Berkeley Public Library: February Happenings
 
Day of Remembrance Event with George Takei
Friday, February 19
4pm

Stream the award-winning documentary And Then They Came for Us on your own and then attend a live discussion and Q&A with actor, activist and New York Times best-selling author, George Takei.
 

 
Tarea Hall Pittman Social Justice Series Returns 

Images from The Berkeley Revolution digital archive.
 
The Legacy of Rainbow Sign
Thursday, February 4
6pm
 
The first event in the 2021 Tarea Hall Pittman Social Justice Series is a panel discussion on the impact, legacy and history of the Rainbow Sign, Berkeley's Black Cultural Arts Center from 1971-77.
 
Panelists include:
  • Eugene Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis, Illinois & Emeritus Professor of English at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
  • Halifu Osumare, Professor Emerita of African American Studies at UC Davis
  • Dezie Woods-Jones, President of Black Women Organized For Political Action 

 
Culinary Author Event

Author, Chocolatier & Pastry Chef:
Alice Medrich
Saturday, February 13 
2pm
 
Alice is one of the country’s foremost experts on chocolate and chocolate desserts. She is credited with popularizing chocolate truffles in the United States and introducing the larger “American” chocolate truffle, now a mainstream confection. 
 
Alice will demonstrate making chocolate wedding cake cookies.
 
 
More Virtual Programs
Making Myths New 
 
Read ancient myths, discuss the works of art and literature that they have inspired, and make myth-inspired stories, poems, and songs.
 
February 1: Pandora and Fiction
February 8: Stories about Pandora
February 22: Persephone and Poetry
 
March 1: Poems about Persephone
March 8: Sisyphus and Songwriting
March 15: Songs about Sisyphus
A Conversation
with the Co-founders of mak-‘amham / Cafe Ohlone
February 25
6pm
 
Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino lead a discussion on their work to preserve and promote Ohlone food traditions. There will be a cooking demonstration as well!
 
This program is aimed at teens but all are welcome.
Increasing Business Visibility on Google
 
Thursday, February 11 
10am

Learn search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to grow your online brand. This program is part of the Berkeley Business Bootcamp series, a collaboration between the Library and the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce.
UC Berkeley Scientists Lecture Series
Tuesday, February 16
5:30pm
 
This month's topics:
 
Part of Me or Pathogen? How can you T(c)ell?
&
Juggling Sickness, Self-care, and Parenthood
 
Chinese New Year
Storytime
Friday, February 26
3:30pm
 
 
Celebrate and learn about Chinese New Year with a story in Mandarin and English. 
Family Tap Dance Workshop
with Quynn Johnson
Saturday, February 13
10:30am
 
Learn about the history of tap dance and then get up and learn some steps too!
 
Shadow Puppets
Thursday, February 18
3:30pm
 
 Experience the art of shadow puppetry and watch a series of five folktales from around the world. 
 
 
Reading is Instrumental
New season starts
Friday, February 19
11am

The all-star musical storytime with Berkeley Symphony musicians and well-known readers returns for season 2. 
 
Watch season 1 NOW on the Library's Facebook page.
  
Reading is Instrumental is a collaboration between the Library, the Berkeley Symphony and the Berkeley Public Library Foundation.
 
Browse the Library's online event calendar for more virtual programs.
 
Programming is made possible by the generous support of the 
Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.
 
New e-Resource: Wall Street Journal
Use your Berkeley Public Library card to read the Wall Street Journal from home.
 
New e-Resource: Live Chess Tutoring
 
The Library's e-resource, BrainFuse HelpNow, provides on-demand, expert online tutoring 7 days a week in math, science, social studies, writing, and English for all ages and now.... for chess! 
 
 
Your Library, in the News
 
A recent Berkeleyside article on Jim Manheimer losing his yearbook at his Berkeley High graduation in 1979 and being reunited with it at the Library last month captured some of Jim's #mylibrarystory but there is much more to it:
 
Jim grew up in Berkley. He went to MLK on Grove. He remembers Mr. Jacobs at South reading “Blueberries for Sal” and playing by the koi pond outside with “smooth black stones.”
 
When his family moved across town his most frequented branch became North and he recalls fondly all the dark wood in the Library and the high counters that made quite the impression on him.
 
As a teen and a Berkeley High student, he spent lots of time at Central and remembers, “the elevator used to be so funky that you could lose your toes and fingers if you stuck them in the door!”

He did his college search and researched buying his first car using resources in Central’s reference room.
 
Jim was a camp counselor at Camp Kee Tov and he recalls how they would send the kids on scavenger hunts around Berkeley: “Go find a fortune cookie, find a business card from a used bookstore. The scavenger hunt would always end up down in the bottom floor of Central. The culmination would be to find a book published in 1905 and a librarian would help them and the kids would be so excited! They would get gummy bears as prizes.”
 
Jim is a principal in a different nearby school district now but when his kids were young they lived in North Oakland and Jim would take them to Tarea Hall Pittman South for storytime. Mr. Jacobs was no longer there but one tradition lived on: after storytime they’d go across the park to play.
Do you share any of these #mylibrarystory memories too?

Everyone has a #mylibrarystory. We'd love to share yours! Email it to areeder@cityofberkeley.info.
 
Check out #mylibrarystory every Friday on the
Library's Facebook and  Instagram.
 
 
Winter Hours Remain in Effect for Outdoor Pickup
 
PLEASE NOTE:
 
Outdoor Pickup will be closed on

Friday, February 12, 2021
&
Monday, February 15, 2021
 
 
Reminder: the Library will continue to provide updates on Library Services during Covid-19 via this e-newsletter, on social media and in our FAQs on our website:
 
berkeleypubliclibrary.org/coronavirus.
 
For the latest Covid-19 news from the City of Berkeley, please refer to:
 
www.cityofberkeley.info/coronavirus.
 
From the Berkeley Public Library Foundation

Libraries are Central:
Be a Fan!

Saturday, March 6th
5pm
 
Free, but registration is required.
 

Join the Berkeley Public Library Foundation for a virtual celebration hosted by Roman Mars, creator of radio show 99% Invisible and author of 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design.
 
Enjoy a sneak peek inside the newly renovated Central Library spaces, and an engaging array of music, dance, theater, stories, and poetry brought directly to your living room by notable library lovers from Berkeley and beyond including:
  • Ross Gay, poet, and author, most recently, of New York Times bestseller The Book of Delights: Essays
  • Laleh Khadivi, filmmaker and author of A Good Country
  • Linda Schacht Gage, Emmy award-winning television reporter and library champion
  • Berkeley Symphony with Artistic Director René Mandel and violinist Mathew Szemela
  • Berkeley Ballet Theater with Artistic Director Robert Dekker and BBT Studio Company Dancers
  • Shotgun Players Founding Artistic Director Patrick Dooley, with Joy Carlin, Nancy Carlin, and Megan Trout
 
 
 
Berkeley Public Library
2090 Kittredge St.
Berkeley, California 94704
510.981.6100
www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/