Vol 8 # 8  May 15, 2024

Design Proposal for New Branch Library - Next Steps

Friends of PAL salutes over 40 community members who attended the third set of in-person/online meetings on May 1st/2nd to discuss more detailed plans and renderings (simulated views) of two leading design options for a new branch on the former CDC site at 86 Echo Avenue:

• ·Remodel of the existing building with some added space for a community room and support functions (roughly similar to Option 2 in the March presentations shown at https://bit.ly/4cvJLnN )

• An all-new building, similar in size to Option 4 shown in March but with significant reconfiguration of some parts, especially towards the northeast (back) end of the building.

Printed copies of the plans and renderings are at the branch library and a link to the full presentation is on the Building Campaign page at www.friendsofpal.org. The presentation also showed comparisons of square footage and other factors - see https://bit.ly/44EFX00

Many attendees supported the new construction option that is preferred by OPL staff, but others from the immediate neighborhood raised concerns about the larger size and massing along Glen Avenue.

OPL and city staff have been meeting weekly with the team from HY Architects and will determine a single final design to be in the Feasibility Study report as a basis for further cost estimating and funding ideas. The Library has secured funding to prepare detailed building plans and HY hopes to be able to start work on that task in 2025, after the proposed design is submitted for OUSD approval.

The planned date for OPL administration to receive the final draft Feasibility Study report is now September 1. Friends of PAL plan to host an in-person update from library staff at a meeting before then. The city will post future updates or events about the project at https://oaklandlibrary.org/about-the-library/beautification/  

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.

 Knitting & Crochet Circle with Susan Segal!

Every second and fourth Monday of the month, 11 am – 1 pm for a delightful early afternoon of yarn, needles, and good company at our Adult Knitting & Crochet Circle!

Teen Pop Up Crafts  

Every second and fourth Tuesday, 3:30 - 4:30 pm. Come and hang out and get creative with us!!

Drummm

Saturday, May 18, 2:00 – 2:45 pm

Come DRUMMM with us! Join us for an interactive session. 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.

Little Explorers Petting Zoo

Wednesday, May 29, 2:30 – 4:30 pm

Visit the cute and cuddly animals from the Little Explorers Petting Zoo. This is a popular event the whole family can enjoy. Please be prepared to wait in line.

Mr Elephant

Wednesday, June 5, 6:00 – 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!

Oakland Symphony Instrument Petting Zoo

Wednesday, June 12, 6:00 – 6:45 pm

Oakland Symphony Instrument Petting Zoo Musicians will introduce string and percussion instruments, encouraging hands-on exploration.



Belly Dance Performance

Playtime

Gut Health Workshop

Summer at Oakland Public Library begins May 25^th.

^

All ages can participate and win prizes! Win tickets to see the Golden State Warriors, a Nintendo Switch, tickets to the Oakland Zoo, vouchers for the Oakland A's, tickets to see the Oakland Roots, and so much more! With the start of summer programming, we invite you to come and participate in exciting events at the Piedmont Avenue branch every Wednesday, starting May 29 through July 31st. Find details at www.oaklandlibrary.org/summer or pop in to the library to ask!

Our “Delivery Library” at Piedmont Gardens

Many years ago our Librarian, Jenera Burton, would frequently wheel a cart filled with books to Piedmont Gardens, a senior living community, for the residents who were unable to get to their neighborhood library.

When I heard about this during one of the meetings of the Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library, I offered to drive her and the books. And thus started a monthly tradition of taking the library to the residents of Piedmont Gardens during their coffee hour.  Jenera not only brought books from our selection and ordered books the residents wanted, she brought books that they had put ‘on hold’, and even issued new library cards! The popularity grew and the service continued as new librarians kept up the tradition.

Then came the Pandemic. Everything stopped. I am pleased to announce that as of March 19th this year, our Branch Manager, Sabah Abdulla and I have revived the “delivery library”.



 We have received rave reviews and been welcomed back wholeheartedly! Almost 50 participants! Some familiar faces and many new. Flossie is still there at 100!! A beautiful idea for a beautiful cause; a beautiful use of our little neighborhood Library.

~~ By Pam Feack, Friends of PAL

On your way to the library check out the playground at the Piedmont Ave Elementary School. Funded by Eat. Learn. Play. (Steph & Ayesha Curry's foundation) and KABOOM!, with the work of neighborhood volunteers, there are wonderful murals, a new garden & playing fields.

The Friends of PAL's Spring "Bake and Book" sale was a terrific success. Delicious homemade treats and great books were available to all who stopped by. And, once again, we had "free" books for kids courtesy of the library. All proceeds from the sale will support programs at our local branch library. 

Our thanks to our bakers: Pam, Joanna, Helen, Ronile, Susan, and John—he who bakes the perfect oatmeal cookie! Watch this spot for updates regarding our Summer "Bake and Book" Sale.

The Friends meet the 4^th Tuesday of every month at the library, 6:30 – 7:30 pm. The next meeting is May 28. There is so much going on, please join us. www.friendsofpal.org



From The Friends of Oakland Public Library - The Bookmark Bookstore Moves to 10^th and Broadway



After many months of searching, we have found the opportunity of a lifetime to move our beloved Bookmark Bookstore to a new, expanded space at 933 Broadway (the corner of 10th & Broadway).

