Vol 9 # 5 February 15, 2025

Knitting & Crochet Circle with Susan Segal, Monday, February 24, 11 am – 1 pm

Join us every second and fourth Monday of the month for a delightful early afternoon of yarn, needles, and good company at our Adult Knitting & Crochet Circle! Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting, everyone is welcome!

Teen Pop Up Crafts Tuesday, February 25, 3:30 – 4:30 pm

Come and hang out and get creative with us every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Teens ages 13 – 18, all welcome. Snacks will be provided

Papercut & Collage - an Inspirational Message, Wednesday, March 12,

 6 – 7:30 pm

Inspired by the work of Lynn Giunta (https://www.instagram.com/lynn_giunta),

We’ll spend some time thinking of positive messages that are meaningful to us and then decorating papers and creating a fun papercut collage to share your reminder with yourself or others. Jeni Paltiel will be leading this workshop, you don't want to miss it! Suitable for all skill levels (beginners welcome), ages 13 – adult. All materials are provided.

Waterwise Gardening and Irrigation Options, Saturday, March 22, 2 – 3 pm

Learn how to conserve water while maintaining a lush, thriving garden in this workshop. Explore plant water requirements, effective soil management, and discover efficient irrigation systems like drip irrigation. Gain valuable insights into selecting drought-tolerant plants and creating a sustainable, water-wise garden that thrives in any climate.

Our gardening programs are made possible through our exciting collaboration with the UC Master Gardeners Program, we're thrilled to work together to help you grow.

Coming soon - Plot Twists & Page Turners: A Piedmont Branch Library Book Club. Every second Tuesday of the month, 6 – 7:15 pm beginning April 8. Come together with your fellow book lovers and discover your next literary adventure.

Class visit on a rainy day

Stay & Play

Full house at gardening workshop

Friends of PAL

Friends of PAL Treasurer’s Report by Joanna Smith, Treasurer

We are happy to report that due to a generous bequest from the Betty Parfitt Trust, our bank account now stands at $30,641.67. This allows us to supplement the programs our library can offer, and our Branch Manager Sabah Abdulla has been adding programming that has become wildly popular. Some examples are a series of gardening workshops through the UC Master Gardeners of Alameda County Program, Knitting and Crochet with Susan Segal, and a Kokedama Workshop through Crimson Plant Shop. 

The Friends of Piedmont Avenue Library (FOPAL) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that supports these and other library activities. Please consider donating to FOPAL to help us continue our support for the library! You can drop off a check at the library or mail it to Friends of Piedmont Avenue Library, 80 Echo Ave. Oakland 94611. You can also donate by credit

card at https://www.friendsofpal.org/donate/.

This is your library! Help us continue our advocacy for the library and our program support! 

Our next meeting will be Tuesday February 25, 6:30 – 7:30 pm, at the library.

FOPAL will host OUSD D1 Board member Rachel Latta at our March meeting.

Libraries are a force for good. They wear capes. They fight evil. …Libraries are the torch of the world, illuminating the path when it feels too dark to see. We mustn’t allow that torch to be extinguished.”

― Libba Bray, Author, Young Adult fiction

A perfect time to visit OPL’s African American Museum and Library,

AAMLO, 659 14th St.

The Oakland Public Library’s African American Museum and Library (AAMLO) https://oaklandlibrary.org/locations/aaa/ is dedicated to the discovery, preservation, interpretation, and sharing of historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.



In addition to its many collections, the AAMLO building at 659 14th Street houses the reference library, a non-circulating collection of resources that is a unique jewel for researchers, students, and anyone interested in African American history. Patrons can access online databases and select newspapers, censuses, and other sources. AAMLO owns about 400 videos and DVDs which patrons can view on-site. Library staff are available to assist with research questions or browsing. 

The Main Library is open after a 6-month closure for construction and and is welcoming us back with activities and fun for all ages. The day of festivities includes programs with unique local organizations and individuals, offering activities including a DJing workshop with KALW's DJ Wonway Posibul, Zumba jam, and poetry reading and workshop with Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Ella Gordon, plus a Lion Dance performance to bring in good luck and prosperity for the new year. In addition, we’ll honor a new public art installation by Civic Design Studio featuring designs from Oakland International High students. For a schedule of events go to https://oaklandlibrary.org.

The Dickens Boy [2020] by Thomas Keneally

Thomas Kineally began publishing his books in 1964. He is a prodigious writer, and he won the Booker Prize in 1982 for Schindler’s Ark [the movie, Schindler’s List, was derived from the Ark]. Three other books were short listed for the Booker. The Dickens Boy is a wonderful book. It is a historical novel with copious research on Plorn Dickens, Charles Dicken’s youngest son, the famous writer himself, his milieu [literati, literati, reformers, empire builders, and his complicated domestic life], and Australian history.

The book starts as Plorn at the age of sixteen is sent off by his father to Australia to make his way in the world and to seek a “steady, constant purpose” and to “apply” himself as a sheep rancher and as a settler. To become a settler, halfway across the world in a colony, was very difficult for young Plorn.  His father was a literary giant and much beloved in England and the English-speaking world. Even 150 years after his death his books continue to be avidly read by serious readers. To live life as a settler halfway across the world in a colony, indeed initially a prison colony, was physically and emotionally trying for the lad. To add to his travails in Australia Plorn found it difficult to live in the shadows of his famous and beloved father. Making it even more difficult, Plorn’s older brother, also sent to Australia by their father, tries to convince Plorn of their father’s perfidy and deceits. Furthermore, his big brother denigrates Dickens père for exiling their mother to penury to facilitate his amorous quests. The two brothers, drawn together by kinship, quarrel incessantly about the true nature of their father. Plorn wants to think the best of his father. In the main, The Dickens Boy is a story of a son and father, of estrangement and reconciliation. It’s also a tale of settler culture, a story of a nation, its myths and violence and coercion upon which a new order was built, with convict labor, bushrangers and land barons. And to that construction there were acts of genocidal violence against the native peoples.

I’ve only read Dickens’ Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities. They both deeply moved me. He was a literary giant and much beloved in England and the English-speaking world. Indeed, his popularity remains great well over 150 years of his death. The thing that surprised me in Keneally’s telling was how deeply Dickens was invested in the British Imperial Project. He sent his sons to serve the empire in Australia and the British Raj. It’s difficult for me to reconcile the two Dickens, one whose believes in the virtues of the British Empire and sends his boys off to early deaths, and a callous philanderer with one who had such manifest sympathies for the downtrodden and underdogs, the victims of the Industrial Revolution.  

By Louis Segal. Louis was born in Oakland, raised his family in Oakland, dropped out of school in 1968, worked many jobs over the decades, dropped back into school in the 80s, got a Ph.D. in history, taught as an adjunct professor from 1993 to 2015. Retired but not withdrawn. 

NEWSLETTERS and SPEAKERS

Piedmont Avenue’s neighborhood organization – PANIL – sends an e-newsletter once a month telling you about what is going on in the community, and, every other month, invites you to an evening ZOOM meeting with a speaker where you can ask questions and take part in a discussion of local issues.

For February, the speaker was our new Councilmember Zac Unger. In the March newsletter, expect an update about plans for the area at 51^st and Broadway. For the April meeting, hear from Piedmont Avenue Elementary School principal, Jan Heeter. 

Sign up HERE https://www.panil.org/newsletter-signup/  to get the free newsletter and be on the PANIL mailing list. 

Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library Board of Directors 2024

President: Ronile Lahti; Secretary: Arleen Feng; Treasurer: Joanna Smith

The Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our tax ID is 84-4203055.

All contributions are tax deductible.

Donate to Friends of PAL