Programs & Exhibits | Hartford Public Library

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Programs & Exhibits

The Library offers free public classes, programs, and exhibitions at its 10 locations throughout the city of Hartford. Below is a selection of upcoming events.

Jump to: Programs / Adult Learning / Exhibits

To submit a public program or exhibition proposal, click here.

Pasos & Connections Salsa Dancing to Relational Wellness with Rey & Glendaly Bermudez of the New Narrative, LLC

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

First Thursdays: November 1, December 6, January 3, February 7, March 7, April 4

Downtown Library, Atrium, 500 Main Street, Hartford, CT

More than just a dance class, Pasos & Connections uses Latin partner dances like Salsa, Merengue, and Cha Cha as a means of developing healthy relational connections. All are welcome... come by yourself, as a couple, as a family...all ages welcome. No experience necessary, no registration required. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes.

Family Holiday Concert

Wednesday, December 19, 10 am - 12 noon

Downtown Library, Atrium, 500 Main Street, Hartford, CT

The Sam Pasco Trio will play a wide selection of holiday favorite in a concert designed for the whole family. Call 860-695-6330 for more information. Groups must register.

Looking In: 40 years of student-generated theatre
in the Greater Hartford area
Book Launch with director Jonathan Gillman

HARTFORD HISTORY CENTER
Thursday, December 27, 5:30-7:30pm
Snow Date: Saturday, December 29, 2-4pm

Join Jonathan Gillman and Looking In Theatre alum in remembering and celebrating 40 years of impactful student-generated theatre in the Greater Hartford area. Books will be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served.

Jonathan Gillman is the director of the Looking In Theatre, which has now been in existence for more than forty years. Gillman works with teenage actors from the Greater Hartford area to create and present short dramatic scenes about difficult issues students face. Most performances take place in schools during the school day to get student audiences to reflect on how students really feel, respond, and think through different challenging situations. The book Looking In is a reflection that bears witness to the students – the difficulties they’ve gone through, as well as their hard work, courage, honesty, vulnerability and how actors can tap into their power to look fearlessly at their own lives, to change them, and to share with others, inspiring students in every audience to make better decisions and to change their own lives.

Kwanzaa Festival 2018

Saturday, December 29, 12 noon - 5 pm

Hartford Public Library, 500 Main Street, Downtown Hartford

Join us for a unique celebration of family, community and culture. Hartford Public Library's Kwanzaa celebration will include a traditional Kwanzaa ceremony, African drumming and dancing with Sankofa Cultural Arts and Sistah Nandi and Inara Ramin & Piragramac Cultural Arts, story-telling with with Andre Keitt, a jewelry workshop with Jackie Bright, a soul-food dinner and much more. Free and open to the public.

African American Literature Book Club

Monthly 1st Tuesdays

6-7:30 pm, Ground Floor, Downtown

September 4th - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

October 2nd - Another Country by James Baldwin
November 6th - Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

The AAL Book Club is for anyone interested in reading and discussing African American literature, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as sharing information and learning about the African American experience. It is an opportunity for us to get to know each other while we engage in lively and stimulating discussion of topics of interest to us all.

Please RSVP to Carolyn Korber at cjkorber@gmail.com.

GAMES!

Tuesdays 5-8PM, Thursdays 11AM-2PM
Downtown, Main Floor

Weekly games! Activities include board games, puzzles, arts and crafts, jumbo games, marble mazes, cards, and more!

UConn Writing Center

Room 23, Ground Floor
Noon to 4 pm
Every Saturday, Starting in September 2018

The Hartford UConn Writing Center is available to writers of any skill level working on any kind of project. Visitors will receive an hour of one-on-one discussion about their project, their goals, and how their current material fits those plans. We are consultants who want to offer our experience as writers and readers to any who would like guidance, support, technical assistance, or anything else to do with growing as a writer.

Please note the Center is on hiatus Summer 2018 until September.

Our Advisors:

Brianna McNish is a third-year Honors student at the University of Connecticut studying English with concentrations in Creative Writing and Teaching English. She is currently the fiction editor at Long River Review.
Jacob Horn is an Assistant Professor of English in Residence at the University of Connecticut. He has taught classes on academic writing and worked as a coordinator for creative writing groups and writers.

Toastmasters

Monthly 2nd, 3rd, 4th Tuesdays

6-7:45 pm, Classroom 140
Main Floor, Downtown

Do you need help speaking in public?

Toastmasters International can teach you to give a speech that is organized, has vocal variety and is inspirational. By regularly giving speeches, gaining feedback, leading teams and guiding others to achieve their goals in a supportive atmosphere, leaders emerge from the Toastmasters program. Every Toastmasters journey begins with a single speech. During their journey, they learn to tell their stories. They listen and answer. They plan and lead. They give feedback—and accept it. Through our community of learners, they find their path to leadership.

No registration necessary

Poets on Poetry Series

The Connecticut Poetry Society's monthly poetry book discussion is free and open to the public.
For further information, visit www.ctpoetry.net.
To nominate a poet for discussion or volunteer to moderate, contact:
Christine Beck
christinebeck90@gmail.com
860-655-3263

Upcoming dates for 2018:

June 30, 2018: Billy Collins. Poet Maria Sassi will moderate.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS:

ART WALK

ArtWalk at Hartford Public Library offers one of the largest and most stunning exhibition spaces in greater Hartford and the opportunity for Hartford residents and others to view art in a magnificent setting in our city.

Urban Legends of Modern Archaeology
Rashmi Talpade

January 11 – February 24, 2019

Opening Reception:
Friday, January 11, 5:30 p.m.

“Urban Legends of Modern Archaeology” follows the urban legends of industrial relics and abandoned factories as they merge with nature’s relentless march across manmade waste and environmental abuse. It reflects our world in normal day-to-day photographs of seemingly ordinary objects, where our not so recent past collides and merges with our constantly changing environment today. Modern Archaeology is a narrative of our previous and current successes that, while coexisting together, differ in many different ways. One time icons of success, large manufacturing facilities, which have fallen into disrepair are just a few miles away from modern office buildings in suburban business parks. While the environmentally friendly highly automated office complexes seek to preserve our planet, the factories of the past ignored the environment but provided jobs and livelihoods to ordinary people. These different ideas indicate changing times, shifting dynamics and complex issues which we as a country have to deal with in the future.

Special thanks to Bank of America and the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation for their support of the 2018-2019 ArtWalk season.

In Honor of African American Veterans:
The Costen Cultural Collection

3rd Floor Glass Cases
On display through December 14, 2018

Collector Bill Costen’s new exhibit includes hundreds of photos, articles and other memorabilia drawn from the Costen Cultural Collection. Step back in time and saddle up with the legendary Buffalo Soldiers of the Old West, fly over the skies of World War II Europe with the famous Tuskegee Airmen and ride the rails with the iconic Pullman Porters. “In Honor of African-American Veterans” will be on display through December 14.

Chief Teale's The Tools of Learning

Tutorials across library branches available upon request

Join Charles S. Teale, former Chief of the Hartford Fire Dept. to learn strategies on how to learn, understand, and remember information for academic and professional success. Program is for beginning to advanced readers 18+.. Register: jeagosto@hplct,org or 860-695-6367.

To view a video version of the presentations, watch them On Demand at http://www.hpatv.org/vod/. Click "Playlists" and then find "Chief Teale's The Tools of Learning."