Good News

Episode Transcript

[Student and teacher speaking in Russian]

Krissa Corbett Cavouras This is the sound of a Russian conversation class at the library.

Adwoa Adusei You’re hearing instructor and librarian Liana Alaverdova ask Ann, one of her students, about her favorite school subject.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras It’s art, if you don't happen to speak Russian. We got to sit in on a few of the language classes at the library recently, and asked the students, who were zooming in from across the city and the country, about why they joined.

Cedric Menya zovut Cedric. Ya zhivu v severnoy karoline. 

Liana Please speak in English! [laughs]

Cedric My name is Cedric. I live in North Carolina. 

Margaret My name is Margie or Margaret and I live in Staten Island, and people come up to me in stores and speak to me in Russian. It’d be very useful for me to answer back.

Cedric Moya devushka, my girlfriend, my partner, is Russian. And I’m wanting to increase my Russian level so we can have a conversation outside of “what’s your name…” and I look forward to this class every single week.

[People speaking in Russian]

Adwoa Adusei That was Liana’s Russian class. We also got a chance to sit in on a French class, too…

Athena Angie, comment vas-tu?

Angie Très bien. Très bien.

Athena Je vais très bien.

Angie Je vais très bien.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras And, a Spanish class.

Students Hola, todos! Hola, Carolina! Yo nació en Guyana. Ahora yo vivo en Brooklyn.

Teacher Como están?

Student Bien, señorita Trini.

Teacher Bon semain.

Students Bon semain. A vendredi. Bon semain.

Teacher Au revoir!

Students Au revoir! Au revoir! Au revoir, Virginia!

Virginia Merci! [laughs]

Adwoa Adusei It’s so nice to hear different languages! I mean, it kind of reminds me of eavesdropping on a crowded city street, or being in an airport, oddly enough. I think I really miss traveling.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Yeah, that feeling of being around strangers, right? And one of the constant things in these classes was the smiles on people’s faces. People were talking to each other, even if it felt a little awkward, and they were learning new skills, and that feels kind of rare these days.

Adwoa Adusei Absolutely. It’s been a rough year. That's an understatement. So, we thought it’s about time we heard some good news.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras That's right. Today, we’re bringing you all the good news we could find, to brighten your podcast feeds. I’m Krissa Corbett Cavouras.

Adwoa Adusei And I’m Adwoa Adusei. You’re listening to Borrowed: stories that start at the library.

[Music]

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Okay, Adwoa, I have the perfect good news story for you. Are you ready?

Adwoa Adusei I'm ready.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Okay, we're going to set the scene. This is a very familiar sight to many parents and teachers at this point: a kid on Zoom, futzing with his Zoom background.

Elizabeth Jason, you’re on the beach? 

Jason Yup, let me change something. Wait, I'm going back.

[laughter]

Stefanie Sinn Oh now he’s in space!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, from his home (or from outer space, depending what's on the background), Jason has joined one of our library programs called “Read to a Therapy Dog.” On the other Zoom screens are BPL librarian Stefanie Sinn, and, Zooming in from Brooklyn, Angel, an eight-year-old, sixty-five pound Shepard mix who, today, is wearing reading glasses.

Jason Um, I’m Jason, I’m seven. I like space a lot. I read to myself, but now I read to Angel and I love it, because I love dogs. We’re starting at the first page, Angel!

Elizabeth Ears up! Okay, she’s ready for you.

Jason [Reading: "Chapter One: A Day at the Beach. When people say something is a day at the beach, they usually mean ..."]

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, you're hearing Jason beginning to read to Angel. And, Elizabeth, Angel’s handler, is raising Angel’s ears, and maing her wave her paw. So, when Jason has finished his ten minutes, Elizabeth brings out a piece of string cheese.

Elizabeth Thank you Jason! 

Jason You’re welcome.

Elizabeth What is next now? What does she get?

Jason Hmm. A treat?

Elizabeth Oh yeah. Thank you for coming again!

