Vol 9 # 9 June 15, 2025

Budget Summary for Oakland Public Library (OPL) FY25 -27

by Jamie Turbak, Library Director

• OPL’s General Purpose Fund budget was reduced by approximately $890,000 in year 1 and year 2 of the biennial and costs were transferred to Library funds Measures C and D.

• OPL’s total General Purpose Fund budget is approximately $11.7m each year, which is $2.8m below the minimum maintenance of effort (MOE) requirement of $14.5m for Measure C. OPL’s FY2025-2027 General Fund appropriation represents 1.43% of the City’s total General Fund budget.

• In past years and in this budget cycle, OPL utilized Measure C and D reserves to cover General Fund costs without impacting service. However, this practice cannot be sustained in future budget cycles without reduction to services.

Friends of PAL

FOPAL Meeting June 24, 6:30 - 7:30 pm at the library,

 80 Echo Ave.

At our June meeting we will discuss how the city's budget deficit will impact the Oakland Public Library and our branch.

And, we'll brainstorm ways to more effectively publicize OPL's summer programs. Please join us.

Insect Discovery Lab

Hana Baba shares Folktales from Sudan

Toddler Storytime, every Tuesday, 

10:15 – 10:30 am

Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years. Stay and Play after Storytime with fun age-appropriate toys through 11:15 am.

Knitting & Crochet Circle, every second & fourth Monday, 11 am – 1 pm

Join us for a delightful early afternoon of yarn, needles, and good company. Everyone is welcome!

Plot Twists & Page Turners: A Piedmont Branch Book Club, July 8, every second Tuesday, 6 – 7:15 pm

Come together with your fellow book lovers and discover your next literary adventure at our monthly Book Club, facilitated and led by Angie McGowan.  Everyone is welcome to join and share their current reads or just hang out and chat about books in general.

More Events -

Chair Yoga, Monday, June 16 & July 30, 10:15 – 11:15 am

Chair yoga is designed for those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. Learn from a certified yoga instructor how a daily practice will improve your strength, flexibility, and balance.

Cunamacué: Family Dance Program, Wednesday, June 18, 6 – 6:45 pm

This intergenerational class is an introduction to Afro-Peruvian culture through dance. Cunamacué contributes to a more just world by amplifying the history, culture, voices, and ideas of African descendants from Peru.

Build Make Play/Construir Hacer Jugar, Saturday June 21, July 5 &

July 19, 10:30 – 11:30 am

Join us for an afternoon of hands-on activities. Make something new every week.



Pop and Go Puppets, Wednesday June 25, 6 – 6:45 pm

Get ready for laughter and puppetry magic with Jason Adair and his Pop and Go Puppets! Perfect for kids and their families, this engaging show combines wit, humor, and the timeless charm of puppetry.

Baby Bounce & Baby Café, Thursday June 26 & July 31,

10:15 – 11:15 am

Baby Bounce is a short and gentle storytime made just for babies. It is a special time to wiggle, rhyme, and bond with your little one. After the stories, hang out at Baby Café where grownups can chat and little ones can explore with toys, music, and sensory fun. Everything is relaxed, cozy, and friendly for babies from birth to 18 months.

Pollinators, Saturday June 28, 2 - 3 pm

Attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to your garden oasis. Discover plant selection, layout design, and nurturing practices that encourage these beneficial creatures to flourish in your garden sanctuary.

Unique Derique, Wednesday, July 2, 6 – 6:45 pm

The Bay Area's beloved Unique Derique teaches the African roots and rhythms of Hambone body percussion and its evolution in America in this lively presentation and performance.

Mr. Elephant/Señor Elefante, Wednesday, July 9,

6 – 6:45 pm

Mr. Elephant is an Oakland-based speech therapist who makes music for little language learners (and big ones too!) alongside his hilarious gang of puppets!



