In honor of Groundhog Day, on February 2, young library visitors learned about groundhogs and their knack for predicting weather. Since neither New York City's Staten Island Chuck nor Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil saw its shadow, both predicted the arrival of an early spring. To get ready for spring, kids repurposed old MTA maps into beautiful recycled-paper flower crafts using a kite fold.
Tags
Queens Library houses more than a collection of works about African-American history. Our library has been shaped by, has gone to great lengths to document and continually celebrates the African-American experience.
Did you know that one Queens Library, the one with the highest circulation in the country, became a public library and became funded in part thanks to the efforts of an African-American leader? Can you guess which community library in our borough is home to a mini archive of music legend Louis Armstrong? Or which location houses the important papers of inventor Lewis Latimer?
We’ve created a Black History Tour to highlight some of the important connections Queens Library has to African-American history. Below is your guide to these unique “landmarks,” both physical and digital. Some may be right on your block; others can be accessed instantly!
1. Queens Library at Langston Hughes
Named in honor of the famous African-American poet and author of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, this leading institution in the community has been designated as a Literary Landmark and is home to the Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County... Visit this landmark.
2. Queens Library at East Elmhurst
“Keeping jazz alive in Louis and Lucille Armstrong’s neighborhoods” is one of the goals of this community library, home to a “mini archive” of Armstrong memorabilia... Visit this landmark.
3. Queens Library at Flushing
Thanks in part to the advocacy of Mary Ann Shaw, the principal of an African-American school in Flushing, this became a free circulation library in 1884... Visit this landmark.
4. Queens Library at Central
Home to many special collections, Queens Library at Central has two of note for Black History Month... Visit this landmark.
5. The Archives at Queens Library
Among the 36,000 books and volumes of serials, approximately 2,500 cubic feet of manuscripts, 4,500 maps and broadsides, 105,000 photographs, 422 feet of vertical files, and 9,000 reels of microfilm housed at the Archives, you will find plenty covering African-American history, including the important papers and patents of this noted black inventor... Visit this landmark.
6. Queens Libraries with Free Black History Month Events: Some of the above landmarks will be hosting free programs for the community, as will:
Queens Library at McGoldrick – Tuesday, February 19: Free Event, African-American History “Guess Who?”
Queens Library at Hollis – Thursday, February 21: Free Event, Black History Through Poetry and Quilting
Queens Library at Lefrak City – Wednesday, February 27: Free Event, Looking Back, Moving Forward: Friends of the Library Black History Celebration
Queens Library at Richmond Hill – Thursday, February 28: Free Event, Black History Remembrance Day
7. Queens Library's Website
Your Queens Library card grants you free access to the African-American Experience Database, an online collection of authoritative reference works, primary sources, images and audio clips documenting Blacks in the United States... Visit this virtual landmark.
8. ALL Queens Libraries
Check out the black experience and black literature sections of your local library to get even more information. And while you’re there, pick up a Black History Month Bookmark. These bookmarks highlight the great contributions of selected African-American leaders and authors and include suggested Black History Month reads.
Have you visited any of these landmarks in person or online? Tell us about your experiences in a comment below. Can you think of other important connections to African-American history here in Queens?
Among the items in the Archives at Queens Library’s collection of original sources, documenting the history of the four counties of Long Island, are personal correspondence, financial records, memorabilia, sketches and blueprints of noted African-American inventor and author Lewis Latimer. Visit the Archives in person to see his apparatus for cooling and disinfecting, patents, an original diary documenting his working days and a signed copy of the book he authored about Thomas Edison’s invention—Incandescent Electrical Lighting: a Practical Description of the Edison System.
The Archives also contains original newspaper clippings (like the one pictured below) and pamphlets on a range of range of topics relating to the African-American experience over the years. You might discover gems such as original news coverage of the proposal to create the African American Hall of Fame in Jamaica’s Roy Wilkins Park or what programs Queens Library and other Queens cultural institutions hosted for Black History Month in 1989 (for instance, “Two Centuries of Black American Art” was held at Queens Library at Central at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, February 27, 1989).
Visit in person: Open during Queens Library at Central’s hours of service; obtain a pass from the information desk located at the Library’s main entrance.
View the full Black History Tour.
Queens Library’s Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center will be nationally recognized on Saturday, February 9, 2013, as a Literary Landmark by United for Libraries. It is the first public institution named for the famed poet/author of the Harlem Renaissance. A plaque will be placed in the library at 100-01 Northern Boulevard during the 28th Annual Langston Hughes Celebration. The community is invited. Admission is free.
In her letter to Queens Library’s C.E.O Thomas W. Galante, United for Libraries’ Executive Director Sally G. Reed said, “I am most pleased that you’ve applied for this designation for a man who had such significant impact on African-American literature and American literature generally.” Hughes wrote more than 860 poems in his lifetime, and was heralded as an author of short stories, plays, essays, anthologies and as a journalist from the 1920s until his death in 1967.
Although Hughes lived in Harlem, New York, the library was named in his honor in 1969 when it opened for public service. Langston Hughes Community Library is home of the Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County, housing New York State’s largest public circulating collection of print and non-print material on the Black Experience. This collection is now estimated at over 45,000 titles, including approximately 1,000 volumes of Theses and Dissertations on Black Literature.
The plaque presentation will be part of the 28th Annual Langston Hughes Celebration. It will be made by by Rocco Staino, United for Libraries board member emeritus and director of the Empire State Center for the Book.
