What's Going On - Aug 2023 | | |
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From The Desk of the Executive Director
It’s brutal out there! We at the library have gratefully enjoyed our repaired air conditioning. You are, as always, welcome to join us, hang out, bring a cool drink and a snack, and hide from the
heat in the shady comfort of the library oasis.
Thanks to a generous donor, we now have an
additional window AC unit in the music room. You no longer have to suffer for your jazz on Friday
nights.
I am looking forward to another Gallery Upstairs opening in September. “Mysterious
Circumstances” which certainly sounds intriguing, has a tentative opening date of September 13.
Martha Lewis, our Curator Extraordinaire, will be putting out a call shortly, and she always throws a great opening. Formal announcements will follow.
We will be closed the last week of August and over Labor Day weekend (8/29 - 9/4.) It is
traditionally a quiet week, and a few of our crew will already be off, enjoying the last of summer. I hope you will be doing the same.
All the best!
Jan
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An Important Note about Driving on Chapel Street:
The east bound side of Chapel Street (across from the Library) is closed to traffic for the next 12-15 months. Traffic detours around the block (along Church Street to Elm to Orange to Chapel). This is for the two residential and street level retail buildings currently under construction. The west bound side of Chapel remains open. The building on the corner of Orange and Chapel will be done early 2024, the building across from the Library will be finished in the summer of 2024. Regardless: We are open! There are many parking garages, including two on State Street, one and a half blocks from the library. Please call us if you have any concerns.
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NEWS FROM THE GALLERY UPSTAIRS: | | |
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OASIS: TIME TO BREATHE
The Gallery @ The Institute Library opened its summer show in early June and it is waiting for you to come bask, bathe, meditate.... escape your day-to-day by visiting OASIS for a little while. Oasis will close in September, so don't miss this show!
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August 10, 2023 -- Oasis Workshop
w/ curator Maxim Schmidt
Come visualize your dreams…
In conjunction with Oasis, artist and show organizer
Maxim Schmidt will be running a two hour,
hands-on
collage
workshop!
August 10
from 5:00-7:00 pm.
Materials will be provided but feel free to bring your own as well! Free and open to all, with a donations jar to support gallery programming.
All ages and experience levels welcome.
Please RSVP - we have a capacity of 25 participants.
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Please direct questions/RSVPs to Gallery@InstituteLibrary.org
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DOWNTOWN BRIDGE:
The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Bridge Game at
847 Chapel Street
If you'd like to be added to the email list of players (because sometimes the schedule has to change), please reach out to
Eva Geertz: Eva@InstituteLibrary.org
The secret population of closet bridge players
and aspiring bridge players in our midst
now meet Second Mondays
(but there is talk of a second night maybe?)
Folks who haven't played in years, folks who are just starting to learn to play, and expert old hands --
all are welcome!
Hoping to see you here - we are organizing now for:
Monday, August 14 at 7:00 p.m.
(subject to change; please reach out to us for schedule confirmation)
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The evenings will start at 7:00 and run about 90 minutes. We've got a couple of tables available, and decks of cards. | |
Friday Happy Hour Jazz | Fridays in July | 5:30-7:00 p.m.
August 4 -- Recent Acquisitions from the 1980s.
August 11 -- Nancy Harrow.
August 18 -- TBD
August 25 -- TBD
Join a congenial little group up on the third floor of the Institute Library to listen to recordings you forgot about or never knew about and stick around a bit to discuss the music! BYOB beverage and treat.
Friday Happy Hour Jazz is presented with support from Jazz Haven.
Friday Jazz will not happen on September 1 (the Friday of Labor Day weekend); the schedule for September 8 is also up in the air as of this time. Updates will be provided via the internal Jazz email list. Want to be added to that list? Let us know!
Please consider making a $5 donation when you come to Friday Happy Hour Jazz.
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Story Sharing @
the Institute Library
August 10th
7:00-9:00 p.m.
We meet in-person on the second Thursday of every month.
In August, that's August 10th.
from 7:00-9:00 P.M.
In September, the 14th,
but do see about
Tellabration! =====>>>>>>
Story Sharing welcomes those wishing to tell stories and those wishing to listen. Stories may be of any genre – personal experience, family stories, folktales, what have you. The stories may
also be at any stage of development, from first stabs at this-might-be-a-story to polished pieces. No experience is needed. We will be our usual friendly and lively selves.