Árabe: Songwriting Workshop with Amanda Ekery, Friday, July 11,

3 – 4:30 pm

Join vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Amanda Ekery and her band for a songwriting workshop! This workshop will focus on using research and personal history to write music. Participants will leave the workshop with a short song they have created, along with tools and tips to continue songwriting. For ages 15 and up.

Oakland Animal Services Dog Adoption, Saturday July 12, 11 am - 1 pm

Are you looking to add a furry friend to your family? Join us for a Pup-Up Adoption Event. We’re partnering with Oakland Animal Services to bring adoptable dogs directly to the community. If adopting on-site, the adoption fee will be waived and they will process the adoption that day

East Bay Vivarium\ Vivero del Este de la Bahía, Wednesday July 16, 6 – 6pm

Experts from the East Bay Vivarium will share some of their scaly friends and teach us about the fascinating world of reptiles, amphibians, and bugs. 

Teens: Duck-o-Rate (decorate a duck), Saturday, July 19, 2 – 3 pm

Come decorate a rubber duck to join our traveling duck art gallery showing off the work of creative teens from all OPL branches! Choose from a variety of supplies to make your duck look their best.  

Teens: Make Tiny Art, Tuesday, July 22, 3 -- 4 pm

Come in and make a mini masterpiece for our virtual tiny art show, featuring tiny paintings by teens all around Oakland! No registration required, all teens welcome. All supplies will be included!

Little Explorers Petting Zoo, Thursday July 24, 2:30 – 4:15 pm

Visit the cute and cuddly animals from the Little Explorers Petting Zoo. This is a popular event for the whole family.

Mike The Magician/Mike el mago, Wednesday, July 30, 6 – 6:45 pm

Mike Della Penna creates wonder and laughter with family magic performances that are equal parts playful and astonishing.?

Celebrate pride all year long at OPL!

https://oaklandlibrary.org/lgbtqia/

Discover new LGTBQIA+ books for all ages at Your Library. Find history, multi media and LGBT Videos on Kanopy

Our Avid Reader is on a leave of absence & the Bookworm is kindly filling in.....

The Book Worm Recommends



 "The Military Philosophers" by Anthony Powell

Like Being in A War

I was recently reminiscing about “The Military Philosophers” the ninth novel in Anthony Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time.” That grand work deserves more attention than it gets these days.

There’s a section of the story I vividly remember when the narrator of the series is serving in a group coordinating with Liaison Officers of Allied and neutral countries during World War II. He is in London, living alone in a hotel room, isolated from his family. Life is periodically interrupted by exploding bombs, V1 rockets, later V2s. In one scene, he’s on the roof doing “fire duty,” watching three rockets approaching in the distance, vividly described as dragons. Friends are killed by bombs in London, others die in combat on the front lines, others on secret missions. He is living a life of danger, tedium, and tension.

I read those books not so long ago, when we all went through Covid. Those days and months were a time of anxious impatient isolation, somehow similar to Powell’s war. Our time now, a time of chaos, each day filled with new incomprehensible pronouncements from our federal government, also seems somehow similar. Also somewhat like a time of dragons.

Powell’s writing is eloquent, often comic. He works in a bureaucratic world, sometimes visiting a fearsome obstructor “down into the bowels of the earth, the caves and potholes of the basement and subbasement, an underground kingdom. It might have been thought that Mime and his fellow Nibelungen haunted these murky subterranean regions.” 

In the last chapter of “The Military Philosophers” the war ends in victory. The narrator supervises foreign Liaison Officers in a ceremony of thanksgiving at Saint Paul’s. The battle with Covid finally subsided. It’s not clear what we have to look forward to in the next three years of this administration. The story of the Nibelungen to which Powell refers does not have a happy ending. We need to keep struggling. We need to keep up our courage. But I may be looking over my shoulder for dragons from time to time.

By Peter Sownie, a retired gentleman who lived in the Bay Area for 56 years, 35 of them working for large banks, while somehow remaining a basically good person. It has been rumored that he is now living the Northeast Wisconsin on an island in Lake Michigan

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