Birmingham Public Library Blog

September 9 Central Library - 10:30 a.m. Ensley Branch- 3:30 p.m. Five Points West Branch - 6:30 p.m. September 10 Wylam Branch - 9:00 a.m. West End Branch - 3:30 p.m. Avondale Branch - 6:30 p.m. September 11 Springville Road Branch - 10:00 a.m. North Avondale Branch - 1:30 p.m. East Ensley Branch - 4:00 p.m. September 12 Powderly Branch - 10:00 a.m. North Birmingham Branch - 4:00 p.m. September 13 Smithfield Branch - 10:00 a.m. Woodlawn Branch - 4:00 p.m. For information on Kim and Reggie, visit  http://www.artistsofnote.com/kr.html .

Click the logo for the list of discussions and performances scheduled at BPL Celebrate America’s music! America's Music is a series of public programs created by the Tribeca Film Institute™ in partnership with the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in consultation with the Society for American Music. The programs feature documentary screenings and scholar-led discussions of 20th century American popular music. The sessions will focus on uniquely American musical genres: blues andgospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock 'n' roll, and mambo and hip hop. August Schedule: August 10, 2:00-4:00 p.m. The Blues and Gospel Music Southside Library, 1814 11th Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35205 Explore the birth of the blues from its African roots to its eventual prominence in places like Memphis, Chicago, New York and beyond. Two films will be featured: Martin Scorsese's The Blues: Feel Like Going Hom...

A team of six Birmingham-area teens competed in the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival held August 7-11, 2013 in Chicago. Until this year, the competition has never had a team from Alabama. The teens decided to call their team “#KnowDisclaimer”. The project began when Birmingham Public Library Arts Literature and Sports Department Head Haruyo Miyagawa and John Paul Taylor, Founder and Executive Director of Real Life Poets, discussed ways to take an annual poetry competition titled WORD UP! to another level and decided to set their sights on Brave New Voices, a competition youth poets which has been in existence since 1998.  The Birmingham team finished in the top 20 out of a total of 50 teams - rare for a first time team. They won the first bout against some heavy hitters such as Chicago, Toronto, and Milauwkee and  finished second in the second bout--they lost to New York. Eboni Wallace, the team vice-president, received three perfect 10’s ...

Lightweight Dyed canvas and bleach The exhibition titled Surfacing: The Paintings of Sky Shineman is scheduled to open on August 15, 2013 in the Fourth Floor Exhibition Gallery of the Central Library located at 2100 Park Place. An opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, August 17 from 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. in the Fourth Floor Board Room. The exhibition runs through September 20, 2013 and is on view during regular hours of operation. “In painting I am interested in physical processes and phenomenal imagery", Shineman states of the work in the “Surfacing” series. "By employing reductive methods such as sanding and bleaching, I attempt to bring awareness to the tactile qualities of the painting object while creating imagery that is connected to its making. Ideally the process and the product overlap and enrich one another providing a multi-sensory experience. The complex relationship between how something looks and how it has come to being is the compelling...

Dolores Hydock If you are looking for a more entertaining approach to learning about personal finance, please join us at the Avondale Library on Monday, August 19, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Famed storyteller Dolores Hydock will present a collection of funny, sweet, and surprising stories about first jobs, spending sprees, and the unexpected value of a penny. This program is part of the MakingCents: Resources to make your money grow and Smart investing@your library® series, a partnership between the American Library Association and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation .

Teens, get your poetry on at the Flow Tactics Teen Open Mic every 3rd Saturday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.at the YMCA Youth Center, 2400 7th Avenue North (near Phillips Academy). Admission is free. The sessions are for high school students only. To sign up to perform or for more information, e-mail johnpaul@reallifepoets.org. This month's program is scheduled for Saturday, August 17. Flow Tactics is sponsored by The Real Life Poets , the Mayor's Office Division of Youth Services , YMCA Youth Center , and the WORD UP! Student Poetry Slam Committee of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative. WORD UP! is an annual poetry slam for Jefferson County high school students hosted by the Birmingham Public Library.

More Than Human Tim Flach Scale is everything. So is perspective. By zeroing in on and blowing up detail, Tim Flach has with this book of animal photographs given us something new—he’s radically altered the conventions of animal pictures. A brown mountain topped with fur. The back of a camel? No, a close-up of a small section of a fruit bat. The 24” X 12” size transforms the bat to the unrecognizable mountainscape. Once you learn it’s a fruit bat (by flipping to the index- no clues are on the page itself) you can go back to the photo and marvel at the structure, the veins, the cresting waves of hair. I’ve never seen this kind of detail before. It’s breathtaking, marvelous. A chimp has his back turned to us. Unlike the blowup of the fruit bat, you know it’s a chimp right away, or at least you know it’s an ape. But the ultra-clear detail is still there, even at this scale. More than human? No, “quite human” seems a better phrase, so like a geriatric man stripped in the exam room...

I think there is a holiday for everything, but as a librarian this is one I will gladly celebrate—Book Lovers Day. There is some disagreement over when this day is celebrated, August 9 or the first Saturday in November, but if you are a true book lover, you will enjoy celebrating it on both days. Book Lovers Day encourages you to find a place under a shady tree, by the poolside, on the deck, or in a cozy hammock and relax with a good book. If you fall asleep while reading, that’s okay. It’s all part of the relaxing benefits of being a book lover. Touching, holding, feeling, smelling…there’s nothing like reading a real book with pages you can turn! Submitted by Carla Perkins Avondale Library