Blog posts

You can remember all of the exciting things that happened at the Library this year with the top twelve Queens Public Library Magazine articles of 2019!

(That's right, it was such a busy and eventful year for us, we couldn't pick just ten!)

From our Black History Month passport challenge to our first robotics competition for kids, from the launch of our new name and our Renewed Promise to the Public to our JetBlue Soar with Reading vending machine, from a hip hop monuments exhibit to the opening of our new library at Hunters Point, relive our best moments from this year.

You can also catch up on new books that are at the Library with articles about their authors, some of whom visited us this year, including Kwame Alexander, David W. Blight, and Wayétu Moore.

For additional library news, book recommendations, and more, read all of our back issues.

Here is the full list of 2019’s top articles:

• Sarah Smarsh: An Experience That All People Deserve (January/February 2019)
• Wayétu Moore: Working Towards Representation in Literature (March/April 2019)
• Walking Through Queens: Helina Cheung’s Passport Challenge Journey (May/June 2019)
• Queens Library Goes Public as We Renew Our Promise to Our Customers and Communities (May/June 2019)
• Kwame Alexander: Books Should Be Both Mirrors and Windows (May/June 2019)
• Empowering Young Robot Builders (July/August 2019)
• Small NYC Museums Worth Visiting This Summer! (July/August 2019)
• JetBlue Brings Soar with Reading Program to Queens Public Library (September/October 2019)
• Don’t Miss These Hip Hop Monuments at the Library! (September/October 2019)
• Hunters Point Library is Open! (November/December 2019)
• A Conversation with David W. Blight, Author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (November/December 2019)
• Margaret Wilkerson Sexton: A Calling That Will Take the Edge Off (November/December 2019)

George Ford, a pioneering children’s book illustrator who received the first Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, reflects on his life in publishing and growing up in the immigrant community of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Ford visited Langston Hughes Library this year to give a talk, emphasizing that the library is always the best place to start if you want to learn new things about yourself.

“I explored new worlds in the library on Stone Avenue, finding not only books but music from all over the world on recordings and tape,” he recalls.

Ford, who is in his nineties, says that before 1950 discrimination against blacks in hiring, renting, or selling houses in certain neighborhoods also applied to jobs in publishing. “No black characters appeared and no blacks were hired,” he says. Ford’s first job was with a greeting card company, where he drew Santa Claus and scenes for Christmas cards.

In 1965, he was encouraged by a Brooklyn Public Library executive to contact Mel Williamson at Viking Press, who was the only black art director at a major book publisher. Ford says that Viking’s editor-in-chief, Velma Varner, was very responsive to the push for more racial diversity in their children’s books. “I was not famous and I did not have a portfolio of printed samples of published work, but I did have lovingly done drawings of two well-known personalities and two of children from my neighborhood–each of a different race,” he says. Williamson encouraged and affirmed Ford’s talent.

Ford says he is very proud to have received the first Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration: “I did not take it as a personal triumph, but rather as a symbol of our collective black pride. It also suggested to me that perhaps I had been successful in creating a work, Ray Charles, that was of great inspiration to black children.”

As an illustrator he has “always admired the expansive and heroic world created in the paintings of N.C. Wyeth and the urgent, restless, and unsettling paintings of Jacob Lawrence.” Ford also commends Brian Pinkney and Javaka Steptoe for “having developed their own distinctive styles after growing up under the influence of such legendary talented fathers as Jerry Pinkney and John Steptoe.”

Today, he says that a noticeable development in publishing has been the rise of independent publishers, such as Just Us and Lee and Low, whose lists are “specifically aimed at and represent racial and ethnic so-called minorities.” It is because of them, he believes, that “a black art student today can realistically expect to pursue a career portraying black life in children’s books.”

Reading is an important part of his work as illustrator. As he explains, “I could not illustrate a book without soaking up the meaning of it by reading—and rereading—the manuscript, as well as everything I can find out about the subject of the book.”

