They say music soothes the savage beast. Well, maybe, but it certainly has made life at Queens Library at Peninsula better since Superstorm Sandy hit.
On the book bus at Peninsula in the first few weeks after the library was destroyed, my colleague Kacper Jarecki brought in a radio. So along with coffee, we had music for all of those 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. shifts in November and December. “Die Young” by Ke$ha became the unofficial book bus song. I think people waiting for their phones and other electronics to charge appreciated being able to hear a few tunes in an otherwise blacked-out neighborhood.
In mid-November, Kacper purchased a karaoke machine (there are a few clips out there of spontaneous book bus karaoke; I won’t tell you where). In early January we took it with us when we upgraded from the book bus to a trailer space, which is still small compared to the regular building. This karaoke machine let us play CDs, and at some point I learned I can play music from my iPhone. Now, instead of a quiet library, we always have music playing.
In January and early February, due to generous donations, we were able to order new materials for the library. Along with getting popular books and movies, we decided to get CDs. I got lists online for Grammy nominees for the past five years, along with lists for classic rock, hip-hop, and more. All staff pitched in some of their favorites. Starting from almost no collection at all, any purchase is an improvement.
We ordered more than 100 CDs (Queens Library at Broad Channel, which also lost materials in the flood, ordered about 300), and they do get checked out. Also, we can play them on the karaoke machine. I believe having music in the background is relaxing, and on more than one occasion people have asked what was playing. In some instances we could put the CD in the customer’s hand then and there.
Music also factored large in our rally against proposed budget cuts on May 15. The theme was “Wild About Libraries” and we had a DJ play an hour of animal-themed (“When Doves Cry,” anyone?). At Peninsula we are glad our rally and other library advocacy counted so there will be no budget cuts. Now we can focus on improving service in the area including getting more popular materials like CDs.
As we enter the summer, we still listen to the radio. And although on the trailer nothing has stuck out as much as “Die Young,” I feel more knowledgeable about music than I have in years. I know we have to keep this up.
In the next CD order, I need to get Daft Punk’s latest and others. Who out there has some more suggestions for the music library at Peninsula?
To mark the six-month anniversary of Superstorm Sandy, Queens Library, Queens Memory Project and Jamaica Bay Lives!, a documentary project about Jamaica Bay, invited the community to Queens Library at Broad Channel to record their personal experiences of Sandy, share their histories of living in the area and bring in family photos, videos and mementos to be preserved in the Queens Memory Project and the Archives at Queens Library.
The material gathered from this community event, now available to browse on the Queens Memory Project website when you search for "Sandy," depicting the far-reaching effects of the storm, includes images of balconies tottering and windows boarded up in a building in Rockaway Beach, a decimated section of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk, damage at the Bayview Restaurant and Lounge in Broad Channel, the mobile library in place at the site of the Sandy-damaged Queens Library at Peninsula being filled up during the fuel shortage and signs warning looters to stay away from a home that was affected by Sandy.
Jeffrey Dady, a painter and photographer from Broad Channel pictured here, is one local who shared his recollections of his home and had scans of his paintings preserved (which include scenes of Plumb Island Beach, Shad Creek and Big Egg Marsh). Of the event, Natalie Milbrodt, Digital Content & Strategy Coordinator at Queens Library and Director, Queens Memory Project, who worked with Dady to add his memories and paintings to the Queens Memory Project website said, “My favorite experience was creating geo-references with Jeffrey Dady for the locations of his paintings and learning the terrific local jargon (killies, back houses) and names of all the waterways (Big Egg Marsh, The Cow Path).”
Why does this matter? “Broad Channel and the other communities surrounding Jamaica Bay have surprising and detailed histories,” said Daniel Hendrick producer and director of the documentary film Jamaica Bay Lives! “Personal histories are important to document because … the stories and photos of life in the area give us a window into how people lived and interacted, as well as what they did for recreation, that are often not accessible to historians. The residents we spoke to at the [Queens Library at Broad Channel] Jamaica Bay Community History Night were so knowledgeable--they knew the histories of local creeks and inlets and had amazing stories to share. ‘Official’ history is so often written by mayors and legislators, but you don't have to study history or have an advanced degree to collect stories and be knowledgeable about an area in which you've spent your life.”
