Posts by Kristen, Adult Librarian

White Plains After Hours for Grades 9-12

Friday, June 2, 2023 marked the launch of a new citywide initiative aimed at offering dedicated spaces and events in the evening for White Plains residents in grades 9-12. The Library came together with various City departments and White Plains based organizations after local teens expressed an urgent need for a place to hangout in the evening. White Plains Teen After Hours is a collaboration between ArtsWestchester, the City of White Plains, El Centro Hispano, White Plains Recreation & Parks, the White Plains Youth Bureau, and the White Plains Public Library. City agencies and other organizations are invited to submit their
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Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Short Story Discussion Series: Spring 2024

Join Librarian Barbara Wenglin to explore compelling selections from the rich anthology, New York Stories, ed. by Diana Tesdell, (Everyman’s Pocket Classics, 2011). These vibrant and varied works by acclaimed authors provide a colorful vision of “the city that never sleeps.” A copy of the book is on hold at the Hub/Reference Desk for reading in the Library with circulating copies available to borrow through the catalog. Zoom Register Here for full series and attend when you can. Newcomers welcome! Thursdays from 2:00 – 4:15 p.m. June 6 “The Thistles in Sweden” by William Maxwell (p.213) June 20 – Film
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Categories: Authors & Books, Book Discussion, Events, and Library News.

Cowboy Carter & Black Country Artists

Have you been listening to Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter on repeat since it dropped? Are you interested in learning more about the history of Black Country music and those that inspired Beyoncé to make this album – and in some cases are even featured on it? Then check out our staff-curated list of books, music, and film on the musicians that inspired Cowboy Carter. BOOKS:  ADULT My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future by Alice Randall Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions by Francesca Royster Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

20th Anniversary Slam

This year marks the milestone 20th Anniversary of the Library’s monthly Poetry Slam and to celebrate, the Library will host a special event in April. The Library invites the community to celebrate the Poetry Slam’s 20th Anniversary this National Poetry Month on Wednesday, April 3rd, from 6:00–9:00 p.m. with refreshments, featured performances from Rebecca P. Bruckenstein and Nina Belen Robins, and a Poetry Slam. Registration for those who wish to perform in the Slam start at 6:00 p.m. in the Museum Gallery. At 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium, the two featured poets will perform, and the Slam will start shortly
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Categories: Library News.

NAACP Image Award Nominees

The 55th Annual NAACP Image Award Nominees were recently announced. The winners will be awarded on Saturday, March 16th. Below are a list of nominees that we have available in our collection. Click here for our Libby curated list. Literature Love and Justice by Maya Moore Irons and Jonathan Irons All available formats Lucky Me by Rich Paul and Jesse Washington All available formats Nothing is Missing by Nicole Walters All available formats Our Secret Society by Tanisha Ford All available formats Straight Shooter by Stephen A. Smith All available formats And Then He Sang a Lullaby by Ani Kayode
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Categories: Authors & Books and Library News.

Creepy Chronicles: Deephaven

For the kids looking for more dark and twisted tales, Erika is here to bring you a middle grade scare! Deephaven by Ethan Aldridge All available formats here Ready to have a fresh start in life, Nev accepts a prestigious full ride scholarship to Deephaven Academy. Of course, anything that comes free tends to come at a cost, and for Nev, the trouble has only just begun when they hear sobbing and scratches coming through the forbidden East Wing. Will Nev be able to untangle the mysteries within this boarding school while under the threat of expulsion? Scare Factor: 3
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Most Popular 2023 Checkouts

Below is a list of the 2023 top ten most popular fiction, nonfiction, films, children's books, and YA titles based on the number of times they've been checked out from our collection. We told you what our staff loved last year, well, here's what was most popular among your fellow Library patrons. I'm sure you'll notice a few trends – our patrons really love Colleen Hoover, memoirs, Karen M. McManus, Dog Man, and Disney! Fiction Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (All available formats) Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (All available formats) It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (All
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Meet Erika Peiffer

Please join me in welcoming our newest staff member, Youth Services Librarian Erika Peiffer. What interested you in becoming a librarian? I was working in television news for about four years, but I had the desire to have more of a direct interaction with the community (and maybe a work schedule that did not require me coming in at 3 in the morning). I was always passionate about information and news literacy and a good friend who was working on their Master in Library Science (MLS) encouraged me to look into librarianship. After starting my MLS and changing gears working
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Categories: Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Short Story Discussion Series: Fall 2023

Join Librarian Barbara Wenglin to explore compelling selections from the rich anthology, New York Stories, ed. by Diana Secker Tesdell, (Everyman’s Pocket Classics, c2011). These vibrant and varied works by acclaimed authors provide a colorful vision of “the city that never sleeps” in all its grittiness and glamour “from high life, low life, nightlife, and everything in between.” A copy of the book is on hold at the Hub/Reference Desk for reading in the Library with circulating copies available to borrow through the catalog. Zoom Register Here for full series and attend when you can! Newcomers welcome. Thursdays from 2:00
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Categories: Library News.

2023 Staff Favorites

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year, featuring literary fiction, audiobooks, fantasy, music, and more. It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list, full of lots of surprises, and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy! Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. Fiction Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah All available formats From the opening page you are hooked, violently, by this book. In this dark, dystopian future, prisoners held within the privatized penal system fight to
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Author Seth Zuiho Segall in Conversation

Conversation with Author Seth Zuiho Segall and Rabbi Les Bronstein Tuesday, December 5th, at 7:00 p.m. Auditorium Come to this dynamic conversation to hear about Zen priest and clinical psychologist Seth Zuiho Segall's new book, The House We Live in: Virtue, Wisdom and Pluralism. He will be interviewed by Rabbi Les Bronstein of Congregation Bet Am Shalom in White Plains. About The House We Live In: Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism The values of liberalism, pluralism, and democratic governance are under sustained attack from right-wing Christian fundamentalists, white ethnonationalists, and economic populists. At the same time, liberal democracies are failing at
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Categories: Library News.

