For over a decade, the Libraries have offered free programming to the public. Each season brings back favorites including Beyond the Notes, book clubs, and Chat in the Stacks, in addition to welcoming new speakers and topics. Read on for a roundup of this spring’s chapter, which included more than two dozen programs and reached nearly 600 attendees in person and online.
This semester’s highlights
One of the staples of the Beyond the Page programming series is our Chat in the Stacks partnership with the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color. Dr. Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, longtime partner and leader of the series, brings the best of the best speakers. This spring, Dr. Williams-Witherspoon invited James Ijames, MFA ‘06, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, director, and educator, to speak about his education and career. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we released the interview in recording form. View the program on our website. In addition to Ijames, the series welcomed Acting President JoAnne Epps. Epps spoke one-on-one with Dr. Williams-Witherspoon about her journey and her hopes for Temple moving forward. Read highlights from the interview in Temple Now and view the full recording of the conversation on our website.
A new partnership debuted this spring between the Tyler School of Art and Architecture and our Special Collections Research Center. A Look at a Book explores the wonderful collection of rare books, manuscripts, zines, and artists books from our archives. Each week, via Zoom, members of Tyler’s Art History department opened a different artifact from the collection, flipped through its pages, and shared the knowledge within. The recordings are now available on our website.
On the first day of spring, we teamed up with the Office of Sustainability and the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University for a plant talk and walk on Main Campus. We learned about the history of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women (now the Ambler Campus), viewed materials from our Special Collections Research Center, and then went outside to identify plants and hear about sustainability features here on campus. Another post on our library programs blog contains the full recap.
Also this spring, we hosted an author talk with Leth Oun and Joe Samuel Starnes about their new Temple University Press publication A Refugee’s American Dream: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the U.S. Secret Service. Oun and Starnes shared the making of the book and some anecdotes from the book itself. Unfortunately, this recording is not available on our website, so we encourage you to read the book!
At the Blockson Collection
The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection boasts wonderful program offerings each season. This spring included a conversation about Philadelphia Jazz: Images of America with authors Suzanne Cloud, director of the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project, and Diane Turner, curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. Cloud and Turner collaborated to create this book that will help support the establishment of a permanent jazz archive at the Blockson Collection.
In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, the Blockson Collection presented the Third Annual Bootsie Barnes Jazz Series in memory of local legend Bootsie Barnes. This year’s event featured Gerald Veasley bassist, bandleader, composer, producer, educator, and curator.
View these and more Blockson Collection program recordings on our website.
Exhibits
At Charles Library, we opened Game On! Design and Play for a Sustainable Future. The exhibit explores the power of games to teach and engage players in significant ways and was curated by Gabriel Kaprielian, assistant professor of architecture at Tyler School of Art and Architecture; Dr. Renee Jackson, assistant professor of art education at Tyler; and Matt Shoemaker, head of the Loretta C. Duckworth Scholars Studio. Game On! presents processes of design, play testing, and fabrication of games between Temple students, faculty, staff, and the broader Philadelphia community to collectively envision a sustainable future for all. The exhibit will run into the fall.
The Blockson Collection hosted African Americans of the Twentieth Century in the Philadelphia Region: Known and Unknown which will be up until the end of June.
And the Ginsburg Library at the Health Sciences Center displayed The History of Temple’s Health Sciences Schools.
Stay in touch
A sincere thank you to our program partners, staff, and attendees for another great season of programs. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. And keep an eye on our library events page for announcements about the fall!