One lesson we can learn from the aftermath of Sandy, Milbrodt said, is that “we need to preserve our cultural artifacts in dry, safe places. Libraries can be great partners for preserving local history and we're hoping that the Queens Memory Project can serve as a tool to make it easier for individuals and organizations to preserve their historical records and share them with a larger audience.”
"The real question now," said Hendrick, "is what this next chapter in Jamaica Bay’s history will be--that history is being written at this very moment."
To contribute your own memories of Queens, from Jamaica Bay or another community, click here.
Awaken, by Katie Kacvinsky, is the story of a future world where horrific tragedies, like those of the real-life Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting, have proliferated so much that the federal government establishes a national Digital School. All children and teens go to school online and meet in person only on rare occasions for small study groups with a live teacher or for team sports. Statistics show that teen crime and violence are way down since the establishment of DS (Digital School), but most people don’t realize what they’ve lost. Everyone is on their computer all the time, totally isolated and people have grown into the habit of avoiding almost all live interpersonal interactions. (Sound familiar?) Relationships are virtual and never go below the surface. Teens can pretend to be whoever they like online, edit their conversations before sending them and PhotoShop their appearance to avoid mistakes and imperfections. The main character is Madeline Freeman, daughter of the man who founded and runs DS, and when we meet her she is 17, still grounded two years after an earlier incident when she leaked all her dad’s computer passwords to a radical group trying to shut down DS. She meets a handsome boy named Justin in a study group and he gradually tries to “awaken” her to real life and real interpersonal contact. Initially, her parents are unaware that he is with the radicals and has dedicated himself to fighting DS. Maddy gradually becomes involved in Justin’s world, defies her dad again and runs away from home.
What if people stopped meeting face to face and spent all their time online as in Awaken? How would life be different? What would we miss? Maddy’s experience dancing together with other teens at a club to live music is mesmerizing! The energy and the heat in the room, the excitement of the music, the feeling of moving your body in time with the beat--a virtual experience just can’t compare with the real thing. To be young and ready to explore the world but then to confine yourself to a chair and a screen just seems wrong, somehow. Even if face-to-face experiences can sometimes lead to risky confrontations and senseless violence, should all people pull in their heads like turtles and live in a virtual world?
Does this book sound like your world? Would you be interested to read it? Let us know in the comments.
June is National Soul Food Month, but any month is a great time to head to one of Queens’ beloved restaurants or try your hand at some kitchen wizardry.
Soul Food is the tradition of African-American cooking that originated when the cultures of Africa encountered the meager ingredients available to them as slaves in the United States.
The dishes tend to feature simple, humble food items like grits, fried chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens, less-desirable parts of the pig, and anything else that wasn’t claimed by wealthier people. However, it has also adopted certain other American favorites, like macaroni and cheese.
Soul food originated in the South, but it came to New York when large numbers of African-Americans sought factory work in major northern cities during the early 20th century. The most famous purveyor of soul food in the city is currently Sylvia's restaurant, in Harlem.
Andrew Jackson, executive director of Queens Library at Langston Hughes, says soul food is a time-honored African-American cooking tradition that celebrates the best in human creativity and resourcefulness.
Jackson’s family migrated from Mississippi to New York City around WWII and brought their soul food traditions with them. But Jackson is quick to dispel any misconceptions about food and African-American culture.
“Spaghetti is not necessarily a soul food dish, but my family loves spaghetti,” he says. “Everybody does not eat chitlins [chitterlings, a dish of boiled, baked or fried pig’s intestines]. Chitlins is a specialty. I tried it once, didn’t like it, haven’t eaten it since.”
Jackson also points out that families don’t necessarily make all the dishes at the same time — often this only occurs on holidays, large family gatherings, or church events.
Jackson says that when he has the chance to eat it, he doesn’t have a particular favorite soul food dish.
“I’ll try everything. There’s a blending taste with all of them that you get that you can’t get all the time,” he says. “It’s almost like paying respect to the ancestors for providing this tradition to me.”
