Senior Citizen

Neng Now: Speaking with Music

This program will introduce attendees to Hmong music and what makes it unique. Hmong music is the last surviving musical language in the world. It is able to mimic Hmong speech by using musical intervals, ornamentation, and chords to mimic linguistic tones, consonants, and vowels. This enables Hmong musicians to speak with music. As such, Hmong music not only gives us a window into where music and language meet, but also into the ability of human brains to assign and attribute meaning and significance.

Banned Book Club: The Bluest Eye

Celebrate Banned Books Week with the Carpe Librum Book Club as we discuss Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. According to the American Library Association, Morrison's 1970 debut was the third most challenged book of 2022, with 73 different challenges being brought against it in schools and libraries around the country. Join us for a discussion about this classic and other banned books at our monthly meeting. Copies of the book will be available for check-out at the circulation desk beginning September 1st.

Panel Discussion on Intellectual Freedom and Censorship (Banned Books Con)

Join us for a panel discussion on the principles of intellectual freedom. This event will kick off Banned Books Week, a celebration of the freedom to read hosted by public libraries throughout Dane County. 

Moderator: Bianca Martin, host of City Cast Madison (Best Podcast of Madison 2023)

Panelists:

Dr. Ashley White, Asst. Professor at UW-Madison and Inaugural Education Fellow for the NAACP

Erick Plumb, Director of Waunakee Public Library

Brittany Gitzlaff, Children's Librarian at Waunakee Public Library

Louis V Clark III (Two Shoes) Author Visit

Louis V Clark III (Two Shoes) was born and raised on the Oneida Reservation in northeastern Wisconsin. He turned to poetry to continue the oral tradition of his people. Clark's unique voice takes readers on a deeply personal and profound quest through his life while he discovers fro himself what it means to be an American Indian.

No registration is required.

A live stream will be available here for those who cannot attend in person (link will be added on E.D. Locke Public Library's website on the day of the event).

Paul Robeson: Ballad of an American

Paul Robeson -- Ballad of an American is an excerpted reading in performance of Sharon Rudahl's beautiful work Ballad of an American: A Graphic Biography of Paul Robeson (2020), edited by Paul Buhle and Lawrence Ware. Interspersed with Robeson's own music and words, beginning with an eleven-minute excerpt of his compelling interview before HUAC (House Un-American Activities Commitee), it uses the frank, direct writing, and imagery of Rudahl.

Indigenous Feminism: Stories of Identity and Stereotypes

A panel of Indigenous women and femmes from throughout the Midwest will talk about their leadership roles and work in the community as well as the challenges of Indigeneity in colonized society. The goal of this program is to address stereotypes of Native femininity and these connections to the international epidemic of MMIW (missing and murdered Indigenous women). Registration is not required, but sign up here for an email reminder if you like.