Russell Blair
October is LGBTQ History Month and before it comes to a close we’ve some great book suggestions by LGTBQ authors. See a title you are interested in below? Click on it to check it out from the library!
These recommendations were featured throughout the month in our email newsletter. Not subscribed? Click here to sign up.
The Natural Mother of the Child
by Krys Malcolm Belc
Krys Malcolm Belc’s visual memoir-in-essays explores how the experience of gestational parenthood — conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding his son Samson — eventually clarified his gender identity.
“The Natural Mother of the Child offers, along with an ever-surprising, multiform structure, a lesson in courage and tenderness.” — LA Times Review of Books
AfterParties Stories
by Anthony Veasna So
Following the children of refugees in a Californian community of Cambodian Americans, Afterparties shepherds its characters through experiences with found family, intergenerational trauma, and Moby Dick
“Witty and soulful stories from a writer who was just getting started.” — The New York Times Book Review
Notes of a Native Son
by James Baldwin
One of his most admired works, James Baldwin’s essays on race, civil rights movement and life are as powerful and important today as when they were first written in 1955.
“Written with bitter clarity and uncommon grace.” – Time
“A straight-from-the-shoulder writer, writing about the troubled problems of this troubled earth with an illuminating intensity.”
– Langston Hughes, The New York Times Book Review
If Beale Street Could Talk
by James Baldwin
A beautifully written love story that inspired the award-winning major motion picture, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice.
“A moving, painful story, so vividly human and so obviously based on reality that it strikes us as timeless.” – The New York Times Book Review
“A major work of Black American fiction.” – The New Republic
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One of the most influential literary works of our time, One Hundred Years of Solitude remains a dazzling and original achievement by the masterful Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. . . . Mr. Garcia Marquez has done nothing less than to create in the reader a sense of all that is profound, meaningful, and meaningless in life.” — William Kennedy, New York Times Book Review
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.
“It’s a brilliant, magical, life-changing book that continues to blow my mind with its lessons. [...] A remarkable tome.” — Neil Patrick Harris
“A wise and inspiring fable about the pilgrimage that life should be” — M. Scott Peck.
A Cup of Water Under My Bed
by Daisy Hernandez
In this lyrical, coming-of-age memoir, Daisy Hernández chronicles what the women in her Cuban-Colombian family taught her about love, money, and race.
“Gorgeously written from start to finish.” – Boston Globe
“Hernández seamlessly combines the familiar genres of the ‘coming out’ story and the ‘coming of age’ story into a unique memoir of self-discovery.” – LA Review of Books
Chulito
by Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Set against a vibrant South Bronx neighborhood and the queer youth culture of Manhattan’s piers, Chulito is a coming-of-age, coming out love story of a sexy, tough, hip hop-loving, young Latino man and the colorful characters who populate his block.
“Hilarious, unique, heartfelt and sharp. A wonderful read.” – Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street
“This is a beautiful debut.” – Jaime Manrique, author of Latin Moon in Manhattan
Hartford Public Library customers can’t get enough of legal thrillers and politics — at least according to the most checked out books from the past year.
Bestselling author John Grisham had three titles on the 10 most borrowed adult books from June 30, 2020, to July 1, 2021 , and there were two political entries on the list, President Barack Obama’s latest book and Mary L. Trump’s tell-all about her uncle, President Donald Trump.
Here are the 10 books that were checked out most by patrons, across all our branches, with links to borrow them from our catalog if you haven’t read them yet!
1. The Vanishing Half
by Britt Bennett
From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.