Ford, an avid reader, advocates that people surround themselves with others who will lift them up. He believes that “people who really appreciate you will help you to appreciate yourself for who you are” but also that “confidence in yourself is necessary to achieve anything.”

“Honor your personal thoughts and feelings, even if others don’t agree with them,” he says.

Here is the Library's holiday schedule for the end of December 2019. (Please pay special attention to our opening hours on December 24 and 31. Happy Holidays!)

All Queens Public Library locations will close at 1PM on Tuesday, December 24.*

• Central Library and Flushing Library will open at 9AM on Tuesday, December 24.
• Our other branches will open at 10AM on Tuesday, December 24.*

All QPL locations will be closed on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25.

All Queens Public Library locations will close at 1PM on Tuesday, December 31.*

• Central Library and Flushing Library will open at 9AM on Tuesday, December 31.
• Our other branches will open at 10AM on Tuesday, December 31.*

All QPL locations will be closed on New Year's Day, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. Happy New Year!

* Queens Public Library for Teens, at 2002 Cornaga Ave. in Far Rockaway, is closed on December 24, December 25, December 31, and January 1.

These shoppers look happy to be on Jamaica Avenue during the Jamaica Day sales in October 1957. This is one of the many images available from Queens Memory.

Queens Memory, a project supported by Queens Public Library and Queens College, and focused on collecting personal histories, photographs, and other records, has been awarded the 2019 Debra E. Bernhardt Annual Archives Award for Excellence in Documenting New York’s History by the New York State Archives and the Archives Partnership Trust.

The annual Archives Awards program, which takes place every October during American Archives Month, recognizes outstanding efforts in archives and record management work in New York State.

Since its inception in 2010, the Queens Memory project has collected more than 500 oral histories of residents, ranging from teens to people in their nineties and hailing from over 50 Queens neighborhoods, digitized over 17,000 items, including photos and various documents, and produced a podcast featuring the highlights from its oral collections.

Thanks to Queens Memory and other projects awarded this year, “New York’s documentary resources will be well managed, appropriately preserved and effectively used for generations to come,” State Archivist Thomas Ruller said in a statement.

Browsing the Queens Memory collections is like time-travelling through the vital and diverse neighborhoods of the borough and personal stories of their residents.

They include interviews with immigrants from more than 23 countries who have found their new home in Queens, such as a story of an Indian woman struggling to adjust to a new culture or an interview with two brothers coming from generations of jewelers in Uzbekistan. A separate section is dedicated to food and culinary traditions in Queens.

The project also documents how Queens has changed over the years, featuring memorabilia from two historic World’s Fairs, and pictures of rural Queens from the early 20th century and of Bayside, home of the U.S Army base at Fort Totten, during World War II.

It shows Long Island City decades before its skyline has filled with newly built residential towers and photos of shoppers in Jamaica in the 1950s, when the neighborhood had three department stores and was a booming commercial hub.

Here are some of the new books coming to the Library for adults, children, and teens—from investigative reporting to thrillers to fantasy.

November 5, 2019
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez (children)
by Andrea Beaty
In this picture book, Sofia Valdez’s grandfather injures himself at a local landfill, inspiring Sofia to want to turn the landfill into a park.

November 5, 2019
Kiki & Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship (children)
by Marie Kondo & Salina Yoon
New York Times bestselling author and tidying guru Kondo brings her method to children, who discover that things are starting to get in the way of their enjoyment of each other’s company.

November 5, 2019
The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness (adult)
by Susannah Cahalan
Kirkus starred this tour de force of investigative journalism by the memoirist behind Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness.

November 5, 2019
The Toll (YA)
by Neal Shusterman
Book 3–and the finale–of the New York Times bestselling Arc of a Scythe series is by the author of more than thirty books and winner of the National Book Award. The novel explores how a world that has conquered death will survive the immortal beings who now dominate it.

November 5, 2019
Winterwood (YA)
by Shea Ernshaw
From the New York Times bestselling author comes a dark fairy tale, the love story between a boy who goes missing in a magical forest and a witch who tries to figure out how he survived. As she investigates, she comes close to unraveling the boy’s own secrets.