The new space offers us significantly more room, better visibility to the community, and the opportunity to expand our services that you have come to enjoy. We eventually will have a separate “donation center” entrance specifically dedicated to managing donations and online sales. The retail space will be more inviting and light-filled, offering a lovelier experience for visitors and volunteers alike.

The Washington Street store will be closed May 13-31 to allow us time pack any remaining inventory, clean up, and prepare the new space. We will reopen for business in our new space in early June with a soft opening. More details about that and a grand opening celebration to come!



Please note: in preparation for our big move, we will not be accepting donations until we reopen in our new location in June. We will continue posting the updates on our website so keep your eyes on our site! www.fopl.org

~~ The Friends of Oakland Public Libraries

Oakland’s Youth Poet Laureate



Since 2012, the Oakland Youth Poet Laureate (OYPL) program has helped young Oakland poets share their truths. It is an unprecedented citywide effort to celebrate literacy through poetry and connect young writers to far-reaching opportunities. Each year OPL accepts applications from talented Oakland writers (ages 13-18) to join a community of young poets.

You can hear some of those poets reading their work HERE https://oaklandlibrary.org/oakland-youth-poet-laureate/oakland-youth-poet-laureate-performances/ in video clips.

You can see the 2024 finalists at the thirteenth Oakland Youth Poet Laureate! Celebration on Friday, June 7, at 7:00 pm, at Oakstop Broadway, 1721 Broadway, at an event emceed by the incomparable artist and educator, EJ Walls. No tickets required. It is free and open to the public.



The evening will end with the announcement of two winners -- the 2024 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and Vice Oakland Youth Poet Laureate.

Cheyenne Autumn by Mari Sandoz [1953]

My friend Bob Wells told me in the last months of his life that I must read Mari Sandoz’ Cheyenne Autumn. Bob and I met at Café Trieste (now Chiave) in 2011. I was reading John Sayles’ wonderful book A Moment in the Sun and Bob said “oh, is that any good?” I enthused about Sayles wildly ambitious book. A few weeks later he had read Sayles book (983 pages). We soon found that we were not only avid readers but enthusiasts for an United Ireland, and active opponents to white supremacy (he had scars from street fighting with Nazis in the streets of Chicago). Bob was an accomplished journalist and novelist, and my kind of guy, always up for “good trouble.” We exchanged the NYRB and the London Book Review. He and I and my wife read James Joyce’s Ulysses in 2021. Bob died last November.

I got around to reading Sandoz’ book this past month. It’s a very good book. Sandoz, a native of Nebraska, published this book in 1953. She was raised in a homesteading family, her father was an immigrant and did not want his daughter to read or write or go to school. She was another farm hand to him in hardscrabble Cheyenne country. But she defied her father, went to school, wrote, and read and became a teacher. As her father lay dying he asked to see his prodigal daughter: “Write my story,” he said. And she wrote Old Jules. It was critically acclaimed and served as the foundation for a life of writing.

She wrote Cheyenne Autumn in 1953 and based the book on copious research and interviews with many Cheyenne Indians. It reminded me of Mila 18, The Grapes of Wrath, and Earth Abides. It is an historical account of the Cheyenne flight from Oklahoma -where they had been shipped- back to the land of their ancestors. There journey, like the tale of the American Indian writ large, was full of broken promises, penury, starvation, and repeated murderous assaults by settlers, miners, and the US Army. Yet the Cheyenne’s’ heroic persistence to go north and west was distinguished by hope, the search for dignity and a purpose driven life. The book is a portrait of a people, scorned, rebuked and murdered who continued to move towards their natal land. They fought to live and die in the land of their birth. Their flight was in the end successful and the Northern Cheyenne, who had been reduced to scores now flourish and remember those who died along the way so that they could flourish in their [partly] recovered land.

Sandoz book is a history, an ethnography and a portrait of Cheyenne culture, the men and women and ways of life that we ignore at our own moral peril. Sandoz channels their voices and words and thoughts in a magnificent fashion. I urge you to read this good book and I look forward to reading Sandoz other books.

Thank you, Bob Wells. And thank you, Ms. Sandoz.

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1381&context=sociologyfacpub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxkkXkS9Beg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Ci7cCI2fQ

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. 

Storytime, every Tuesday, 10:15 - 10:30 am - Families are

welcome to stay after Storytime for Stay & Play

5/18 Drumm, 2 - 2:45 pm

5/28 & 6/11 Teen Pop Up Crafts, every second and fourth Tuesday, 3:30 - 4:30 pm

5/28 Friends of PAL meeting, at the library, 6:30 - 7:30 pm

5/29 Little Explorers Petting Zoo, 2:30 - 4:30 pm

6/5 Mr Elephant, 6 - 6:45 pm

6/10 & 6/24 Knit & Crochet with Susan Segal, every second & fourth Monday,

11 am - 1 pm

6/12 Oakland Symphony Instrument Petting Zoo, 6 - 6:45 pm

Friends of the Piedmont Avenue Library Board of Directors 2024

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

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

All contributions are tax deductible.