On Friday, May 7, the Indo-Caribbean Alliance presented a program on Celebrating Indo-Caribbean Heritage Month: Using Social Media for Culture, Education & Mobilization. Moderated by Richard David, the program featured presentations by Vinay Harrichan of The Cutlass, Ashley Abdul of Brown Girl Diary, and Aminta Kilawan Narine of South Queens Women’s March, as well as a performance of Shiva Shiva by Davina Singh to music by the Gundecha Brothers.
David explained that Indian Arrival Day takes place on several days in May across the Caribbean, in places such as Grenada, Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname, commemorating the 1838 arrival of Indian indentured servants in the region. Vinay Harrichan, founder and curator of The Cutlass, a social media platform, discussed doing a deep dive into history that is not taught, sharing culture, history, religion, identity, cuisine, clothing, music, and language. He is bringing history to people for the first time and sharing resources that they would not otherwise have access to at no cost. Ashley Abdul is presenting history for a new generation on Brown Girl Diary, which now has 10,000 followers, compared with 900 before the pandemic. While Ashley is based in Canada, fifty percent of her following is in the United States. Ashley wants to present relevant information such as about the community’s involvement in business and what’s happening in Trinidad with gender-based violence, and to provide toolkits to inform and promote action. While she would like to add on-the-ground actions to her social media action, Toronto is currently on lockdown due to the coronavirus. Aminta Kilawan Narine draws inspiration from women’s rights movements to lead the South Queens Women’s March, which promoted the Census and has done street chalking against harassment in Little Guyana. Narine was involved in promoting Black Lives Matter and believes her Hindu faith is a tool for feminism.
When asked to recommend books to viewers, both Ashley Abdul and Aminta Kilawan Narine suggested Coolie Women by Gaiutra Bahadur, while Vinay Harrichan suggested the work of linguist Peggy Mohan. Narine also recommended the true short story collection Trauma by Elizabeth Jaikaran.
The panel recommended the Indo-Caribbean collection at Lefferts Library as an excellent resource for people of Indo-Caribbean descent to access their own heritage. New York City has the largest Indo-Caribbean community outside of the Caribbean and the work of all three panelists as well as the moderator is to fight erasure after 183 years in the Western Hemisphere.
Watch the program here. On Friday, May 14 at 2pm, join us for a second Indo-Caribbean Heritage Month program on Music as Resilience featuring The East Indian Music Academy, 1 Taal Tassa Academy, and Eddie Arjun. Watch live on our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/QPLNYC.
Spotlight on New Books for May/June
We have more new books and these are just a few of them! Enjoy historical novels, nonfiction celebrating Japanese Americans, diverse picture books, and books for teens. Check out our spotlight on books for Pride Month.
May 4, 2021
Great Circle (adult)
by Maggie Shipstead
Starred by BookPage, Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, this is a thoroughly researched novel about a female aviator and the actress who plays her in a Hollywood movie a century later.
May 4, 2021
Hurricane Summer (YA)
by Asha Bromfield
Starred by Booklist and School Library Journal, this novel follows a Jamaican Canadian teen as she travels to Jamaica to visit her father just as a storm settles over the island. The storm upends her relationships and forces her to choose what is important.
May 11, 2021
Facing the Mountain (adult)
by Daniel James Brown
Starred by Booklist and Publishers Weekly, this nonfiction account chronicles the experiences and adventures of Japanese American heroes of World War II.
May 18, 2021
Like a Dandelion (children)
by Huy Voun Lee
Starred by Kirkus, this children’s picture book uses the dandelion’s growth as a metaphor for the adjustment of immigrants to the United States, based on the author’s experiences coming to this country from Cambodia as a child.
May 18, 2021
Tokyo Ever After (YA)
by Emiko Jean
Starred by Booklist and School Library Journal, this is the story of a Japanese American teen who discovers her father is the Crown Prince of Japan and experiences all the life changes that result.
May 25, 2021
A Sitting in St. James (YA)
by Rita Williams-Garcia
Starred by Booklist, Horn Book, Kirkus, and School Library Journal, this masterpiece by the award-winning author explores life on an antebellum plantation in 1860 Louisiana.