“[Bennett’s] second [book], The Vanishing Half, more than lives up to her early promise. . . more expansive yet also deeper, a multi-generational family saga that tackles prickly issues of racial identity and bigotry and conveys the corrosive effects of secrets and dissembling. It’s also a great read that will transport you out of your current circumstances, whatever they are. . . Like The Mothers, this novel keeps you turning pages not just to find out what happens.” — NPR
“Bennett’s gorgeously written second novel, an ambitious meditation on race and identity, considers the divergent fates of twin sisters, born in the Jim Crow South, after one decides to pass for white. Bennett balances the literary demands of dynamic characterization with the historical and social realities of her subject matter.”— The New York Times
2. Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
“Magnificent . . . a trailblazing work on the birth of inequality . . . Caste offers a forward-facing vision. Bursting with insight and love, this book may well help save us.”— O: The Oprah Magazine
“This book has the reverberating and patriotic slap of the best American prose writing. . . . Wilkerson has written a closely argued book that largely avoids the word ‘racism,’ yet stares it down with more humanity and rigor than nearly all but a few books in our literature. . . . It’s a book that changes the weather inside a reader.”— Dwight Garner, The New York Times
3. Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. Trump
In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.
“[T]he most devastating, most valuable and all-around best Trump book since he started running for president. In the vast Trump literature, this one is something new…[W]hat this book does do is help us understand him, offering the most incisive rendering yet of why he is the way he is.”— Politico
“Mesmerizing beach reading and a memorable opposition research dump…It is salacious, venomous and well-sourced…Yet the narrative remains compelling.” — The Guardian
4. A Time For Mercy
by John Grisham
Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.
“Grisham has returned to the place closest to his heart… The trial is riveting…it’s striking how suspenseful the story is…how much we’re gripped by the small details.”– Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
“Textbook Grisham—and that’s a compliment…a briskly paced legal drama, with just the right amount of suspense, conflict, plot twists, and courtroom theatrics.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
5. American Dirt
by Jeanine Cummins
Lydia Quixano Pérez runs a bookstore in Acapulco, Mexico, where she lives with her husband, Sebastián, who is a journalist, and their son, Luca. When a man starts visiting her store, buying books and striking up a friendship, she has no idea initially that he will be responsible for turning her life upside down. But Lydia and Luca will have to flee Acapulco, setting them on a journey they will share with countless other Central and South Americans-turned migrants.
“American Dirt just gutted me, and I didn’t just read this book―I inhabited it….Everything about this book was so extraordinary. It’s suspenseful, the language is beautiful, and the story really opened my heart. I highly recommend it, and you will not want to put it down. It is just a magnificent novel.”
― Oprah
“American Dirt is a literary novel with nuanced character development and arresting language; yet, its narrative hurtles forward with the intensity of a suspense tale. Its most profound achievement, though, is something I never could’ve been told…American Dirt is the novel that, for me, nails what it’s like to live in this age of anxiety, where it feels like anything can happen, at any moment.”
― Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
6. Deacon King Kong
by James McBride
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award–winning The Good Lord Bird.
“A mystery story, a crime novel, an urban farce, a sociological portrait of late-1960s Brooklyn: McBride’s novel contains multitudes… He conducts his antic symphony with deep feeling, never losing sight of the suffering and inequity within the merriment.” — The New York Times, Top 10 Books of 2020
“Shouldn’t we just get it over with and declare McBride this decade’s Great American Novelist?…McBride has a way of inflating reality to comical sizes, the better for us to see every tiny mechanism that holds unjust systems in place.” — Los Angeles Times
7. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies
by Resmaa Menakem
In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.
“Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois put his finger on African American consciousness when he wrote ‘one ever feels his twoness―an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body.’ But even Du Bois never addressed the process of healing the psychological wounds of the ‘two-ness.’ In My Grandmother Hands, Resmaa offers a path of internal reconciliation for a Person enduring the generational trauma of American racism, and gives us all a chance to dream of a healing from it.”― Keith Ellison, Member of Congress and Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee
“Resmaa Menakem cuts to the heart of America’s racial crisis with the precision of a surgeon in ways few have before. Addressing the intergenerational trauma of white supremacy and its effects on all of us―understanding it as a true soul wound―is the first order of business if we hope to pull out of the current morass. As this amazing work shows us, policies alone will not do it, and bold social action, though vital to achieving justice, will require those engaged in it to also take action on the injury, deep and personal, from which we all suffer.”― Tim Wise, bestselling author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son and Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority
8. The Coldest Winter Ever: A Novel
by Sister Souljah
Ghetto-born, Winter is the young, wealthy daughter of a prominent Brooklyn drug-dealing family. Quick-witted, sexy, and business-minded, she knows and loves the streets like the curves of her own body. But when a cold Winter wind blows her life in a direction she doesn’t want to go, her street smarts and seductive skills are put to the test of a lifetime. Unwilling to lose, this ghetto girl will do anything to stay on top.