November 5, 2019
The Revisioners (adult)
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Sexton’s debut novel was longlisted for the National Book Award. In her second book, the lawyer-turned-writer explores relationships between generations of women in the American South, pondering what we receive as our cultural inheritance.

November 25, 2019
Ali Cross (children)
by James Patterson
New York Times bestseller Patterson has sold more than 100 million copies of his Alex Cross series. This new book for children brings the family saga to another generation. Ali, Alex’s son, sets out to find his missing best friend, while his father faces a trial for a crime he didn’t commit.

November 26, 2019
Under Occupation (adult)
by Alan Furst
The master of the historical spy novel returns with a thriller about French resistance fighters during World War II. Protaganist Paul Ricard is a novelist who receives a mysterious document from a dying man whom the Gestapo was chasing.

December 3, 2019
The Sacrament (adult)
by Olaf Olafsson
Starred by Kirkus, this topical novel set in Iceland is a gripping account of a nun’s investigation into misconduct allegations at a school and the ramifications the inquiry has decades later in the life of one of the students.

December 3, 2019
Genesis (adult)
by Robin Cook
New York Times bestselling novelist Cook’s latest thriller examines the use of DNA from ancestry websites to solve crimes–in this case, murders. The book investigates the death of a young social worker that at first seems to be a drug overdose, but upon closer examination, seems suspicious.

Books for Veterans Day

Thank You for My Service
by Mat Best
This humorous memoir from a five-tour Army Ranger who is also a YouTube phenomenon was a New York Times bestseller.

Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future
by Pete Buttigieg
Starred by Booklist, this is the memoir of presidential candidate Buttigieg, who also served a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan as a counterterrorism specialist.

Nancy Cafferty and Dr. Raana Mahmood.

The library changes lives—as evidenced by the experience of Dr. Raana Mahmood, who recently stopped by the library to show off her new book about surviving sexual abuse in Pakistan.

The book, The Courage to Say No: A Pakistani Female Doctor’s Battle Against Sexual Exploitation, written with John DeSimone, was published in September by Skyhorse.

Mahmood came to the United States fearing for her life—and struggling to get by. She says she faced domestic violence in her marriage and sexual harassment in the workplace, eventually having a nervous breakdown before arriving in New York.

“The library was nearby. I searched through the Internet where I could spend time,” says Mahmood, who was used to going to libraries as a child in Pakistan.

She discovered the Job & Business Academy at Central Library in 2009, where she met Nancy Cafferty, a career coach who helped Mahmood work on a resume, her first in the United States. “She introduced me to a lot of other opportunities and resources. It looked like a door was open to America,” says Mahmood.

“Raana was just trying to get a job and a room that she could call her own, her first small step forward. I feel elated that she found us,” says Cafferty, who Mahmood calls the most supportive person she’s ever met.

Cafferty encouraged Mahmood’s efforts to write a book to tell her story, sharing with her resources and the idea of connecting with a ghostwriter. Years later, the two women reunited at the library to celebrate Mahmood’s success as an author and advocate.

Mahmood, who practiced both gynecology and geriatrics in Pakistan, wants to practice medicine again, so she is currently studying to qualify as a doctor in the United States.

Come to the JBA today to work on your resume and get help with your job search.

Watch our video with Nancy Cafferty and Dr. Raana Mahmood.

Have you heard of Giving Tuesday? It’s a global movement that has unleashed the power of people and organizations over the past seven years to transform their communities and the world.

On December 3, 2019, everyone is encouraged to embrace their generosity and to give, collaborate, and do good, especially in their own community.

If you want to help Queens Public Library continue our mission of offering free access to great programs and services, transforming lives, and building strong communities in Queens and New York City, we hope that we can count on your support on Giving Tuesday!

Here’s how you can help QPL on December 3:

Our #GivingTuesday 100 Gift Challenge: We are asking 100 people to make a special, tax-deductible gift of any amount to the Queens Library Foundation on Giving Tuesday. If you would like to be one of those 100 donors, visit https://queenslibrary.org/givingtuesday on December 3.