May 25, 2021
Memory Jars (children)
by Vera Brosgol
Starred by Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, this is the account of a young girl who tries to find a way to keep all of her favorite things, only to discover that some must be keep in her memory.
June 1, 2021
Sisters of the Neversea (children)
by Cynthia L. Smith
Starred by Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, this is a retelling of the Peter Pan classic with Native American Lily and English Wendy as stepsisters trying to cope with parents who aren’t getting along.
June 8, 2021
The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni (adult)
by Helene Wecker
Starred by Kirkus, this historical novel set in New York and the Middle East explores the beloved characters, a woman made of clay and a creature of fire, from Wecker’s previous novel The Golem and the Jinni.
June 15, 2021
The Maidens (adult)
by Alex Michaelides
Starred by Booklist and Publishers Weekly, this novel centers on a therapist who investigates a women’s secret society at Cambridge University that seems to be connected to multiple murders.
Books for Pride Month
May 25, 2021
The Guncle (adult)
by Steven Rowley
This humorous novel follows the adventures of a gay former sitcom star who unexpectedly becomes the caretaker for his niece and nephew.
May 25, 2021
Pumpkin (Dumplin’) (YA)
by Julie Murphy
An openly gay teen in West Texas makes an audition tape for a drag show and ends up being nominated for prom queen.
Celebrate the women who have shaped you and lifted you up this Mother's Day with our staff book picks. We have books for all ages from children to YA to adults, from novels to memoirs to advice to picture books.
Mother-Daughter Book Club by Heather Vogel Frederick (YA)
Enjoy this seventh volume in the series following a book club, as the five girls in the club spend their last summer together before college.
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta (YA)
Francesca struggles to adjust to boarding school while her mother copes with depression.
Me and Mama by Cozbi A Cabrera (children)
A mother and daughter bond on a rainy day.
My Day with the Panye by Tami Charles (children)
A young Haitian girl learns to carry a woven basket, a tradition she is inheriting from her mother.
Plenty of Hugs by Fran Manushkin (children)
Two mommies have an adventurous day with their toddler.
Your Mama by NoNieqa Ramos (children)
This playful twist on the ‘yo mama’ joke is a celebration of mothers.
Motherhood by Sheila Heti (adult)
A powerful novel about whether to become a mother and how to live.
The Magic of Motherhood by Ashlee Gadd (adult)
A collection offering solidarity with all of the experiences of motherhood.
Sanctuary: A Memoir by Emily Rapp Black (adult)
A lyrical account of grappling with the death of your first child.
Modern Mom Probs by Tara Clark (adult)
A survival guide for twenty-first century mothers.
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation by Anna Malaika Tubbs (adult)
A groundbreaking biography of the mothers of three American giants.
For the fourth year, Queens Public Library has awarded the Go the Extra Mile (G.E.M.) Award to those who go above and beyond in their service and embody the Library’s mission “to transform lives by cultivating personal and intellectual growth and by building strong communities.”
Learn more about volunteer opportunities with Queens Public Library at https://volunteer.queenslibrary.org.
Here are this year’s recipients!
2021 G.E.M. Volunteer Award Recipients
St. John's University's AS-L Program
Bruce Goerlich
QPL Metadata Services
St. John's University Ozanam Scholars Program
Below is our interview with Ozanam Scholars director Carline Bennett and assistant director Fedaling Agwumezie. Learn more about the Ozanam Scholars program.
QPL: Congratulations to you and the St. John's University Ozanam Scholars Program for your 2021 G.E.M. Volunteer Award and thank you on behalf of Queens Public Library for your partnership and helping provide programs and services throughout Queens. What is Saint John's commitment to service?
Fedaling Agwumezie (FA): Working under the mission wing at the University places us in a very integral part of serving communities, connecting with communities, and making sure that we're always asking and answering the question "What might be?". With service, it's really thinking about how we can continue to create sustainable change. What are the outcomes for the impressions and impacts that we're making with individuals and organizations that are seeking to make a change and a long-lasting senior support community? Ultimately, the hope is that we're not going to just step in and play a momentary Band-Aid, but that we're actually wanting to establish something that is going to make a shift in the lives of the people that were connected to.