Masterwork Conversations Perform 10/29

Back by popular demand as the Friends of the White Plains Public Library's musical offering this fall, Masterwork Conversations will perform a concert on Sunday, October 29th in the Auditorium at 2:00 p.m. Matthew Harrison and Vlada Yaneva perform Art as Antidote to AI. “Art like this is an antidote to AI’s artificial mashups, and demonstrates that all the processed data in the world still needs some ineffable spark of creation to rise above mere machine reproduced patterns. We find in art ourselves, the essence of our humanness, and as we listen we draw closer to ourselves and each other.”
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Categories: Library News.

Terry Kessler Schwarz: “Impressions” Exhibit

Terry Kessler Schwarz Impressions Art Solo Exhibit On display in the Museum Gallery from September 22nd through December 12 In her upcoming drawing and painting exhibition Impressions, Terry Kessler Schwarz will be presenting drawings and paintings of nature focusing on land, sky, water and city life. TERRY KESSLER SCHWARZ is a painter, calligrapher, illustrator, photographer and teacher.  She received her BFA from Syracuse University and MFA in printmaking/painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.  She has also trained at Tyler School of Art (Temple University) in Italy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Parsons School
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Categories: Events, Featured, Gallery, and Homepage.

Iranian Women Speak

Caroline Reddy is a Children’s librarian at White Plains Public Library. Her work has appeared in Active Muse, Calliope, Clinch, CulturalDaily, Grey Sparrow, Starline, and Tupelo Quarterly Review among others.  In the fall of 2021, her poem “A Sacred Dance” was nominated for the Best of The Net prize by Active Muse. A native of Shiraz, Iran, Caroline’s work has also appeared in the anthology Iranian Women Speak (IHRAF)  to raise awareness for #ZanZendegiAzadi, #WomenLifeFreedom movement, in Iran. Her first manuscript Shake the Atmosphere to Reclaim an Empty Moment is forthcoming with Pierian Springs Press. For more information please click
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Categories: Authors & Books, Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

Staff Summer Reads

Looking for an exciting book to read on a plane or train, listen to on a car trip, or just enjoy at home? Checkout one of our staff recommendations below. We've got something for everyone – mysteries, memoir, graphic novels, fantasy, cookbooks, and more! Do you have a summer reading you'd like to share? Leave us a comment below. Adult Fiction Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li Library Catalog A blockbuster action heist adventure that's also an examination of the pressures faced by the children of immigrants, Chinese American identity, the fears and questions that college students face
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Categories: Authors & Books and Library News.

Short Story Film Discussion

Join White Plains Librarian and Fulbright Scholar Barbara Wenglin via Zoom to explore compelling selections from the rich anthology, Stories of Fatherhood, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell (Everyman’s Pocket Classics, c2014).  In varied settings and cultures, the collection gathers more than a century of timeless stories about having, becoming, loving and losing fathers. A copy of the book is on hold at the Hub/Reference Desk for reading in the Library with circulating copies available to borrow through the catalog. Zoom Register Here for full series and attend when you can! Thursdays from 2:00 – 4:15 p.m. June 15 Zoom Film
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Categories: Library News.

2023 Foundation Gala Photos

The White Plains Library Foundation hosted its first gala in several years, attracting a strong showing of Library supporters. Held on Saturday, March 25th, the Gala, entitled Celebrating the Freedom to Read, addressed censorship and book banning. After dinner on the Library's first floor, attendees headed to the auditorium to honor White Plains resident Oren J. Teicher, former CEO of the American Booksellers Association, Board member of National Coalition Against Censorship, and 2019 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. In keeping with the theme, the Foundation also welcomed special guest
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Categories: Events and Library News.

“The Gratitude Project” Exhibit

Artist: Hilda Green Demsky “The Gratitude Project” Painting and Poetry Exhibit Interpretive oil paintings inspired by responses of 36 United States Poets Laureate to The New York Times inquiry “What people in their State would be thankful for” during the Covid pandemic. Demsky's exhibit will be on display in the Library's Gallery from April 3rd through May 25th, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 15th, from 2:00–4:00 p.m. Demsky will also give an Artist's Talk on Sunday, April 23rd at 3:00 p.m. This exhibit is part of the Library's celebration of National Poetry month. When thirty-six United States poets
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Categories: Gallery and Library News.

Women’s History Month Books & Films

Celebrate Women's History Month with one of our staff selected books and films. See our staff curated Libby list here. Books She Came to to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar Library Catalog: Print / CD Audiobook Libby: eBook / Audiobook National Book Award nominee Erica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the
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Categories: Authors & Books and Library News.

Kanopy Goes British

Looking for some of the best of British programming? We know how popular British TV series are, especially mysteries. So we’re very happy that the streaming video collection Kanopy is adding many new titles from the BBC Studios. To access the new BBC Studios collection, just go here. What will you find? The Inspector Lynley series, the classic Father Brown, the very popular Death in Paradise, Maigret, and more. Plus science fiction, thrillers, and comedy. So make a good strong cup of PG Tips, crack open a box of shortbread biscuits, and let it snow!
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Categories: Featured and Library News.