Create a Facebook Fundraiser: Visit the Queens Public Library Facebook page and click on the “Create Fundraiser” button near the top. Select “Queens Library Foundation Inc” to create a fundraiser for the Library and share it with your friends. Plus, Facebook will match $7 million in donations first come, first serve on December 3, starting at 8 am ET! For more information about Facebook fundraisers, visit https://www.facebook.com/fundraisers.

AmazonSmile: If you shop online during the holidays through AmazonSmile, you can choose the Queens Library Foundation and your purchases will help support the Library. For more information about the AmazonSmile program, go to http://smile.amazon.com/about.

Share our social media posts: Visit our Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages on December 3, and share our posts and tweets about #GivingTuesday with your friends and followers. It’s an easy way to help spread the word about giving to the Library that day.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Queens Public Library, and we hope that we can rely on you on Giving Tuesday!

Queens FEASTS is Queens Public Library’s FREE training program to provide knowledge, tools, and resources to people who want to start and run their own food businesses in Queens.

Several talented students have graduated from Queens FEASTS, and we’re very pleased to share their holiday recipes with you!

PS: Until this year, Queens FEASTS was known as Jamaica FEASTS. We also have graduates' recipes from last year, and we hope you will enjoy those too!

Gul Gula (Guyanese Fried Donuts)
from Nellie Dimont, Spice Shanty

“As a young child, the holidays were a time when family from all corners would come together to celebrate with festive music, lots of dancing, and a wondrous spread of delicious food,” says Nellie Dimont, the personal chef who describes her catering business Spice Shanty as “a journey into the world of Caribbean cuisine with a bite of spice.”

“My favorite was gul gula, a fried sweet donut made with raisins and flavored with a hint of almond extract. My cousins and I would dance around the feet of our Aunty May, anxiously waiting for her to drain these donuts onto a paper towel so we could eat them nice and hot. As fast as she would prepare them, we would steal them and eat them before she was able to dust them with sugar. I hope you enjoy my recipe!”

Ingredients (12 pieces/serves 4 people)

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 ⅓ cups evaporated milk
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• ⅓ cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon pure almond extract or vanilla extract
• ½ cup white sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar set aside in a mesh sieve for dusting
• 2 cups vegetable or corn oil

Directions

• Add flour, milk, baking powder, egg, raisins, vanilla or almond extract, white sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Mix into a thick batter and let rest for at least 5 minutes. (Your batter can be made 2 hours ahead of time.)
• Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat to 350 degrees F (5-10 minutes). To test if the oil is hot enough for frying (if you don’t have a food thermometer), place a small scoop of batter into the oil. If the oil begins to bubble around the dough, then it is hot enough and you can begin frying.
• Using two tablespoons, scoop the batter with one spoon and use the other one to help drop the batter into the oil. Add 2-3 scoops of batter at a time. The gul gula will puff up and rise to the top of the oil.
• Using a slotted spoon (wooden or metal), turn the gul gula in the oil until they are golden brown, approximately 2-4 minutes on each side. If the donuts are cooking/browning too fast, lower the heat and cook them more slowly.
• Place donuts on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain excess oil.
• Dust donuts with confectioners’ sugar. Serve warm.

Please prepare all recipes at your own discretion; Queens Public Library is not responsible for accidents, allergic reactions, or illnesses that occur because of preparation.

Queens FEASTS is Queens Public Library’s FREE training program to provide knowledge, tools, and resources to people who want to start and run their own food businesses in Queens.

Several talented students have graduated from Queens FEASTS, and we’re very pleased to share their holiday recipes with you!

PS: Until this year, Queens FEASTS was known as Jamaica FEASTS. We also have graduates' recipes from last year, and we hope you will enjoy those too!

Vegan Red Velvet
from Julie London, Sweetly Inspired NY

“The inspiration for my food business is my love of desserts and great meals,” says Julie London, the owner of Sweetly Inspired NY, her independently operated baking and catering business.