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We will have a Zoom-only meeting from 7:00-9:00 P.M.
August 17th
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Get ready for Tellabration!
This year, Tellabration! will take place over six weeks starting in September, with workshops on
Sept. 28, and Oct. 5th, 12th, and 19th.
The Tellabration! performances will be held October 26th
(and the 25th, if a second evening is called for).
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Listen Here!
The seemingly lost, much loved program returns...
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Tuesday October 10
6:00-8:00 p.m.
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Bennett Lovett-Graff returns to downtown New Haven for one night, and you can relive the old days.
Sit and listen to a selection of two short stories read aloud by members of the New Haven Theater Company, and enjoy a "talk back" session
led by Bennett.
Just bring yourself, maybe something for the donation box, and have a seat. NHTC and Bennett will take care of the rest.
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From the people @
Caravan Theater Company
Think you know your Marlowe?
Think again.
A podcast on Christopher Marlowe by Peter Hodges and Julian Ng,
all eight episodes now streaming.
Famed Elizabethan poet and dramatist Christopher Marlowe allegedly died in a brawl over a dinner bill in Deptford in 1593, with a knife above his eye. Or did he?
What If He Lived?
Eight 30 minute episodes explore the trail of clues hidden in plain sight for centuries.
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Back at the circulation desk... | |
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Your Operations Manager isn't aware of many parent-child relationships on the shelves of the Institute Library. There's Robert Benchley and Nathaniel Benchley (who was then outshone by his son Peter when Jaws was published -- making them a three-generation literary dynasty). There's Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. There must be others. (Yes, we know about the Straubs and the Amises, but the Library doesn't hold the right books for us to count them in.)
But for sure, as of this month, there's another parent/child writer duo: Randall Beach and his daughter, Natalie Beach.
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Randall Beach is a longtime friend of the Institute Library, of course, who's paid tribute to us and countless others during his tenure as a writer for the New Haven Register. We're pleased to offer readers his recently published collection of short profiles, blasts from the past, as it were: Connecticut Characters: Profiles of Rascals and Renegades.
Natalie Beach recently published a collection of what they call literary essays: Adult Drama. Many of you might have become aware of Natalie and her work via the Caroline Calloway story, but there's more of interest here -- some comic elements, some more somber, but lots to absorb.
Both titles are shelved in our Local Authors section, right by the circulation desk.
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If anyone's curious about Harry Golden's
For 2¢ Plain, which I mentioned last month: I read it, and it was an absolutely mind-blowing delight. Essays written in the late 1950s, talking about all kinds of stuff, much ringing quite true today. Five stars. Golden's book is back on the shelf, too, if you're curious to have a look yourself.
I want to offer special thanks to the volunteers here at the Institute Library who kept the place chugging along while I was away recently. Thanks to Ann Marlowe, Frank Cochran, Victorya McEvoy, Carol Snyder, Andrew Drabkin, and Tessa Marquis. Sterling characters all, and I am indebted to them.
Eva Geertz
Operations Mgr.
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Please remember: The Institute Library will close for a week
at the end of the summer
AUGUST 29 - SEPTEMBER 2, REOPENING SEPTEMBER 5th,
to give everyone a break. We will re-open after Labor Day weekend, and you can bet your bippy we'll be full of vim and vigor. Among the things happening in September:
-- a programming visioning session, held by board member Ben Wrobel, the afternoon of September 7th -- please ask for more information
-- another Gallery event, slated for the evening of September 13th (party party party!)
If you have questions about memberships, programs, or the collection, please email me (Eva@InstituteLibrary.org) or phone us (203-562-4045). You can read about day-to-day antics at the Library by looking us up on Facebook, and to a lesser degree Twitter and Instagram. Social media feeds can be seen by the general public: you don't need an account to find our posts, but if you do have an account, you might find it worthwhile to follow us.
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Hours of Operation
Closed Sunday & Monday | Tuesday-Friday: 11:00-5:00 | Saturday: 12:00-2:00
Location
The Institute Library, 847 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 562-4045
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