Beat the Heat with BPL
Emily Chao
This post was written by Emily Chao, who is completing a marketing internship at Brooklyn Public Library. The summer is off to a sweltering start, but don’t let the heat stop your fun. If you’re looking for a place to cool off and enjoy eclectic activities from fitness classes to live performances, be sure to check out Brooklyn Public Library! Live PerformancesBPL hosts great artists all summer long, and the performances are free for everyone! Enjoy outdoor evening shows with BPL Presents on Central Library’s Plaza, including musical performances like the charismatic music and…
POTW: Love of Line, of Light and Shadow: The Brooklyn Bridge
Kevina, Center for Brooklyn History
The Poetry of Hip-Hop
What counts as poetry? Is it always tidy print marching down the path to find two roads diverging in the woods then stopping to wait for a death metaphor? Is it a barbaric yawp from the best minds of your generation from a poet who doesn’t even know it? What if we went beyond the confines of Western Lit 101 to uncover poetry that resonates with us now? At the most fundamental level, hip-hop and poetry both play with sound, turning them into meaning and then back to sound again, declaimed alone or to the sound of a drum machine or coiled inside a catchy song, verse/rhythm/rhyme from Tupac…
The Method I Like to Use for Songwriting
Nora Levy
As a vocal student at LaGuardia High School, songwriting is one of the things I am grateful to be able to do. While I really have no idea if the songs I write would make it to the top 100’s list, I still have my own way of creating them. Songwriting is a process that can branch out in any direction possible. Maybe it will begin with the music, and then the lyrics. Maybe your song was originally just a title before you added any lyrics! You will eventually find your own way of making music, and to help you out: this is what I like to do. Additionally, songwriting advice isn’t just…
Earth Works: Books, Music, and More for our Planet
In honor of our March 13 concert with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, "Earthworks", we have put together a list of books and more to get you thinking about the intersection between music, nature, and climate change. Silences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska by John Luther Adams is a meditative memoir about the composer’s time in Alaska, in which he reflects on friendship, music and art, framed by a landscape facing a climate crisis. But you don’t have to travel so far when thinking about the natural world. It can be easy to overlook the vibrancy of urban…
The Grammys are a Scam
Awa Diawara | Librarians of Tomorrow Intern
If you watched this year’s Grammys like I did, chances are you were also angered by who received the pop duo performance award. Nominated for the Best pop/duo performance were: J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny & Tainy- "UN DIA (ONE DAY)" Justin Bieber feat. Quavo- "Intentions" BTS - "Dynamite" Lady Gaga with Ariana Grande- "Rain On Me" Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver- "exile" Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande won for“Rain On Me.” No disrespect to those AMAZING artists. However, BTS’s "Dynamite" had so many more achievements than "Rain On Me." "Dynamite" was on top of the charts for…
Learn Hip Hop with Dyalekt!
Calling young hip-hop enthusiasts! Now's your chance to get the basics on how to drop your rhymes. Join us for two classes with educator and performer Dyalekt. On the first session Dyalekt will teach you the basics. Then on the second session you can try out what you learned! Registration required, this event holds up to 15 people. This event will be held over Zoom, registrants will be emailed a link prior to the event. Please call librarian Eric Horwitz if you have questions: (718) 398-8713. This program is brought to you by a generous grant from the Kaplan Fund. …
Quarantine with the DeKalb Library Staff
These past few months have been very strange, indeed, as we’ve adapted to staying apart but working together on library projects virtually. One of the ways the staff of DeKalb Library has been able to feel connected is through having virtual meetings with our colleagues on Zoom and nurturing the friendships that are very strong in the branch. In between talking about important library matters, we’ve found ways to talk about what we’re reading, watching and listening to, and the other ways we’ve been trying to take care of ourselves and feel "normal". Some of us find that we’re reading…
Don't Stop Celebrating Black Music Month
The history of Black music in America is essentially the history of American music. From blues, ragtime and gospel, through jazz, soul, rock and roll, funk and reggae, to hip hop, house, techno—not to mention the significant contributions of African-Americans to traditional genres such as musical theater, opera, classical symphony, and choral music—the African diaspora originated and shaped the development of all of the wonderful and diverse music enjoyed here and across the world today. This incredible heritage developed, moreover, despite facing legal and societal injustice and a scandalous…