Jason Thank you, bye! 

Elizabeth Great job!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras The next young reader is already in the Zoom waiting room. Elizabeth shifts Angel back into position so that she’s looking at the camera, and six-year-old Zekai comes on screen.

Zekai I’m Zekai Ada. You can see it on the screen, basically.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras These kids have gotten so good at this. It was Zekai’s first time reading to a therapy dog. 

Elizabeth Show to Angel the book. Oh look at that, Angel, look at that!

Zekai Aw, she has doggy glasses!

Elizabeth Okay Angel, ears up! Okay, she’s ready. 

Zekai [Reading: "Oi Frog. Sit on a log, said the cat. But I don’t want to sit on a log said the frog. Logs are knobbly and uncomfortable, they can give you splinters in your bottom."]

Krissa Corbett Cavouras [Laughs] That's pretty great.

Adwoa Adusei This is the cutest thing I’ve heard all week. Tell me more about Angel.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, Angel has been coming to the library since 2016. This dog is a pro at this. The program, “Read to a Therapy Dog,” it used to be in-person, and kids got to pet Angel and sit down with her to read. And, it was a great program for young readers who maybe aren’t used to reading out loud or have trouble with the confidence. So, this is how Elizabeth puts it.

Elizabeth The goal is to love reading, so the dog will not judge the child in case they make a mistake or skip a word. And, it's to build up the confidence and they can read aloud. Dogs know more about people than we do. So, they know when somebudy is under stress, and they know how to get pet, give some love, you know. It’s part of their mission in life, I would say. 

 Adwoa Adusei It’s really amazing that this program has been able to transition to Zoom!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Definitely, and, it's not innate for dogs. Just like humans, they find it really hard to sit in front of a screen for a long time.

Elizabeth I have to put a piece of cheese, something behind the computer, so that she can look. For the dog, it’s very, very hard because this dog has to sit there for an hour without moving. We spend two hours and a half off leash in the park every day. We used to walk like ten miles a day. 

Adwoa Adusei Oof. That puts me to shame. That’s a lot of exercise.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras I know, I really feel like I should pivot my lifestyle to be more like Angel's. You know, exercise, books, cheese snack, repeat. Angel’s been a therapy dog for six years, and not just at libraries. Through the organization Pet Partners, Angel visits hospitals and schools, and has even worked the New York City marathon three years in a row. Librarian Kat Savage is the other coordinator of BPL’s "Read to a Therapy Dog" program, and she talked about how eager kids are to read to Angel.

Kat Savage So, if if it's a picture book, a lot of times they'll take the time to to point out something, you know, that they love in the book and get into it. One thing that I think parents can sort of take away from this, too, is sort of creating these opportunities to read together and be read to and taking turns reading to each other. So, you don't really need to have the dog to practice this type of of encouraging reading.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras But, if you do have a young reader who wants to meet Angel, she Zooms in to the library once a month these days. So, we’re going to link to the next “Read to a Therapy Dog” program on our show notes. 

Zekai Bye-bye, Angel! 

Elizabeth Say good-bye!

Zekai You look so cute. Bye!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras [Laughs] So cute.

Adwoa Adusei Um, so I don't know if I cam compete with how cute that story was. But I do have another good news story for you. During this year, we’ve heard a lot about folks who are more isolated than ever before. When the world transitioned online, older adults were one group who were at risk of being cut off entirely from their communities.

Judith Blaise Well, in the beginning, we were a little lost as for what to do, because we thought it was just going to be two weeks.

Adwoa Adusei This is Judith Blaise, the coordinator of Books-To-Go.

Judith Blaise But as it got progressively worse, we started calling our homebounds to make sure they were okay, to let them know what was going on. And then we developed a telephone buddy where we paired staff with homebound seniors who wanted to have somebody to talk to regularly.