“Being a lifelong Queens resident, I know that the borough of Queens (as well as the whole city) is rich with international culture. During the holidays in our household, we enjoy many dishes, however due to food allergies there have been some restrictions for some of our guests. But this Vegan Red Velvet has become a staple on our holiday table, since it is dairy-free and delicious to both vegan and nonvegan guests. I hope you enjoy it!”

Ingredients (serves 8-16)

• 2 cups plus 4 tablespoons cake flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup vegan buttermilk (1 cup of coconut or nondairy milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice; see directions below)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 bottle of vegan food coloring (29 ml; McCormick’s is vegan)
• Vegan Cream Cheese Icing
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons vegan butter (Julie uses Earth Balance)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla (or flavoring of your choice; many flavorings are vegan)
  • 3 tablespoons nondairy milk (Julie uses coconut milk)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Sift flour into a bowl, then add the other dry ingredients to the flour.
• Make Vegan Buttermilk: mix coconut or nondairy milk and lemon juice together. Let sit for a few minutes until it thickens/curdles.
• Add buttermilk, vanilla, olive oil, white vinegar, and food coloring to dry mixture. Mix for approximately 2 minutes, removing any lumps.
• Place mixture in two prepared (greased with butter or nonstick spray and dusted with flour) 6-inch or 7-inch pans.
• Bake for 28-30 minutes; use a knife to check the center of the cakes. If it comes out clean, they are done.
• Let cakes cool completely on cooling rack, then frost.
• To Make Icing: add powdered sugar, vegan butter, flavoring, and milk together in a bowl, and whip until they are incorporated (evenly mixed). Add more milk or sugar to reach desired consistency.

Please prepare all recipes at your own discretion; Queens Public Library is not responsible for accidents, allergic reactions, or illnesses that occur because of preparation.

Queens FEASTS is Queens Public Library’s FREE training program to provide knowledge, tools, and resources to people who want to start and run their own food businesses in Queens.

Several talented students have graduated from Queens FEASTS, and we’re very pleased to share their holiday recipes with you!

PS: Until this year, Queens FEASTS was known as Jamaica FEASTS. We also have graduates' recipes from last year, and we hope you will enjoy those too!

Sweet & Spicy Seasonal Chili
from Samantha “Chef Little Bit” Davis, Taste Buds Matter

“When I cook for myself, or for my customers, I often realize that it’s never a vegetable that we don’t like, but the way it was prepared,” says Samantha Davis, a private chef and caterer who specializes in vegetarian, vegan, kosher, gluten-free, and Rastafarian diets, as well as the food needs of older adults and children.

“This recipe’s flavor profile combines elements from many cultures, and it should be agreeable to anyone’s taste. (The peak season for sweet potatoes is late October through December!) Chili can be one of the best wholesome healthy meals, affordable and shareable. It’s universal, one meal that anyone can call their own. Please enjoy this recipe, and don’t be afraid to recreate it to your taste. My motto is: A recipe has no soul; as a chef, I must bring the soul to the recipe.”

Ingredients (serves 12)

• 1 sweet potato, diced into cubes
• 1 can kidney beans (15-16 oz., drained)
• 1 can chickpeas (optional; adds more fiber and protein)
• 1 can tomato sauce (8 oz.)
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 2 plum tomatoes, small diced
• 1 jalapeño, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup water
• Spices (to taste, and depending on your dietary needs): garlic power, cumin, chili power, oregano, basil, brown sugar

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, combine the oil, sweet potato, cilantro, and jalapeño. Cook on medium heat for 7 minutes.
• Add spices, and then add onions. Stir together. Let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
• Add all beans. Stir together. Cook on medium heat for 7 minutes.
• Add tomatoes and tomato sauce. Stir together, and season to taste.
• Add water, and let simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, or until it reaches your desired thickness.
• Adjust seasoning to your liking and serve with rice, quinoa, potato buns, or crackers.

Please prepare all recipes at your own discretion; Queens Public Library is not responsible for accidents, allergic reactions, or illnesses that occur because of preparation.