Join us for a family-friendly demonstration of a 1,400-year-old Japanese drumming technique named after the “big fat drum” at the center of the thunderous music, and stick around afterward to try your hand at taiko!
The event is free and open to all, and will take place in the parking lot at 6900 Delmar Blvd.
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Join us for our final discussion of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, covering parts 4-6 of the novel. The event is free and open to all, and will take place in the auditorium of our permanent location, 6701 Delmar Blvd.
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Join us for our second discussion of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, covering parts 2 & 3 of the novel. The event is free and open to all, and will take place in the auditorium of our permanent location, 6701 Delmar Blvd.
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Join us for our first discussion of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, covering part 1 of the novel. The event is free and open to all, and will take place at the former University United Methodist Church (across the parking lot from our temporary space).
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Join us for a Japanese tea ceremony presentation by Yuko Kitajima, Director of the Japan America Society of St. Louis. Learn about the complexity and simplicity of Japanese spirituality and the historical and cultural significance of Chado over a bowl of Matcha tea prepared just for you. The event is free and open to all, and will take place at the former University United Methodist Church (across the parking lot from our temporary space).
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Pick up your books and meet your fellow readers! Then stick around for a keynote presentation from Elizabeth Eckelkamp, Teaching Professor Emerita in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The keynote presentation will start at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to all, and will take place at the former University United Methodist Church (across the parking lot from our temporary space).
Eckelkamp earned an MA in Asian Studies, with a focus on Japanese language pedagogy and Classical era Japanese literature, at Washington University in 1991, and soon after joined the Japanese language faculty there. In 2000, she was invited to lead a new Japanese program at UMSL, helping build the program to a total of 27 majors available today.
In addition to language curriculum development, Eckelkamp also designed and taught a number of Japanese literature and culture courses in English, including Classical Japanese Literature and The World of Genji. Honored and excited to partner with the University City Public Library on the 2023 Big Book Challenge, Eckelkamp looks forward to exploring The Tale of Genji with a broad audience.
This program is presented as part of the 2023 Adult Summer Reading Big Book Challenge, featuring The Tale of Genji and The Priory of the Orange Tree. For more information, visit our Adult Summer Reading page.
Please join us at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 20 for an online visit from New York Times bestselling young adult author Courtney Summers about her newest book, I’m the Girl.
Thrill on every page, I’m the Girl follows sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis after she discovers the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James and teams up with Ashley’s older sister, Nora, to find and bring the killer to justice before he strikes again. But their investigation throws Georgia into a world of unimaginable privilege and wealth, without conscience or consequence, and as Ashley’s killer closes in, Georgia will discover when money, power and beauty rule, it might not be a matter of who is guilty—but who is guiltiest.
I’m the Girl is a masterfully written, bold, and unflinching account of how one young woman feels in her body as she struggles to navigate a deadly and predatory power structure while asking readers one question: if this is the way the world is, do you accept it?
Register now!
Join us at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 10 for an online evening with celebrity comedian and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jena Friedman In this event, she’ll discuss her debut collection, Not Funny, which takes on the third rails of modern life in Jena’s bold and subversive style, with essays that explore cancel culture, sexism, work, celebrity worship, and…dead baby jokes. In a moment where women’s rights are being rolled back, fascism is on the rise, and so many of us could use a breather as we struggle to get by, Jena applies her unique gifts to pull a laugh from things deemed too raw, too precious, and too scary to joke about. She shares her stories of taking on those who told her she was too brash, edgy, and “unlikable” to make it. She deftly dissects how we get coerced into silence on the issues that matter most until they’ve gone too far afield to be turned back around again. And she shares her struggles to make it (-ish) in a world that, more often than not, would rather tune out than listen to a woman confronting the indignities we’ve been told to bear.
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Join us at noon on Wednesday, May 3 for an online event with author Britt Hawthorne as they discuss building an antiracist family environment. Raising antiracist children is a noble goal for any parent, caregiver, or educator, but it can be hard to know where to start. Let Britt Hawthorne — a nationally recognized teacher and advocate — be your guide.
Hawthorne’s book Raising Antiracist Children is an interactive guide for strategically incorporating the tools of inclusivity into everyday life and parenting. In her book, Hawthorne breaks down antiracist parenting into four comprehensive sections, and in this webinar, you will learn about: healthy bodies, radical minds, conscious shopping, and thriving communities. Raising Antiracist Children is a must-have, practical guide essential for parents and caregivers everywhere.
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Join us for an online evening with New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger as he discusses his newest book in the Cork O’Connor series, Fox Creek, and his numerous other works.
Fox Creek follows Cork O’Connor in a race against time to save his wife, a mysterious stranger, and an Ojibwe healer from bloodthirsty mercenaries. The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters fill the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to the healer for shelter and the gift of his wisdom. Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on. He knows only too well that with each passing hour time is running out.
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