QPL: What is the Ozanam Scholars Program within St. John’s?
Carline Bennett (CB): We're a program that's really around social justice. Our goal is to provide a platform for students to really critically examine various systemic issues, particularly around poverty, right? We want our students to really take action to advance social justice and we're talking about both locally and globally. We want to make sure this is happening throughout their college career.
We do that in 3 different ways. One of the ways is Vincentian service. That's our freshmen and sophomores going into the communities with community partners for 3 for 6 hours a week. They're looking at issues of homelessness, healthcare, education, poverty, and hunger. We want people to be able to have conversations with people on the ground about what it means from your level to be able to tackle some of these issues.
Another way we really work with our students to understand social justice is through the academic portion. The academic scholarship component is a huge piece. Students take classes and minor in social justice. There's a real academic commitment to saying yes, let's not only talk about social justice and kind of do it by going out there. Let's really look at it academically and examine it.
The 3rd aspect is that global citizenship piece. How can I, as a global citizen, truly understand what it means to help create a just society? What does that look like? Global citizenship doesn't necessarily mean being from a different country. Being a global citizen is having experiences outside of your own lived experience. And how can you better understand and take lessons from what you're learning to apply to your own community or work with them to better understand how to work with them.
QPL:This fall and spring, Ozanam Scholars participated in a 10-week "Introduction to Civic Engagement" seminar conducted by QPL. Can we talk a little about that?
FA: One of the unique things about how they're participating in service during the spring semester is really talking about leadership. How do you start from a shell and creating the seed and then seeing that blossom, and they're having these conversations as freshman today on a local level: what can I do in my community, in my neighborhood, in my locality, on my campus to see and impart change?
QPL: What has been the most challenging part of your work with the Ozanam scholars? What's been the most fulfilling part of that work for you?
FA: The most difficult is easy. It’s not being able to do the direct service and connect in the way that we typically would like our students to connect directly with the community. I think sometimes, in the service that they're in now, it's more about conversing about what could be done. What should be done? What are the strategies in order to really understand community development of social change and social justice? Conversations are one key factor for making change. But the actual key factor, action, is what is missing and I think that is the biggest challenge in the Covid era and the virtual atmosphere.
The most fruitful, though, is that we've continued our partnership. We've continued our collaboration, regardless of what is happening in the world. The foundation of the continued partnership just means that when we are able to come back to doing what we've done before, we're already thinking creatively about how we can continue to expand, and we can really reflect on what we've done. How effective was it and how do we make it better? The continuity of our partnership has been the best part of where we are now. And I'm just excited about how we're going to continue to expand and collaborate in the future.
Congratulations and thank you again to all our 2021 G.E.M. Volunteer Award recipients!
Posts in This Series
The conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd is an important step on the long road towards racial justice. Still, the moment makes clear how much work remains to bring systemic change and ensure that people of color can feel safe and valued.
Through the ongoing equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts we began with our staff several years ago and the President’s Council for Racial Equity we established after Floyd’s killing, as well as through the programs, services, and resources we offer the public, the Library is committed to doing its part to combat racism, promote understanding, create educational and economic opportunities for all, and bring our communities together.
Dennis M. Walcott
President & CEO, Queens Public Library
Michael Rodriguez, Esq.
Chair of the Board, Queens Public Library Board of Trustees
On this day in 1896, Dr. Walter G. Frey and George E. Clay obtained a charter from the New York State Board of Regents for the Long Island City Public Library.
One hundred twenty five years later, Queens Public Library is one of the largest and busiest public library systems in the U.S., consisting of 66 locations that provide free access to knowledge, information, and lifelong learning opportunities in the most diverse place in the country.
That got us thinking: what else happened on this day in history?
- Queens Public Library shares a birthday with Wyatt Earp (1848), William Jennings Bryan (1860), Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren (1891), Philip Roth (1933), Ursula Andress (1936), Glenn Close (1947), and Bruce Willis (1955).
- On March 19, 1911, the first International Women's Day was observed, with over a million people attending rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.
- On March 19, 1915, Pluto was photographed for the first time.
- On March 19, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Standard Time Act, which established time zones in the United States and started the practice of Daylight Saving Time.