Want to try soul food for yourself? Queens Library has you covered with books galore – and a few fine places to order soul food here in the borough, curated by our staffers:
A Plate of Soul
110-46 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica
Burgandy’s Café
153-35 Hillside Ave., Jamaica
Maxine’s on the Boulevard
11333 Farmers Blvd, St. Albans
Poor Freddie’s Rib Shack
157-06 Linden Blvd., Jamaica
Rockaway Fish House
141-22 Rockaway Blvd., Jamaica
Seamorhen Fish & Chicken
118-29 Guy R Brewer Blvd., South Jamaica
Southern Flair Restaurant
169-77 137 Ave., Rochdale
Southern Girls Soul Food
219-17 Merrick Blvd, Springfield Gardens
Last week at Queens Library at Woodside, we created raised garden beds out of straw bales and cinder blocks, adding nitrogen-rich organic amendments to speed decomposition to do some direct planting in the bales. To fill in gaps between some of the bales, we used topsoil and compost.
Each Tuesday afternoon, from 4 to 5 p.m., Gil Lopez, one of our Greening Queens Library Compost Assistants, will maintain these raised beds with Queens Library patrons. Please join us!
And don't forget your frozen kitchen scraps because our weekly compost collection at Woodside takes place after this garden shift from 5:15-6:30 p.m.!
Kids at Queens Library at Astoria made coasters by upcycling discarded CDs and decorating them with paper scraps and foam shapes. What do you think of our final project? For more activities like this, take a look at our how-to guide on how to make a fish craft out of CDs and browse our catalog to find free craft programs and craft books.
If you like sports, then you know there are periods when teams push their intensity to the max. You know about the Super Bowl in football, which is the most watched program in television. You know about the NBA Finals in basketball, you know about the World Series in Major League Baseball, and you know about Wrestlemania in wrestling. Well, Queens Library at Peninsula also has its time of max intensity: it's called Summer Reading!
We do Summer Reading every year about the time that school ends and many families take time off from work to enjoy the summer! Do you know the best way to complement your relaxation time? It's with a great book, of course! What else did you think I would say? And of course the library has a ton of great books for your entire family!
The library also has a huge collection of e-books, digital audiobooks, and even e-magazines. In theory, you could peruse and enjoy Queens Library's collection on your tablet at the beach. Come by the Peninsula Library and take part in our classics book club, which is tackling Shakespeare this summer. You can also visit the Summer Reading website at www.summerreading.org -- sign in, create an avatar and keep track of all the books you've read. No sweat!
Now that you've read this far, let me tell you another reason why Summer Reading is so intense: it's the programs! The library is such an exciting place because it has infinite potential. When I do class visits at schools, I tell the kids, “Your library card is better than a driver's license because it lets you time travel, space travel, meet dinosaurs, talk to aliens, hang out with historical figures, be anyone and do anything!”
So during Summer Reading I always try my best to come up with imaginative and great programs that can actually happen in real life at the library! Right now I work at Queens Library at Peninsula – in a trailer, no less. But just like injuries cannot stop a great sports player (like Kobe Bryant, who has played with a broken finger, or gymnast Kerri Strug who won an Olympic gold medal despite spraining her ankle), being in a trailer can't keep Queens Library down!
This summer we are doing some really exciting programming at Peninsula! On July 1, we are hosting an event to help Rockaways residents preserve their Sandy memories. Did you take lots of pictures during Superstorm Sandy? Bring them to the Peninsula library to have them preserved for future generations through the Queens Memory Project.
When planning my events, I feel like a sports scout, constantly on the look-out for the next big thing! Often I will pay extra attention to magazines and newspapers, and most importantly I talk to people in the community to see what they want.
For example, I was reading Cat Fancy magazine, and there was an article about Cat Cafes in Tokyo, Japan! Basically, a Cat Cafe is like a Starbucks with cats! It lets you enjoy the company of a cat without the responsibility of owning one. So I decided to do a Cat Cafe program at the library – except with stuffed cats (August 5 at 3:00 pm)!
