June 19, 2:00 PM The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, 1310 Polett Walk The Blockson Collection in partnership with the Department of African American Studies presents Dr. Allen B. Ballard, Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University of Albany-SUNY and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at City College of New York, who will talk about his publication and memoir Breaching Jericho’s Wall: A Twentieth-Century African American Life(2011).

Ballard’s publications include The Education of Black Folk: The Afro-American Struggle for Knowledge in White America (1973), One More Day’s Journey: The Story of a Family and a People (1984), and his two novels Where I’m Bound (2000) and Carried by Six (2009), winner of the “Honor Book Prize” in Afro-American Literature from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. The Blockson Collection will also honor the Montford Point Marines.

FINALS FILM SCREENING! RECLAIMING THE RUST BELT May 3, afternoon TBD, Paley Library Join us for a study break, as our Exploring the Cities series concludes with a screening of Reclaiming the Rust Belt. This film focuses on manufacturing declines that took place during the 20th century and their effect on densely populated urban centers in Philadelphia and Birmingham, England. This is film is informative and provocative, demonstrating how economic shifts are felt in communities and their built environments.

AWARDS CEREMONY: 8th Annual Library Prize for Undergraduate Research & 2nd Annual Library Prize for Undergraduate Research on Sustainability & the Environment May 1, 4:00 PM, Paley Library Once again, please join us to celebrate the winners of the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research and the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research in Sustainability & the Environment. This competition that attracts the very best research projects from undergraduates while encouraging the use of library resources, and is a yearend celebration for all of us at the libraries.

TOM FINKELPEARL ON PUBLIC ART April 17, 2:30 PM, Paley Library Public art has a way of sparking discussion and community action. Sometimes controversial, sometimes intriguing and sometimes aesthetically displeasing, public art exists in almost every city and town. Join Tom Finkelpearl in a discussion on the process behind these sometimes divisive, sometimes unifying artworks that reside in the public sphere. Tom Finkelpearl is currently the director of the Queens Museum of Art, and is a foremost expert on public art. He has approached the topic from nearly every angle: as an administrator while directing NYC’s Percent for Art Fund, as a practicing artist in New York, and as a scholar and author of Dialogues in Public Art (MIT Press). Join him at Paley Library to discuss public art, and the role public arts projects play in planning and defining our cities.

PLACE X PROMISE=PHILADELPHIA: Philadelphia and the makeshift metropolis March 20, 11:00 AM, Kiva Auditorium A Symposium Program by the General Education Program and Temple University Libraries Architect, urbanist and University of Pennsylvania’s Professor Witold Rybczynski shares ideas from his recent book Makeshift Metropolis and discusses them within the Philadelphia context. Traditional city planning has important lessons to offer, but after more than a century of big ideas that falter, Rybczynski argues, we’ve learned that cities may actually thrive best on a myriad of smaller ideas. Joining the discussion with Rybczynski is a distinguished panel (Paul Levy, President and CEO of the Center City District; Sandra Shea, Opinion Page Editor of the Philadelphia Daily News; and Temple Professor Carolyn Adams) who will ground the promise of urban place by introducing Philadelphia examples.

Race in the Race February 23, 2:30 PM, Paley Library Lecture Hall Join us for the February 2012 installment of Chat in the Stacks, as Temple scholars explore “Race in the Race.” This panel will examine the role of race in politics, particularly in relation to the Republican primaries now taking place. The Chat in the Stacks series is a continuing conversation series with faculty members across a broad range of disciplines, and is cosponsored by Temple University Libraries and the Faculty Senate Committee on the Status of Faculty of Color.

This spring the book club will explore the city, addressing immigration and city life through a discussion of Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work and Witold Rybczynski’s City Life. Join us for discussion and refreshments this spring at Paley. Create Dangerously is MacArthur Genius Grant winner Edwidge Danticat’s collection of essays takes its name from Albert Camus’s last published lecture in which he stated, “To create today is to create dangerously.” The book illustrates the struggle of making art in exile—and what it’s like to exist in a country constantly in conflict, where even the act of reading means taking a stand against oppression. This book is the official One Book, One Philadelphia selection in this, the program’s 10th year.

at the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection 1310 Polett Walk Join acclaimed author and scholar Daniel Black as he celebrates the release of his most recent novel. Dr. Black is a professor at Clark Atlanta University and author of the major scholarly monograph, Dismantling Black Manhood. His third novel, Perfect Peace, was released in March of 2010 and has been nominated for the Lambda, the Georgia Book of the Year, The Ferro-Grumbley Literary Award, and the Ernest Gaines Prize. Join us to celebrate the release of Dr. Black’s fourth novel, Twelve Gates of the City. This program will include a reading, discussion, and refreshments.