- Herman Wouk's novel The Caine Mutiny was first published on March 19, 1951.
- The Academy Awards were first broadcast on television on March 19, 1953.
Our South Jamaica branch holds a Story Book Hour on March 19, 1964.
- On March 19, 1994, the largest omelette in the world (at the time) was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.
- On March 19, 1995, Michael Jordan ended his first retirement from basketball and rejoined the Chicago Bulls.
The Francis Lewis High School Marching Band march past Central Library in Jamaica to celebrate QPL’s 100th anniversary on March 19, 1996.
Last night’s shootings in the Atlanta area, which killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, are another devastating reminder of the year-long rise in anti-Asian acts of racism, hate, harassment, and violence and of the long history of such incidents in our country. These acts are alarming and intolerable. Queens Public Library stands in solidarity with our Asian and Asian American communities, with our neighbors, friends, and colleagues, as we combat bigotry and hate and advance racial equity and inclusion.
Dennis M. Walcott
President & CEO, Queens Public Library
Dear Friends,
Over the past 12 months, our city has lost more than 30,000 people to the coronavirus pandemic, many of whom were residents of the borough of Queens. They were our family members, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, and our essential workers. More than 770,000 people in the city have contracted COVID-19, and all of our lives have changed.
Thousands of businesses, cultural institutions, and theaters closed, and 1.5 million jobs disappeared. The ways we learned, worked, played, grocery shopped, exercised, celebrated, worshipped, and used our public libraries were completely altered. We missed coming together in person with strangers and people we love.
Today, New York City’s Day of Remembrance, marks the one-year anniversary of the city’s first known death from the coronavirus. Queens Public Library joins our fellow New Yorkers to honor those who died from COVID-19 and to share in our community’s grief. To mourn, remember, and reflect on the challenging and painful events of the last year, the Library is observing a day of silence on our social media channels and on the homepage of our website.
As the fight against the coronavirus continues, I want you to know that Queens Public Library will always be here for you. Every decision we have made about our reopening and all the ways our staff have adapted and innovated our programs and services are rooted in our commitment to you—to your health and safety as well as your learning and growth. We will continue to work towards New York City’s recovery, not only by offering information, resources, connectedness, and opportunity to all and gradually expanding services, but also by providing our locations to the City for use as COVID-19 vaccination sites and as rapid testing sites.
With the arrival of spring, the downward trend in COVID-19 cases and fatalities, and the promised vaccination of all Americans by the Fourth of July, I am optimistic that—as long as we remain cautious—better days lie ahead.
Please stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones, and let us always remember the lives the pandemic has taken from us.
Dennis M. Walcott
President & CEO, Queens Public Library
The library’s collections keep expanding! This month, we have adult novels by award-winning authors, biographies of pioneering women in science and sports, fun and adventurous children’s books, an illustrated debut teen novel, and more.
March 2, 2021
Justine (YA)
by Forsyth Harmon
This illustrated debut novel chronicles a teen’s obsession with a new role model – a grocery store clerk who gives her the attention she does not receive at home. Ali’s fixation on Justine, from landing a job to be close to her to taking all of her advice, turns consequential.
March 2, 2021
Klara and the Sun (adult)
by Kazuo Ishiguro
From the Nobel Prize winning author comes a new novel that both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly starred. This novel grapples with the meaning of love through the eyes of artificial intelligence. An artificial friend who is hoping she will soon be purchased narrates, observing everything around her in the meantime.
March 2, 2021
The Committed (adult)
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
This is the sequel to the Pulitzer Prize winner The Sympathizer. It chronicles the main character’s complex life in Paris in the 1980s.
March 9, 2021
The Code Breaker (adult)
by Walter Isaacson
The bestselling biographer tackles the story of Jennifer Doudna, the 2020 Nobel Prize winner who invented CRISPR, the revolutionary gene editing tool.
March 9, 2021
How Beautiful We Were (adult)
by Imbolo Mbue
New York Times bestselling author Mbue returns with a masterful novel about the ramifications of an American oil company’s actions in a small African village.
April 6, 2021
Billy Miller Makes a Wish (children)
by Kevin Henkes
The Year of Billy Miller was a Newbery Honor book. Billy and his family return for rambunctious summer adventures in this companion book starred by Booklist, Horn Book, and Kirkus and illustrated by the author in black and white.