“Winter is nasty, spoiled, and almost unbelievably libidinous, and it’s ample evidence of the author’s talent that she is also deeply sympathetic.” ― The New Yorker
“Winter is precious, babacious, and as tough as a hollow-point bullet.” ― Salon.com
9. A Promised Land
by Barack Obama
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
“A powerful book with lots of insights into great leadership.”— Bill Gates, GatesNotes
“Barack Obama is as fine a writer as they come. . . . [A Promised Land] is nearly always pleasurable to read, sentence by sentence, the prose gorgeous in places, the detail granular and vivid. . . . The story will continue in the second volume, but Barack Obama has already illuminated a pivotal moment in American history, and how America changed while also remaining unchanged.”— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The New York Times Book Review
10. Camino Winds
by John Grisham
Just as Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course and heads straight for Camino Island. Florida’s governor orders a mandatory evacuation, and most residents board up their houses and flee to the mainland, but Bruce decides to stay and ride out the storm. The hurricane is devastating: Homes and condos are leveled, hotels and storefronts ruined, streets flooded—and a dozen people lose their lives. One of the apparent victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death: He has suffered several suspicious blows to the head.
“The perfect crime scene…in the type of wild but smart caper that [John] Grisham’s readers love.” — Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing
October is National Cookbook Month, and did you know Hartford Public Library is full of great cookbooks where you can learn new recipes?
Since it’s fall, and we love everything pumpkin, we’re going to feature some recipes from The Pumpkin Cookbook, just one of many of the great titles we have in our collection. Try out one of the recipes below, and then search our catalog for another cookbook and find something new to make!
PUMPKIN BUTTER
SOUTHERN PECAN PUMPKIN PIE
2 cups chopped pecans
1 pound fresh pumpkin, seeds and fibers removed, cut into chunks
3 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons bourbon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Partially baked 9-inch piecrust
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 5 to 7 minutes until lightly browned and fragrant. Cool on a wire rack.
3. Microwave the pumpkin on high for 5 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. When cool, peel and cut into enough 1-inch chunks to measure 2 cups. Mash slightly.
4. Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees.
5. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, corn syrup, butter, bourbon, salt, cinammon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add the cooled pecans and pumpkin. Spoon into the piecrust.
6. Bake 35-45 minutes, until filling is set. Cool for at least 1 hour and 30 minutes before slicing.
ALMOND-PUMPKIN BISCOTTI
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups dark brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
1. Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in the pumpkin.
2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder, ginger, salt and nutmeg together into the creamed mixture and continue beating until well mixed. Stir in the almonds.
3. Refrigerate the mixture in the bowl for at least 2 hours.
4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
5. Divide the dough into two mounds and turn one out onto a floured board. With floured fingers, shape the loaf, 1/2 by 3 inches wide. Repeat with second mound. Place the loaves on the cookie sheet, leaving about 4 inches between them for expansion. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
6. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees.
7. Slice the loaves diagonally and place cut-side down on the cookie sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes per side, or until dried out.
8. Cool completely and store in a loosely covered container for up to two weeks.
PUMPKIN-RICE PUDDING
5 cups whole milk
1/2 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin
1/3 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
1 egg
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Heat the milk, rice, pumpkin, sugar, cinammon stick and salt in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring occassionally, until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan and steam rises.
2. Reduce the heat and gently cook, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the pudding thick but still soupy. Stir frequently, especially toward the end of the cooking time, when the mixture thickens. Add the raisins, if using, in the last 10 minutes of cooking. If possible, put a heat diffuser under the pot to keep the heat evenly distributed and to prevent scorching the milk, something you definitely don’t want to do.