Adwoa Adusei Since May 2020, the services for older adults team has been calling the same 98 patrons every week to check in on them. They’ve also sent out masks and free food vouchers to homebound patrons, which the library defines as people who are confined to their homes even before the pandemic, and who have a visual impairment or a physical disability that limits their ability to handle standard printed material.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras So, what were those homebound patrons saying at the beginning of all of this?

Adwoa Adusei Judith said they missed the library and the books, but mostly, it was human interaction they were missing.

Judith Blaise They they miss having conversations about books, interacting with people, but they were strong. The consensus was they’re strong. And it was nice to hear that there're fighters, they have always been fighters, and they'll continue to be fighters.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras You know, you rarely hear older adults referred to as fighters, but I think Judy is right. 

Adwoa Adusei Definitely. As soon as the library started connecting on the phone with patrons again, they were asking for certain books to be set aside for them so that when the library opened up again, they would be sure to be able to read the books on their lists. And that’s just what happened. By November, Judith and her team were back at New Utrecht, mailing books to patrons who cannot otherwise get things to read.  And, Services for Older Adults has transitioned to online programming as well. Lyman Claybourn, the coordinator of Services for Older Adults, says that it took a lot of teaching, but they figured it out.

Lyman Claybourn I myself had taken some calls from patrons where I literally had a cell phone on one hand and a laptop on the other hand, and they are on a landline on one hand cell phone on the other hand. And we're walking right through doing a virtual program.

Adwoa Adusei So, we've had creative writing classes on Zoom, chair yoga classes, Latin dance classes … and older adults tuned in from as far away as the Midwest and even Argentina.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Wow.

Lyman Claybourn These became pretty much socialization and therapy session, really, for a lot of our older adults. We would have some older adults that would come literally straight from a memorial service or a funeral last year to these programs. Specifically, I'm thinking of a patron named Fay, who's around 92 years old, and her husband sits there with her, even though he is a victim of Alzheimer's disease. He sits right there with her. He may not understand what's going on, but she says he's happy when he's watching the activities.

Adwoa Adusei So powerful. And, like Judy said, older adults are fighters — they’re resilient. Judith talked about how wonderful it was to see patrons 90 and older adapting to the times and learning new technology.

Judith Blaise We have a patron who is about 103 this coming week. Her daughter got her an iPad in hopes that she would learn how to download books and read books online. And she mastered it at 103. She was able to do it. So she goes to the Brooklyn Public Library website, downloads her books, but she comes back and says, as much as I appreciate using the software, she said, I'd much rather have a book. So she couldn't wait for us to open so that she can go to her her book and actually feel the book and turn the pages and read the book.

Adwoa Adusei I have to say, I prefer a physical book, too. 

Krissa Corbett Cavouras I like both, but, it’s so wonderful to see older adults learning new technology skills… and, there are other reasons to learn how to use Zoom. Because sometimes, it’s the only way older folks can connect with kids and grandkids this year.

Adwoa Adusei Yes — and that leads me to the next good news story. This one is about another population that might find it hard to access a virtual community right now: babies!

[Toddler Emma singing "My hands wave hello."]

Adwoa Adusei That is the sound of one of our youngest patrons, Emma, a toddler, singing a song she learned at a BPL program called Brainy Babies, which is an early literacy program for babies and their caregivers. 

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Aw, she’s so cute!

Adwoa Adusei She really is. We interviewed Emma’s parents, Terrice and Jens, on Zoom the other day. Terrice and Emma have been attending Brainy Babies pretty much since the program switched to being held online. 

Terrice I actually didn't have a library card because we just moved here about a month before everything shut down. I went on the events page and I was like, let me see what kind of events they have. And I clicked through and saw that there was Brainy Babies, so I decided to check it out. We've been going every day ever since, as a matter of fact, there was one day where we had a dentist appointment scheduled and I just pulled it up on my phone in the waiting room. 

Adwoa Adusei Terrice spoke about how much of an impact the program is having not only on Emma but also the family’s sense of community in their new city.

