Frida in all Formats
As a fan of both the written word and visual arts, I’m always tickled when I find ways to learn about contemporary art in new ways. Recently, I’ve been brushing … Continued
Celebrating Drag Queen Story Hour – Titles for All Ages
Drag Queen Story Hour is a family-friendly series of programs that was was developed in response to area families who’ve expressed an interest in programs that amplify broad perspectives, challenge gender stereotypes and embrace personal expression and self-acceptance.
Why I Devoured Hunger
“Unruly bodies” have been the talk of much cultural criticism these days (even here on Eleventh Stack), as the the body-positive movement gains more traction. The body-positive movement means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but is probably most easily understood as an umbrella term for activism which seeks to celebrate bodily autonomy and accessibility. Body-positivity can apply to small, individual decisions like body hair removal or decisions about wearing makeup, and to larger, more systemic concerns; large wings of the movement are focused on disability activism, awareness for trans rights and fat-activism.
Cookbooks for Summer Eats
Summer means lots of different things to lots of different people, but me, well, I spend summer how I spend all other seasons: thinkin’ lots about what I’m going to cook and eat. Here are some tried-and-true cookbooks you can check out for some A+ summertime recipes.
Summer Volunteering at CLP
Summer is on the horizon and while you’re breaking out your flip flops, stocking up on sunscreen and pondering your Summer Reading goal, don’t forget to add volunteering to your summer bucket-list. The library has lots of ways, both one-time and ongoing, to squeeze in helping others while you enjoy this sunny season.
Accidental Discovery: Lynda Barry
Every library lover has at least one story about a magical moment of serendipity when they stumbled across a book or author, previously unknown to them, who turns out to be a new favorite. We all know that libraries are are great for that type of exploring — you can check out a fat stack of titles and revel in anticipation about what you might find. That’s how I came across Lynda Barry, a prolific comic author and artist who was undiscovered by me until I saw a recommendation for her book, One Hundred Demons, on the library’s website last year.
Women’s Voices: Great Audiobooks Read by Their Authors
Those of us who spend lots of time commuting or on long walks, or who enjoy listening to books while we’re engaged with chores or stationary hobbies can attest that getting lost in an audiobook is easy to do, but it’s a real bummer when you don’t vibe with the narrator. Sometimes the voice gets on your nerves, sometimes you don’t feel like the tone of the narrator matches up with who you imagine characters to be, and sometimes you don’t really know what’s bothering you about it, but a voice just rubs you the wrong way. One (almost) sure-fire way I’ve found around this problem is in listening to memoirs.
Celebrating Library Advocates
Each year, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Board of Directors schedules a public board meeting so that our community members can be updated on CLP happenings and get a view of our governance process. In addition to this transparency, we also use the public meeting as an opportunity to publicly recognize the loudest and proudest library advocates.
Punitive Measures, Pushout and Pittsburgh
At the same time that Black women are outpacing others in the post-graduate arena, many young Black women are being left behind in public schools, marginalized by punitive and surveillance systems embedded into our education programs and into society at large. Black girls make up 16 percent of the public school population, but represent more than one-third of all girls with a school-related arrest.
Throwback Thursday: Recent Adventures in Library Cookbooks (Vol. 1)
Tired of making the same few recipes over and over again? In this post, I give a quick and dirty run-down of my recent adventures with cookbooks I checked out of the Library! From peanut butter pie to autumn crostini, I’m sure you will find something enticing to try.