3. Beat the egg with a fork in a small bowl. Spoon some of the pudding into the egg. Slowly add this egg mixture to the pudding, stirring constantly and keeping the heat low. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the pudding thickens some more.
4. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon zest and vanilla and cool slightly before thoroughly chilling. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve in dessert dishes.
For Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated Sept. 15-Oct. 15, Hartford Public Library is highlighting a collection of books by Latino/a/x authors. See a title you are interested in below? Click on it to check it out from the library!
These recommendations were featured throughout the month in our email newsletter. Not subscribed? Click here to sign up.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
A Cup of Water Under My Bed
Daisy Hernandez
Chulito
Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel
We’re kicking it way back for this recommendation. Winner of the American Booksellers book of the Year Award in 1994, this bestselling phenomenon and inspiration for the award-winning film tells the story of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico and blends poignant romance and bittersweet wit.
“Each chapter of Esquivel’s utterly charming interpretation of life in Mexico begins with a recipe–not surprisingly, since so much of the action of this exquisite first novel centers around the kitchen, the heart and soul of a traditional Mexican family.” – Publisher’s Weekly
Carmelo
Sandra Cisneros
Clap When you Land
Elizabeth Acevedo
In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
“Tackles family secrets, toxic masculinity, and socio-economic differences with incisive clarity and candor … Every line is laced with betrayal and longing as the teens struggle with loving someone despite his imperfections. A standing ovation.” — Kirkus Reviews
The House of Broken Angels
Luis Alberto Urrea
The definitive Mexican-American immigrant story, a sprawling and deeply felt portrait of a Mexican-American family occasioned by the impending loss of its patriarch, from one of the country’s most beloved authors.
“Epic … Rambunctious … Highly entertaining.” — New York Times Book Review
“Intimate and touching … the stuff of legend.” — San Francisco Chronicle
An immensely charming and moving tale.” — Boston Globe
How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Julia Alvarez
When I was Puerto Rican
Esmeralda Santiago
Hartford Public Library President and CEO Bridget E. Quinn, right, leads a panel discussion on closing the digital divide with, from left: Maureen Magnan, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Consumer Protection; Ajit Gopalakrishnan, Chief Performance Officer, State Department of Education; Nora Duncan, State Director, Connecticut AARP; Eileen Rhodes, Interim Director, Connecticut State Community College Library; and Doug Casey, Executive Director, Commission for Educational Technology.
To mark Digital Inclusion Week (Oct. 4-8), Hartford Public Library welcomed state officials to the Center for Contemporary Culture at the Downtown Library on Thursday, Oct. 7, for a discussion on efforts to close the digital divide in Connecticut.
Click here to watch a recording.
Panelists included Maureen Magnan, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection; Ajit Gopalakrishnan, chief performance officer at the state Department of Education; Nora Duncan, state director of Connecticut AARP; Eileen Rhodes, interim director of the Connecticut State Community College Library; and Doug Casey, executive director of the state Commission for Educational Technology.
“Digital literacy is more than just an educational concern,” said Hartford Public Library President and CEO Bridget E. Quinn. “The pervasiveness of the digital divide is a social justice issue, preventing the vulnerable in our communities from improving their lives and providing for their families. The fallout from this problem is wide-reaching. The areas with the least connectivity are also the most economically disadvantaged, something the COVID-19 pandemic has really brought to light.”
Listed below are some of the resources that were shared during the discussion:
Emergency Broadband Benefit
The Emergency Broadband Benefit will provide a discount of up to $50 per month towards broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price.
Who Is Eligible for the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program?
A household is eligible if a member of the household meets one of the criteria below:
- Has an income that is at or below 135% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Lifeline;
- Approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision, in the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, or 2021-2022 school year;
- Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year;
- Experienced a substantial loss of income due to job loss or furlough since February 29, 2020 and the household had a total income in 2020 at or below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers; or
- Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income or COVID-19 program.