The day's events, held in honor of Langston Hughes's birthday, on February 1, 1902, will include the following free activities:
11:00 a.m. -- A screening of the biographical film, Hughes Dream Harlem by Darralyn Hudson
Noon -- A plaque presentation by Rocco Staino and a lecture by author Jamal Joseph with a special musical rendition of Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by the IMPACT Performing Ensemble
1:00 p.m. -- “The Jacob Lawrence Migration Series” by MoMA staff member Marcia Garcia
2:30 p.m. -- Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall will present six scholarships for African American Heritage Month
3:30 p.m. -- A lecture on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance by historian Rashidah Ismaili Abu Bakr
4:30 p.m. -- A musical performance, “Music from the Mind of the Trumpet” by Eddie Allen and Friends
The library was founded by residents of the Corona-East Elmhurst community. They formed the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst, Inc. and operated the library’s daily operations from 1969 through 1987 as a “federally funded special project of Queens Library.” In 1987, Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center gained full status and the responsibility of the library shifted to Queens Library. The Library Action Committee still has responsibility for funding and operating the after school Homework Assistance Program and the Cultural Arts Program.
By repurposing colorful scrap paper and old report covers, kids and their caregivers collaborated on our "picture perfect" photo-frame project. By using simple folding techniques and cutting the plastic report covers down to size to fit their frames, we were not only able to make photo frames but also stands to hold our masterpieces up. The adults were impressed by how easy this craft was to make.
Take a look at the end result, pictured here, and we're sure you'll agree that our handiwork is quite breathtakingly beautiful. The best part? These frames can be put to use right away at home or by being presented to a loved one as a gift.
January 29 marks the birthday of an animator, illustrator and author whose imagination and style helped define children’s entertainment in the 20th Century. His name may not ring bells for today’s youngsters, but Bill Peet’s work deserves to be explored by a new generation.
The mice sidekicks in Walt Disney’s Cinderella? Bill Peet. The character design of Dumbo the Elephant? Bill Peet. The character models in the animated classic 101 Dalmatians? That’s Bill Peet. He also wrote the first draft of the screenplay adaptation from the novel.
Born in Grandview, Indiana in 1915, Peet grew up fascinated by trains, which would show up again and again in his later work. After graduating from art school, he sent a few illustrations to Walt Disney, whose company snapped him up as an animator. Peet cut his teeth drawing Donald Duck and rose through the ranks until he became an artistic director in the early 1960s, despite his repeated creative clashes with Disney.
But Peet carved his own niche when he began writing and illustrating children’s books. His special combination of imagination, whimsy and longing are enough to charm adults right along with their kids.
Peet’s autobiography is a treat for young readers. He punctuates it with illustrations of pivotal moments in his own life, from his arguments with Walt Disney to his childhood expeditions through the woods.
Peet died in 2002, but his genius for storytelling lives on. Young train buffs should check out The Caboose Who Got Loose and Smokey. Budding environmentalists should give The Wump World a read. And kids having trouble finding their place in the world should pick up Chester the Worldly Pig — reportedly Peet’s favorite, it offers a big reveal at the end that will have them leafing with amazement back through every page in the book.
Parents, if your kids still aren’t convinced, just tell them that one of Peet’s cartoon shorts, Suzie the Little Blue Coupe, is the obvious predecessor to Pixar’s mega-smash Cars.
What better way to make a friend then one that loves to read? Kids at Steinway created book critters out of recycled paper, straws, wiggly eyes and a bit of imagination. Kids learned about the benefits of recycling as well as the different uses of things considered to be “trash”. Using colorful paper strips they decorated each strip to add to the body of the critter. With the help of some glue they added wiggly eyes and straw antennas.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 1/21 Kids and their caregivers created peace doves out of coffee filters. Martin Luther King Jr. spent his lifetime promoting peace and fighting for equal civil rights for everyone. Children learned about his role in advancing the Civil Rights Movement as well as his non violent approach. Dr. King was one of the greatest orators in American history and is remembered for his famous " I Have a Dream" speech. Caregivers and Kids enjoyed learning about him and his tranquil ways. What better way to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day than to create colorful doves made from coffee filters ?
Tags
The passing of time is changing the way Americans recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day, at Queens Library and around the country. Each year, a larger percentage of the population was not alive before the famed civil rights leader was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Keeping Dr. King’s memory alive is especially important to Johnnie Dent, Community Library Manager at Queens Library at East Elmhurst -- and not just because she works in one of the most-established African-American neighborhoods in Queens.
Dent, who has been with the library for nearly 39 years, is the cousin of the late Coretta Scott King, Dr. King’s widow. They grew up together in Marion, Alabama and came of age as the fight against segregation was coming to a head.
She organizes library events like jazz tributes and student discussions of Dr. King, along with helping to run two college scholarship programs with church groups in East Elmhurst.
“Every program that we do, I will say, ‘I need you to know that Mrs. King and I were first cousins,’” Dent says of her interactions with young people. “I’ll tell them that my mother went to jail. I’ll tell them that my mother went across the Selma bridge [as part of the 1965 march on Montgomery, Alabama]. … I’ll do anything to let them know that what he did was for real—it wasn’t just something you read about.”
Through it all, Coretta Scott King supported her husband. Dent remembers her as a strong woman taking a support role for the sake of a noble cause.
“She was her own person; an opera singer, even after they were married and their first kid came,” Dent says. “She was touring while she was pregnant, to fund the movement.”
Dent says that, along with attending memorial events, the best way to honor the legacy of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King is to get involved in community service.
“It was about the downtrodden, that was his biggest thing—the poor,” she says. “With Hurricane Sandy, I’ve seen so many things, subtle things going on that people are doing—that’s the kind of service that he was about and that we want to see rendered.”
