Join us online at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18 conversation with journalist and author Lee Hawkins as he talks to us about the examination of his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience in this riveting memoir, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free.
I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family’s pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.
Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors’ lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America—a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success.
Register today to join the conversation!
Join us online at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11 for a riveting conversation with bestselling author Waubgeshig Rice to chat about his newest book Moon of the Turning Leaves, the hotly anticipated sequel to the bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow.
It’s been over a decade since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy. Evan Whitesky led his community in remote northern Ontario off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been living off the land, rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions in total isolation from the outside world.
As new generations are born, and others come of age in the world after everything, Evan’s people are in some ways stronger than ever. But resources in and around their new settlement are beginning to dry up, and the elders warn that they cannot afford to stay indefinitely.
Evan and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Nangohns, are elected to lead a small scouting party on a months-long trip to their traditional home on the north shore of Lake Huron—to seek new beginnings and discover what kind of life—and what dangers—still exist in the lands to the south.
Moon of the Turning Leaves is Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in the phenomenal breakout bestseller Moon of the Crusted Snow: a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth.
Register now for a thrilling conversation!
Smithsonian curator Sabrina Sholts is joining us online to discuss the uncomfortable but all-too-timely message of The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs, which travels through history and around the globe to examine how and why pandemics are an inescapable threat of our own making on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m. via digital live-stream!
Register and submit questions for the author here.
Join us at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium for a free one-hour yoga class. Taught by certified yoga instructor and U City resident Paula Gold, the class is open to all levels of yoga practitioners. Options will be offered for increased challenge for those who want to go deeper into poses, as well as variations to make poses more accessible as needed.
The yoga class is intended for adults and teens. Please bring your own yoga mat. To register, please call the reference desk at 314-727-3150 or email reference@ucitylibrary.org.
Join us in the makerspace for a free introductory class on machine embroidery. Taught by Shelia Rittgers, this class will introduce participants to the concepts of machine embroidery, the capabilities and limitations of the machine, and how to take care of it. Participants will also create a small project to take home with them!
This two-hour class is intended for adults, and registration is required, as spaces are limited. Experience with a sewing machine is highly recommended. Call 314-727-3150 or email reference@ucitylibrary.org to register.
The Friends of University City Public Library will welcome author Dana Delibovi for “Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582): A Poet for the Present Day,” a reading and discussion of her book, Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila. The free program will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23 in the UCPL auditorium.
Sweet Hunter is a collection of Delibovi’s translations of Teresa of Ávila’s poetry, the first by a woman translator, rendered in contemporary English free verse with an ear to the saint’s famously conversational tone. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) was a complex woman: a mystic and monastic reformer; an artist and proto-feminist; a philosopher with a penchant for paradox.
A St. Louis-based poet, essayist, and translator, Delibovi is a 2020 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2020 Best American Essays notable essayist, and co-winner of the 2023 Hueston Woods Poetry Contest. Delibovi is Consulting Poetry Editor at the literary e-zine Cable Street.
This program is intended for adults, but is free and open to all.
The Library will be closed all day Thursday, Jan. 1 for New Year’s Day.
The Library will close at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 31 for New Year’s Eve.
The Library will be closed all day Thursday, Dec. 25 for Christmas.
The Library will close at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 24 for Christmas Eve.