Senior Planet
Senior Planet is about much more than just the latest gadgets and apps and websites. Those gadgets and apps and websites are just means to an end: enabling older adults and people of all ages to come together and find ways to learn, work, create, and thrive in today’s digital age.
Wherever you are in the world, you can subscribe to our newsletters and participate online. If you’re near one of our physical locations, even better! We’re active on the ground in six U.S. locations (with more coming soon).
Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection
Scammers often use “click bait”, or ads that appeal to you on social media, and send you threatening emails or texts with the hope that you reply with personal information, or click on a link that will allow them to access your personal information.
- OnGuard Online
- www.iKeepSafe.org
- www.netsmartz.org
- www.ncpc.org
- www.mcgruff.org
- www.staysafeonline.org
- www.staysafe.org
- www.wiredsafety.org
Below is the list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2020, as reported by the American Library Association. The list is based on information from the media and reports sent from across the U.S. Interested in a title on the list? Search our catalog HERE.
1. George by Alex Gino
Reasons: Challenged, banned, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, conflicting with a religious viewpoint, and not reflecting “the values of our community.”
2. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
Reasons: Banned and challenged because of author’s public statements, and because of claims that the book contains “selective storytelling incidents” and does not encompass racism against all people.
3. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, drug use, and alcoholism, and because it was thought to promote anti-police views, contain divisive topics, and be “too much of a sensitive matter right now.”
4. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity.
5. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and allegations of sexual misconduct by the author.
6. Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
Reasons: Challenged for “divisive language” and because it was thought to promote anti-police views.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and their negative effect on students, featuring a “white savior” character, and its perception of the Black experience.
8. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Reasons: Banned and challenged for racial slurs and racist stereotypes, and their negative effect on students.
9. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and depicts child sexual abuse.
10. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Reasons: Challenged for profanity, and it was thought to promote an anti-police message.
Hartford Public Library invites the community to a daylong celebration on Saturday, Oct. 2 to mark the grand opening of the new Park Street Library @ the Lyric!
The festivities will begin in the morning with art activities at the Art Box (777 Park St.) followed by a parade to the new library (603 Park St.). At the library there will be live music, food trucks, activities for kids and open access to come inside and tour the brand new space.
RSVP on Facebook HERE
DAY’S EVENTS:
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Art activities at the Art Box, including painting of Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance Frog Hollow heroes murals
11 a.m. – Puppet show, presented by Hispanic Health Council
1 p.m. – Colors of Frog Hollow Community Parade from Art Box to Park Street Library @ the Lyric (Wear a shirt representative of your culture)
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Block party celebration
FEATURED PERFORMERS:
De 4 Ahwee & Co. with friends from Trinity Steel, presented by the Trinity College Center for Caribbean Studies
DJ Connie Carmona featuring YOUMedia Hartford teens
Bomba Ashe
Latin Essence Jazz Group
Mariachi Academy of New England
OTHER PROGRAMS:
Voices of Frog Hollow multimedia presentation
Hartford History Center Hartford Public Library branch history exhibit
La Diferente Radio is sponsoring the event and host Jorge Laureano will be emceeing. It will be broadcast live on 1710 AM.
The Hartford City Council recently approved a plan by the Hartford Public Library, in partnership with Hartford Athletic and Cigna, to install a permanent StoryWalk display in Colt Park.
The display will consist of a series of 20 interactive podiums that will each feature one to two pages from a children’s book as well as a physical activity to complete while walking to the next podium. The pages will be displayed in English and Spanish. The final page will contain a QR code that will direct users to a website where they can complete a quiz to win Hartford Athletic prizes
“Putting literacy and physical fitness at the forefront, this initiative provides families in the Hartford community with a fun and educational activity that is available to everyone,” Hartford Public Library, Hartford Athletic and Cigna wrote in a letter to Councilwoman Marilyn E. Rossetti, chair of the council’s public works, parks, recreation and environment committee.
The StoryWalk will begin with a podium outside the entrance of Dillon Stadium, continue to the corner of Van Block Avenue and Masseek Street and then enter Colt Park where 18 additional podiums will be placed on the east side of the youth soccer field.