Recently, I got invited to Book Expo by one of my friends. Book Expo is like a conference where books and their authors are the star! I was like, I could do this at my library, so we are hosting a Local Author Expo (August 17)!
Another time, someone was telling me that he hates LeBron James, so we will be hosting a sports discussion group for non-fans of LeBron James (July 12th)! We are also doing a film festival (August 19th), Temporary Tattoo Parlor (every Friday), and partnering with Project Hope to do Stress Relief for adults (every Thursday), teens (every Wednesday), and kids (every Saturday)!
One time I was playing an interesting video game online (“Depression Quest”). I thought “why not?” and invited the programmer to the library (we’re working on the date)! Sometimes people will be so surprised and tell me “I didn't know libraries do that.” But if you take anything from this article, remember that Libraries Can Do Anything!
These are just a small sample of programs taking place. Imagine if we are doing these programs in a small trailer library, then just think what all the other libraries that have a real building are up to! Every Queens Library is doing something extraordinary this summer!
Go to http://www.queenslibrary.org/events to check out what amazing programs are taking place at your library! And just like any great sporting event, you just have to be there. So what are you waiting for? Step up your game and head to your nearest Queens Library today!
June is International Accordion Awareness Month. If that news has got you formulating wisecracks, just remember that plenty of ground has been covered there, and accordions are far more than mere novelty instruments.
Accordions have been the butt of jokes since the rise of rock & roll music in the 1950s. If you hang out with musicians much, you may even notice a bumper sticker that reads “I PLAY THE ACCORDION … AND I VOTE!” The mockery may have hit a high point in the 1980s, when the cartoonist Gary Larson immortalized it in The Far Side: The devil says to the newly deceased person, “Welcome to hell. Here’s your accordion.”
Accordions came to represent a hopelessly square lobe of musical enthusiasts, but their cultural significance is too great to ignore. Accordions were huge in American music for decades. Many of the amplifiers used in the 1960s were built with “accordion” inputs along with guitar inputs.
Indie and roots rockers have also embraced the instrument, and you can find it on seminal albums like Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over the Sea and throughout the work of the acclaimed rock band Los Lobos.
And as long as we’re talking about accordion heroes toiling at the margins of rock, let’s not forget Weird Al Yankovic, who for nearly three decades has been releasing albums of parody songs and revved-up accordion medleys of chart-topping hits.
If any of this has piqued your interest, you owe it to yourself to borrow Squeeze This!, a remarkable exploration of the history, symbolism and cultural importance of the accordion that, among other things, offers up the unlikely and delightful phrase “accordion industrial complex.”
Author Marion Jacobson points out the accordion’s “wholesomeness” as a major factor in its failure to find a place in the American youth culture of the 1960s. Indeed, the instrument, which originated in Germany in the early 19th century, was mass-produced in the Midwest in the 20th century and factored largely in the benign and edgeless cultural stylings of Lawrence Welk.
But the accordion is essential to many musical genres of varying levels of chastity. Tangos thrive with accordions. Polkas, of course, require the instrument. Louisiana’s zydeco music relies heavily on accordion, and Mexican pop music showcases the instrument. So does Klezmer music. One of my college roommates, a supremely gifted musician and all-around nice guy, is skilled at accordion, clarinet, ukulele and saw. That unlikely combo makes him highly sought-after in Klezmer circles.
In fact, the important role the accordion played in many forms of ethnic music played by immigrants is essential to the plot of Accordion Crimes, by Annie Proulx, the same writer who brought us Brokeback Mountain. The novel charts the immigrant experience in America through the descendants of Mexicans, Poles, Africans, Irish-Scots, Franco-Canadians and others, who all come to own an old green accordion.
Want to learn how to play? Queens Library has you covered when it comes to instruction. But be careful – I’ve heard it said somewhere that if Mama gets a squeeze box, Daddy never sleeps at night.
Queens Library at Steinway invited teens to create vases out of old glass bottles. Fun fact: Did you know that glass never wears out and that it can be recycled over and over again? Most bottles and jars are made of at least 25 percent recycled glass.
Find more free craft activities we'll be hosting at Queens Library and browse our collection for how-to guides on crafting.