Vol 8 # 7  April 15, 2024

Review and Comment NOW on Layout Options for New Library

 The consultant team for the city is still taking comments on the four layout concepts that were presented at community meetings on March 13 and 14. View copies of the architect’s presentation at the library or download it in 2 parts:

Part A shows all 4 options along with rough cost estimates and other project information (6 MB PDF) https://bit.ly/4cvJLnN

Part B shows photo images to inspire reactions about individual spaces (6 MB PDF) https://bit.ly/4cwbXqM 

Send your feedback via

1.  Google survey: https://bit.ly/PiedmontLibMar 

2.  Phone: 510.761.5708



Oakland library staff is working with the architectural team to evaluate the feedback and choose two of these options to develop as alternative proposals for discussion at the final set of community meetings on Wednesday, May 1 (in-person at the Piedmont Avenue Elementary School) or Thursday, May 2 (online). Both meetings will be 6:00-7:30 PM. RSVP at https://bit.ly/4cwaelh

Friends of PAL will keep checking with city staff to see whether there will be further opportunities for comment before the final Feasibility Study report is prepared with the choices narrowed down to one design proposal.

Our current, temporary, library is on the left in this picture. To the right is the abandoned CDC building which could become our new home. Please contact the consultants with your wishes for our new library.

EVENTS at our Library

From Sabah Abdulla, Branch Manager and Nathan Page, Children’s Librarian

Storytime, every Tuesday, 10:15 - 10:30 am, for toddlers and families.

Stay & Play after Storytime for even more fun.

Noel Hassan Unveils “Poetry for Me”: A celebration of Poetry Month and Arab American Heritage, Saturday, April 20, 2 – 3:30 pm

Noel Hassan invites you all into the heart of her poetry during this special event. Noel will weave tales from her book, Poetry for Me, sharing not only her verses but also the profound insights that breathe life into each of her poetic creations.



Don't miss the chance to be a part of this literary celebration with Noel Hassan. Save the date and let the magic of Poetry for Me unfold before your senses.

Knit & Crochet, April 22 & May 13, 11 am – 1 pm

Every second Monday, join us for a delightful afternoon at our Adult Knitting & Crochet Circle. Everyone is welcome as creativity and conversation intwine.

Teen Pop up Crafts Tuesday, April 23, 4:30 – 5:30 pm

Come and hang out and get creative with us every 4^th Tuesday! Teens age 13-18 all welcome. Snacks will be provided.            

Belly Dance Performance with Nicole Maria! Saturday, April 27, 2 – 3 pm

Join us as we celebrate Arab Heritage Month and experience an interactive Arabic-style dance performance with multi-award winning dancer Nicole Maria. Learn the art of Southwest Asian/North African belly dance with Nicole’s performance, which will also end with a belly dance lesson for all!



Gut Health in Action! Saturday, May 4, 2 – 3 pm

Join us and meet Oakland's Alia Fakhry (they/them) from Turnip That Beet! A local Bay Area Lebanese chef, Alia, will talk about the benefits of fermented foods, their cultural significance, and how to incorporate them into daily eating. 

This program is followed by a hands-on workshop where participants get to take home a jar of Sauerkraut!  While we'd love to accommodate everyone, keep in mind that product availability will be first-come, first-served.

Succulent Terrariums, Friday, May 10,

3:30 – 4:30 pm

Create your own Succulent Terrarium with Acta Non Verba..

Drummm, Saturday, May 18, 2 – 2:45 pm

One, Two – Let’s All Drummm! DRUMMM’s Community Rhythm Celebration unites communities, schools, and families through the beat of the drum. DRUMMM’s interactive rhythm events activate community as they entertain, educate, and inspire.

Stay & Play

Soul 4Kidz Family Concert

Knit & Crochet

Friends of the Piedmont Ave Library (PAL)

Join us at our monthly meeting, Tuesday April 23, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, at the library. We will be discussing the Feasibility Study process and background about our long campaign to get the empty CDC building as the permanent home for our library.

Book & Bake Sale, Saturday April 20, Key Route Plaza, 10:30 am – 1:30 pm.