A resolution by Rossetti, Council President Maly Rosado and Councilwoman Shirley Surgeon was included on the consent agenda at the council’s Sept. 13 meeting.
Cigna has agreed to pay $25,000 to cover the cost of the project, including three years of maintenance and upkeep.
The StoryWalk is expected to be completed in mid-October and the Hartford Public Library will replace the book pages and activities on a quarterly basis.
Carlos Hernandez Chavez.
Hispanic Heritage Month begins Sept. 15, and to mark the occasion, the Hartford Public Library is highlighting local artist Carlos Hernández Chavez, a musician, muralist and friend to the library.
Carlos had already established himself as an accomplished artist when he came to Hartford from Mexico City in 1967.
“When I first arrived I might as well have arrived to another planet,” he told The Hartford Courant in 2013. “Everything was just so different even though I spoke English. The newness of the place… it was just mesmerizing. I was told that I was the first Mexican in Hartford. I’m not sure if that was true but I did not meet any Mexicans for many years after 1967.”
Carlos quickly became ingrained in the city’s arts scene and worked for the City of Hartford for 25 years, beginning as a bilingual social worker and ending his career as the top hearing officer for housing and parking violations.
In 2014, his works were featured in the ArtWalk at the Hartford Public Library. The exhibit, “Dialogues: Impromptu Conversations in Color,” included works created in the Carite rain forest in Puerto Rico. Carlos took leaves off plants, coated them with paint and pressed them to paper or canvas.
Over the past year, Carlos has been photographing the progress of the construction of the new Park Street Library @ the Lyric that is scheduled to open at the end of the month.
Hartford Public Library honors and celebrates the history, culture and contributions of our Hispanic and Latino community.
Ana Cuevas works on a scarf during the opening of the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center’s Perspectives on Color exhibit at the Hartford Public Library Downtown on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.
Ana Cuevas was born without vision but it hasn’t stopped her from producing finely crafted scarves and other items at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center.
“My understanding of color is very limited but I like to do things for others to see,” Cuevas, who has been weaving for about four years, said Thursday as she demonstrated her skill at an opening for the center’s Perspectives on Color exhibit at the Hartford Public Library’s Downtown location.
Dozens of items produced by artisans from the weaving center will be on display on the library’s third floor – outside the Hartford History Center – through Oct. 21.
For Johanna Bolduc, who lost her vision in 2002, the center on Woodland Street has been a welcoming environment since she first started training there in 2013.
“It’s the nosiest peaceful place you’ll ever be,” she said, calling the art of weaving a form of “active meditation.”
Garrett Weaver admires a rug he created at the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center during the opening of the center’s Perspectives on Color exhibit at the Hartford Public Library Downtown on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.
The center was forced to suspend classes for months during the COVID-19 pandemic but materials were sent home so the men and women who train there could continue working on their craft, said Ann Kollegger, executive director of the nonprofit.
In addition to teaching hand-weaving to people who are blind or visually impaired, the center also offers classes to Hartford-area seniors, like Garrett Weaver, who has a rug on display in the exhibit. He said it took him about three months to produce, start to finish.
Weaver said he’s been weaving for about 25 years and has been working at the center since its start.
“In college I was interested in modern art and math, and it’s a blend of that,” Weaver explained, adding that he uses Microsoft Excel to plot out patterns before getting to work on a project.
Hartford Public Library President and CEO Bridget Quinn, center, talks with Hartford Artisans Weaving Center Executive Director Ann Kolleger. right, and Hartford History Center Education and Outreach Manager Jasmin Agosto, left, during the Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, opening of the center’s Perspectives on Color exhibit.
Cuevas, the artisan who was born without vision, described how she interprets color in a testimonial that is part of the display.
“The color red comes to mind, because I think about the sun,” she wrote. “For me, the sun and the color red means inclusion. The sun provides light and warmth to everyone in the world regardless of race, gender, religion and socioeconomic status.”
For more information visit www.weavingcenter.org.