Terrice Three weeks after we started Brainy Babies, they were about to go on Thanksgiving break. And so we were all saying by everybody on the call was waving bye bye bye. And Emma was like, no, no, no, don't don't go. And the screen cut out and she started crying. And I was like, oh, my God, I didn't know that it was that impactful for her. They really single you out, they ask you how you're doing, they call the children's names. It really makes us all feel like we're a part of it, you know?

Adwoa Adusei Emma and Terrice aren’t just regulars at Brainy Babies programs. Now they’re also sharing their skills with the Brainy Baby community

Krissa Corbett Cavouras I heard you mention that little Emma helps teach the group American Sign Language from time to time?

Adwoa Adusei True! Revere Joyce, the Early Literacy Outreach Associate and a Brainy Babies coordinator, said that Emma will often teach other babies a word in ASL. It's a skill she has from her family’s multi-lingual background.

Terrice I'm trying to teach her Spanish and also sign language. And she gets German from her dad.

Adwoa Adusei And because the program is now virtual, Jens’s family can join in all the way from Germany, 

Terrice Like ten minutes beforehand, like walked them through how to install Zoom, trying to figure out how to rename them and all that. And that was that was definitely a nice experience. I saw his mom dancing.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras I love that. The library is always connecting communities and families across generations, but now we are connecting them across countries even! 

Adwoa Adusei Next up is a story that connects neighborhoods right here in Brooklyn, right Krissa?

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Yes! This is a the ultimate feel good story. we’re about to hear from one Florida couple who met at the library: BPL’s Eastern Parkway branch, in the late 1960s. I’m going to let Dennis and Angela tell it. We talked to them a couple of weeks ago on the phone.

Dennis Ashwood Oh, I was probably sixteen, seventeen, a junior or sophomore in high school. I was leaving one date and got caught in the rain and decided to walk into the library, and that’s where I saw Angie. She was on a ladder stacking books, and I saw her legs and I said oh my God, what a beautiful lady! Her legs got me right away.

Angela Ashwood I had a part-time job after high school when Dennis walked into the library. It was amazing because when I looked at him, I said, oh my God, I had a funny feeling inside of me. And then the next day, he came back again and I looked at him and I said, I’m definitely going to marry him. I don’t know where it came from, but it just came out. I was just in the 10th grade. Never had a boyfriend before, but I said this was it.

Dennis Ashwood I probably said, I’m going to marry you. I think that was probably the first or second thing that I said to her. A little presumptuous on my part, but I saw her, and I instantly fell in love with her. And, came back a couple times to talk to her. And, from that, we’ve been together since then. Actually, she lived on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. I lived in Brownsville, and I made the daily trek from Brownsville to the library to see her. 

Angela Ashwood He has a dynamic smile. Even up to now, even today, his smile is very … how can I put it? Very comforting. And he’s very pleasant, he’s always very pleasant.

Dana Ashwood This is their daughter, Dana. I just wanted to add something that I think they have overlooked. They’ve been very modest, but I think they forgot to mention their families and the coincidences that existed before they actually met that day in the library. My dad came from Costa Rica and my mom came from Panama. When they first moved to the US, living in Brooklyn, they were both living in Bed-Stuy, a block away from each other and didn’t know each other. But even prior to that, back in Panama, my dad’s side of the family and my mom’s side of the family knew each other. So, our families go back generations, way before they met that fateful day at the Brooklyn Library.

Angela Ashwood For me, it was just meant to be that day. It was just a weird feeling that I had. And so far, life has been good. He’s the same person I met 49 years ago, has not changed.

Dennis Ashwood And actually, I don’t even remember the girl I was dating before I met Angie. 

[Laughter]

Adwoa Adusei That was almost as good as dogs on Zoom!

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Okay, so we have time for one more feel-good story — what do you have for me, Adwoa?

