Celebrate Earth Day With HPL
Throughout April, learn how to beautify your space, participate in community gardening events, check out tools and seeds, and find cookbooks in our collection. It's a great way to connect with your environment!
Basic Gardening Skills with Ms. Auden
Join us to learn some tips on how to start a basic garden. A "Take and Make" bag will be provided with some basic gardening essentials. 
 
Registration/Participation is required to get your "Take and Make" bag. Registration is limited. 
 
Date: Thursday, April 15th
Time: 2:00- 3:00 pm
Virtual: Zoom 
To register, click here
 
Earth Day Community Growing
Join us on Earth Day at the Dwight branch to plant your own flower. No registration needed; first come, first served. All ages welcome!
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 2:00- 3:00 pm
Dwight Branch
 
“Earth laughs in flowers”
Celebrate Earth Day by potting a pansy or planting herb seeds in a pot to take home. We'll also be giving out beautiful poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lucy Cooper Summers, renowned Hartford community leader, whose mission was “to plant beauty in gardens and in the hearts of urban dwellers.”
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 3:00-4:00
Outside Barbour
To register: email iblean@hplct.org

Affleck Street Community Garden Cleanup
The Women Empowerment Group will join gardeners from the Affleck Street Community Garden for some projects: rock painting, the assembly of three new raised garden beds, and the painting of two new benches.
Date: Friday, April 23
Time: 10:00AM -12:00PM, 12:00PM-1:00PM 
Park Branch
To register: call or email Graciela Rivera at 860-500-8492 or grivera@hplct.org.
 
It's Gardening Season! Seed Giveaway and More...
Celebrate springtime with the Park Library. Reserve a gardening toolkit or pick up some seeds. We also have a robust collection of gardening-themed books from the HPL catalog.

Materials are available through April while supplies last.

To register: click here
Over the past month, Hartford Public Library has celebrated acclaimed novelist Julia Alvarez's book "In the Time of the Butterflies."



We hope you enjoyed exploring how the books’ themes of Dominican pride, free-thinking, resilience, and women’s rights take root right here in our own backyard.

The 2021 NEA Big Read was a huge community effort. We offer a profound thank you to everyone involved.
Spring Resource Fair To Take Place April 6
Camp Field Library
Tuesday, April 6
3-5 p.m.

Get information about health care, community organizations, in addition to picking up free books. Nursing students will offer free blood pressure screenings. Access Health, Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford, and The Village will be in attendance. 
Helping Babies Get A Strong Start
Early talk shapes a child's life. LENA, a national non-profit committed to helping increase language development in children ages birth to three, will be offering free classes.

FREE LENA Start classes can help you make a difference in your baby’s life just through early talk and interaction!
 
Participating families receive:
  • 10 FREE children’s books and other rewards
  • Connection with other parents
  • Fun activities for you and your child
  • The latest brain research news

Class start date: Thursday, April 8, 11:30 a.m.
Class location: Zoom

For more information, contact Katherine Trouern-Trend at 860-695-6330 or at kttrend@hplct.org.
National Poetry Month Book Suggestions
Thousand Star Hotel
by Bao Phi
Thousand Star Hotel confronts the silence around racism, police brutality, and the invisibility of the Asian American urban poor.
We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy: Two Nursery Rhymes with Pictures 

Two traditional rhymes from Mother Goose, ingeniously joined and interpreted by Maurice Sendak.
Experience New Beginnings in Poetry
To help celebrate National Poetry Month, this three-week series will focus on different creative writing activities to guide participants in the poetry writing process and to expose them to variety of poems. Program supplies will include a journal, sample poems, and watercolor set and paper, available by appointment through contact-free pickup. Registration required. 
 
Date: Tuesdays, April 6th, 13th & 20th
Time: 2:00- 3:00 pm
Virtual: Zoom 
 
To register, click here
Stylish arrangements and superb musicianship characterized The New England Jazz Ensemble's performance last Sunday at Baby Grand Jazz.
 
We've added a Vaccine Information page to our comprehensive collection of Covid-19 related materials. Learn the facts about the virus and how to protect yourself and your family. There is also information available about housing assistance, financial help and the latest from the Hartford Public Schools.
April Program Calendars
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson