kids entertained during Spring Break? The Titusville Branch Library has a weeklong of activities for the children! The best part? It's all FREE .

The Magic City Poetry Festival  (MCPF) has awarded the 2023 Eco-Poetry Fellowship to Birmingham's Tania De'Shawn.   Through this fellowship, in partnership with the Birmingham Public Library, Tania will produce events and initiatives which uplift and enlighten our community. Her fellowship and funding to produce her events are made possible by Spiritual Direction for Writers and WVTM NBC-13 . Ashley M. Jones, Executive Director of the Magic City Poetry Festival and Alabama's first black Poet Laureate , said Tania is well deserving of the fellowship. "Since 2019, the Magic City Poetry Festival has selected a Birmingham-area poet for the Eco-Poetry Fellowship, an award which celebrates the ways in which poetry and the environment intersect," Jones said. " Tania is an incredible poet and community leader, and her mark on the City of Birmingham is evident in her work to date. We know that our environment is made up of not only flora and fauna, but also the c

  The Asphalt Art Initiative is outside Smithfield Branch Library. Young people helped finish phase 5 of the Asphalt Art Initiative in January. Smithfield Branch Library  started the new year with a blast...of paint that is!  On January 5 and 6, a few of Smithfield Library's visitors dashed to see what all the "movement" was about outside the library, #1 8th Avenue West. Lydia Walker, the artist chosen to complete the work, welcomed helping hands to finish phase 5 of the Asphalt Art Initiative. The project began on August 23, 2022, as community leaders gathered to meet with Lydia as she unveiled her ideas for the grant funded project.  Lydia said of this phase of the art design, "I went with a book themed landscape that speaks to the idea that 'reading is dreaming with open eyes'. I wanted to create something that is still simple enough to be painted by all community members , and that would catch a young person's attention."  The first phase was c

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) is proud to announce that NUCOR  will be the Signature Sponsor for the second annual A Novel Tasting. This BPL fundraising event will take place on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at downtown's Central Library. Tickets may be purchased on Eventbrite .

In honor of Women's History Month and the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, the Birmingham Public Library will be hosting a talk on the history of women's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Women of the Movement will be held from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, at the North Birmingham Regional Branch Library .

Melissa, known to her family as Mouse, is asked to clean out her dead grandmother's house in the North Carolina countryside. She doesn't know what she's getting into. When she arrives, she finds that this job is going to take a long time because her grandmother was a hoarder, but the real trouble starts when she finds a strange diary left by her step-grandfather. Welcome to the folk horror world of Ursula Vernon , writing under the pen name T. Kingfisher .

  Springtime is almost here. Do you want to take your gardening skills to the next level?  The Southside Branch of the Birmingham Public Library will be partnering with the Glen Iris Neighborhood Association, along with supporters from the Five Points South Neighborhood Association, the Birmingham Earth Coalition , the Alabama Master Gardeners Association, and a host of others to welcome Earth Month with a Community Seedling Exchange. This event will be held Saturday, April 1, 2023, from 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m . at the Southside Branch Public Library, 1814 11th Ave. South . This event will be a wonderful opportunity for persons who are new plant parents as well as seasoned plant parents to learn from Master Gardeners ways to prepare, plant, and maintain their gardens, inside and out.  Seedlings will be given away. Seed packets will be available to “check out” from the Southside Branch’s Seed Library. There will even be surprise giveaways. Let’s jumpstart those gardens. Gather the t

The  Kanopy  movie streaming database is celebrating Women's History Month by profiling their many films by and about women.  They have organized the Women's History Month collection into four categories: Directed by Women, History, Major Figures, and Current Events. You may watch up to 6 films on Kanopy each month.  The following are a sample of the films available in the Women's History Month collection and the descriptions are from the database. Infinite Storm (2022) - Directed by Women As an experienced climber (Naomi Watts) ascends Mt. Washington, she turns back before she reaches the summit as a huge blizzard approaches. But on her way down, she encounters a lone, stranded man, and takes it upon herself to get them both down the mountain before nightfall arrives and they succumb to the storm. Based on a true story. One Woman, One Vote (2020) - History How could America claim to be the world’s greatest democracy, but deny the right to vote to women? With an introducti

Kick off your St. Patrick’s Day week celebration with an Irish dance performance at the Central Library !  On Monday, March 13, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., our final installment of the 2023 Winter Music Series features Westwood Irish Dance-Drake Birmingham .

Over the weekend, I used Kanopy to watch Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise: Biography of an Influential Civil Rights Activist and Poet , a 2017 documentary on Maya Angelou's life. Dr. Angelou was a master of words and inciting emotion within her words, as we can read in her beloved works, and it feels almost more intense to hear the words directly from her mouth. To see her recount her own life in detail, and to see the pain that stayed by her side into adulthood and see her smile, full of remarkable joy, regardless, is quite moving.

Looking for something to do during Spring Break? Help us celebrate our community helpers.  What is a community helper? A community helper's job is to help others. Without community helpers, we would be lost! There are different types of community helpers, like firemen and firewomen, teachers, doctors and nurses, policemen and policewomen, garbage collectors, and even librarians.

Flowers are blooming, the pollen is out in full force, and a bee buzzed aggressively past my ear. It’s official—spring is here! Bring the little ones by the North Birmingham branch to celebrate the changing of the seasons with our spring-themed programs!

Celebrate Women's History Month throughout March with the  Birmingham Public Library (BPL) ! We are offering a variety of programs at several  BPL locations as well as informative and engaging displays. This year's theme is " Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories ." Here are programs that the BPL is offering for Women's History Month 2023!

  Jazz guitarist Eric Essix will be musical guest at BPL's A Novel Tasting on April 6. The Birmingham Public Library is thrilled to announce that contemporary jazz guitarist and Birmingham native Eric Essix will be the musical guest at the 2nd Annual A Novel Tasting . This fundraising event for the Birmingham Public Library will take place on  Thursday, April 6, 2023 at the Central Library downtown. Accompanied by his keyboardist, Eric will begin playing at 5:00 p.m. for VIP guests and will continue playing for the main event, set to take place between 6:00 and 8:30 p.m.  A Novel Tasting  will feature a tasting of fine wines, locally crafted beers, and handcrafted spirits. Guests will enjoy elegant catered food, a silent auction, complimentary drinks, a 360 photo booth, and an outside cigar bar.  To purchase tickets, please visit Eventbrite Check out this video of jazz Guitarist Eric Essix inviting you to A Novel Tasting 2023 About Eric Essix  Over a period of more than 34 years a