Pam’s Banana Bread, Helen's Olive Oil Brownies, and Susan’s Rugelach are reason enough to visit our table at 41^st St & Piedmont Ave. In addition to those wonderful baked goods, we will be giving away free books for children and raising money with sales of books for grown-ups.



The Friends wants the neighborhood to know about our wonderful library and its incredible programs for children and adults. Events like this Book & Bake Sale spread the word and provide some financial support for our work for a permanent home.

On Friday, April 26 – Sunday, April 28, 2024, members of the Friends of the OPL will get first dibs on inventory and 50% off all purchases. The sale will continue May 1 – 12, with all customers eligible to receive 50% off all

The Bookmark Bookstore is currently located at 721 Washington Street in Old Oakland. The store will be open throughout the sale from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm Wednesdays – Fridays and 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Saturdays - Sundays. For more information, call (510) 444-0473 or email bookmark@fopl.org.

Spray Painting Oakland by Kiara Hunter

One of the new library cards for Teens



New Library Cards with Winning New Designs

Winners of the Oakland Public Library’s Limited Edition Library Card Contest have been announced! The judges selected nine designs with three winners in each category: children, teens, and adults. The highly anticipated winning designs capture the essence of Black artistry, culture, and history, and reflect the vibrant spirit of Oakland. See all the winning designs at oaklandlibrary.org/artcontest/winners.

At some branch libraries you can upgrade your current library card to one of these limited edition designs. the Main and Dimond branches have all the cards. Our Piedmont Ave. branch has four available including the "Spray Painting Oakland".

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray 2023

This review concludes my tour of recent Irish novels, at least until I return from Ireland in September. Like the works of Claire Keegan, Kevin Barry, and Alice Rooney, Paul Murray writes of Ireland in the early 21^st century. Like his Gaelic cohort, Murray’s novel is deracinated from the tales of heroic resistance of Wolfe Tone, Padraig Pearse, Bernadette Devlin, Michael Collins, and Bobby Sands. There’s little of the revolutionary sentiments of the last centuries, little of England’s long rule and Eire’s heroic resistance. The current crop of novels all is about an Ireland that, I suspect, neither Yeats nor Joyce nor Brendan Behan, nor even Seamus Heaney could have foreseen in their youth. And yet here it is.   

Murray is preoccupied with two Irish families, once secure in the social status of the privileged few who had prospered before the Crash of 2008. They were extravagant in their habits of consumption, indifferent to history’s wicked taxes, and to the plights of those who were victims of debt, penury, and despair. Murray traces out the lives of three generations of these two families, blithely accustomed to living privileged lives. One, now desperately close to the life of the nouveau poor; the other coasting along with their “diversified portfolio” and the cold power of a pater familias, keep up appearances. But just barely. The central axis of Murray’s novel is the friendship -or is it co-dependence?- between two bright girls who have fled to Dublin and Trinity College. They are young and unmoored and as is their inheritance, they also keep up appearances. Theodore Dreiser or Thorsten Veblen or Sinclair Lewis or F. Scott Fitzgerald or a young John Dos Passos might have imagined their unhappy lives. But it’s Murray who does.

Along the way we meet others who never enjoyed the Boom years of the Irish Tiger, who are holding on by the skin of their teeth in the turbulent economic storm:  A boy who is lost in the world of digitalized fantasy, a survivalist who is preparing for the apocalypse, two immigrants, one from Poland the other from Brazil, who survive by hustling, a father full of shame and love.   Murray designs his cliffhanger novel as the chapters hurdle towards the end. Menace, disaster, imminent death! I found that the book, despite occasional trickery, worthy of my loyalty. The tale staggers to a dramatic if ambiguous end that some might find annoying and contrived. Some will find the dialog -sometimes with quotation marks, sometimes without- and the voices -ranging from first to second to third person- irritating. But I write to praise the book. It’s wonderful and the reveals, particularly, of the women, mothers and daughters, are illuminating.  These characters continue to grow and learn from the brutal storm. The Bee Sting reveals a new Irish zeitgeist and the almost complete erosion of her old myths, heroes, and ideals. Still, Murray is a fine writer and one of a new legion of Irish chroniclers of Ireland’s New Troubles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw4qnC_CAKU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQM_6gf57zc

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.