Adwoa Adusei One of the coolest bits of BPL news from this year, hands down. The library now has a poet-in-residence! The first ever to claim the tile is Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, and we got to talk to him recently about what it feels like to be BPL’s official poet this year.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson Hi I’m Cyrée Jarelle Johnson. I am the inaugural poet in residence at Brooklyn Public Library. I am also the author of Slingshot which is my debut book of poetry, released in 2019 by Nighboat Books. And, I’m also an erstwhile librarian. For years, the Brooklyn Public Library has sort of been an unofficial office for me. I completed a lot of the book at the Brooklyn Public Library. a lot of the research for the book was through the Brooklyn Public Library. I started working in libraries when I was thirteen years old, reading to young people. And I was a latch key kid growing up so when my mother was at work I would need to be out of the house, so I would go to the library by me, And the librarians took me in. They were like, I think you should read this book. I saved this book for you. And it was a very friendly kind of attention. So I feel like I became fond of librarians and saw really what they did from a very young age.

Adwoa Adusei After college. Cyrée went to library school, and he ended up working at the AIDS Library in Philadelphia, where he said he met a lot of people who influenced the way he thought about activism, language, and identity.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson You know, its a public library. It’s a public consumer medical library. So I spent the day working with, you know, people who come into public libraries. But, you know, definitely political, folks who have been on the ground as the epidemic began, doing organizing work for decades at the point that I meant them. I can’t even tell you how much I learned from them. Like, I live with systemic lupus erythematosus, and I feel like my time being a librarian at the AIDS library not just changed my idea of what solidarity meant between immunocompromised people, people with diseases of the immune system, but also what it means to be a Black Queer person fighting for your life, organizing to save your life in whatever way makes sense to you.

Adwoa Adusei Activism informs Cyrée’s poetry, too. And, it has special meaning for him that he is BPL’s poet in residence this year, a year that’s seen a growing movement for Black lives, as well as stark health disparities. As part of his poet-in-residence role, Cyrée has been running workshops for Brooklynites over the past few months, and they’ve been very popular, with over 50 people attending some workshops.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson We’re just going through different kinds of inherited forms, seeing how we can mess them up and make them different than they were, and make them serve us, not serve them. And, seeing how it can influence our poetry even if we never write in form again.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras That sounds like a great workshop, and we’ll put a link to the upcoming sessions on our show notes page. Adwoa, did Cyrée have any advice for poets and writers right now?

Adwoa Adusei Yes, actually: basically, really simple, be kind to yourself.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson I think that this is a time for close attention. I mean, if you can read widely, clap it up for that guy. I mean that so sincerely. But my brain stopped working the moment quarantine got serious. If you can read a couple of words that have nothing to do with COVID-19 every day or a couple times a week, good for you. I feel like we should all be easy on ourselves, because capitalism caused this crisis to be like this, and whatever we can do to affort the idea that we have to be productive even under the most dire conditions I feel like is a good thing.

Krissa Corbett Cavouras We'll put a link to Cyrée's poetry and his book on our website. And, Cyrée created a book list for this episode made up of some of his favorite books, which he checked out right here from BPL. Some — like Lake Michigan by Daniel Barduski and IRL by Tommy Pico — informed his first book of poems, and others —  like Lighthead by Terrance Hayes and How to Carry Water by Lucille Clifton — he read during this past year, a year when reading and writing have been remarkably hard for many of us. You can find all those titles at our website: BKLYN Library [dot] org [slash] podcasts. 

Adwoa Adusei Borrowed is produced by Virginia Marshall and written by Virginia Marshall and me, with help from Fritzi Bodenheimer, Jennifer Proffitt, Meryl Friedman, and Robin Lester Kenton. Our music composer is Billy Libby.  

Krissa Corbett Cavouras Borrowed is brought to you by Brooklyn Public Library and is hosted by me Krissa Corbett Cavouras, and Adwoa Adusei. You can find a transcript of this episode at our website.

Adwoa Adusei Beta listeners on this episode included LaCresha Neal, Melissa Morrone, and Karelisa Kimmel. Borrowed will be back in a few weeks. In the meantime, here’s to all the good news.