April 6, 2021
Broken (in the best possible way) (adult)
by Jenny Lawson
The bestselling author presents a hilarious, relatable look at her struggles with anxiety and depression. A chronicle of indignities, it was starred by Booklist.
April 6, 2021
Merci Suarez Can’t Dance (children)
by Meg Medina
Starred by Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly, this book heralds the return of Merci Suarez as she takes on seventh grade and learns how to love herself through experiences at home and school.
April 6, 2021
Zara Hossain Is Here (YA)
by Sabina Khan
Zara Hossain is a seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant whose family has waited years for their green card status to come through. Will her problems at school jeopardize the family’s immigration status?
April 27, 2021
Whereabouts (adult)
by Jhumpa Lahiri
Pulitzer Prize winner Lahiri wrote this novel in Italian and translated it into English, giving it a smooth, polished quality. The novel’s narrator is a woman who searches for her place in the world, until a moment at the sea changes her perspective.
Books for Women’s History Month
March 2, 2021
The Soul of a Woman (adult)
by Isabel Allende
In this forthright memoir, beloved novelist Allende explores her feminisim and her career as a journalist, as well as more intimate reflections on the meaning of womanhood.
March 2, 2021
Thrill Seekers: 15 Remarkable Women in Extreme Sports (YA)
by Ann McCallum Staats
This book presents a collection of adventurous role models for any young woman, a blueprint to being bold in the modern world.
Val Walker, a rehabilitation counselor, joined Literary Thursdays recently to talk about her book addressing loneliness and isolation, two timely subjects during the pandemic. She explained that the pandemic tested her to live her book’s advice on how to overcome isolation as she lives alone and lost half her business in 2020. She misses interaction and social contact through work and volunteering, such as smiles, touches, and hugs.
Walker provided statistics and demographics on the loneliness epidemic as it stood before the pandemic. 53% of Americans say they don’t have meaningful conversations on a regular basis. One in five say they don’t have anyone to confide in, a number that has tripled since 1985, when it was one in fifteen. 83% are annoyed when others pick up the phone while talking to them and 45% feel it has hurt their relationships. People are 2X as likely to die if they are chronically lonely and are at greater risk of illnesses including Alzheimer’s, heart disease, anxiety, and depression. On Meetup.com alone, there are 2,000 groups for social anxiety.
During the pandemic, there have been 800% more calls to crisis lines and mental health services. A 31% increase has been reported in anxiety and a 26% increase in depression. Those with disabilities and serious illness are more likely to be isolated as are those who live alone or who have had a sudden income loss. Money, Walker says, isolates, if you don’t have it. Others who are likely to be isolated include full-time caregivers, those in rural areas, people without transportation, those who are grieving, and people who have relocated.
It’s important to understand the difference between isolation, which is a lack of contact, and loneliness, which is perceived isolation. Internal and external factors can keep you from making contact or connecting. Pandemic inertia is real, says Walker, from collective grief and loss of lifestyle and activities. Uncertainty, she says, is isolating. And during the pandemic, when we have no plans, uncertainty is magnified.
Walker’s book profiles fifteen people and tells her own story of overcoming loneliness and isolation after a medical procedure. That experience is what sparked her curiosity about isolation – she says that curiosity and caring can help with isolation. We can transform our loneliness by caring for others. It also can help to find a cause, a purpose or a mission – by volunteering you can find others in common situations. The thing that isolates you, in this way, can unite you. Walker also advocated for support groups where you can find people who understand you. Be pro-active, show up, and keep going. She suggested several sites that can help you get started with volunteering and groups including VolunteerMatch.org, Idealist.org, UnitedWay.org, and Meetup.org. During this time of sensory deprivation, Walker suggested giving handmade gifts, knitting, making clothes, and doing crafts so that those you gift the items to can have part of you that they can touch and enjoy.
Breaking out of isolation takes commitment and courage, but it can be done. Building a support system can be a years-long endeavor, but it is well worth it.
400 Friends and No One to Call: Breaking Through Isolation and Buiilding Community is available as a book and an e-book.