What's Going On - November 2023 | | |
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From The Desk of the Executive Director | |
This November is chock-full of terrific programs. See the details below. And we are poised for
our annual holiday program with Yale’s Alley Cats men’s acapella singing group and Malachi
Beasley. It will be outstanding!
We have a favor to ask. After reviewing our unusual book collection, we have noticed some gaps that have happened over the years. We are putting together a list of books we would love to have again and will post a few titles every month. These are unusual titles, but if you have a copy you no longer need, you could help us out by donating your copy. Just send Eva a note. We’ll arrange to pick it up.
Our first titles are:
-The World’s Best Short Stories of 1926, William Johnston
-The East Side of New Haven Harbor, Marjorie Chidsey and Donald Hayward
-The Boss and the Machine: A Chronicle of the Politicians and Party Organization (Chronicles of
America, vol. 41) Samuel P. Orth
-The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart, Alice Walker
-God & Man at Yale, William F. Buckley
Looking forward to seeing you all in November. Stay warm and enjoy the foliage. Isn’t New
England great!
All the best,
Jan
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An Important Note about Driving on Chapel Street:
The east bound side of Chapel Street (across from the Library) is closed to traffic for the nonce, until early 2024. Traffic detours around the block (along Church Street to Elm to Orange to Chapel). This detour is to accommodate the construction of two buildings currently under construction. The west bound side of Chapel remains open. The building on the corner of Orange and Chapel (808 Chapel) will be done early 2024, the building across from the Library (848 Chapel) will be finished in the summer of 2024. Regardless: We are open! There are many parking garages, including two on State Street, one and a half blocks from the library. Please call us if you have any concerns.
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Author Events! Author Events!
FOUR IN ONE MONTH
-- Saturday, November 4 from 1:00 - 3:00 --
Local Author RANDALL BEACH on his new book,
Connecticut Characters: Profiles of Rascals and Renegades
-- ALSO Saturday, November 4, from 4:00 - 6:00 --
Master photographers DAVID OTTENSTEIN & ROBERT LISAK
discussing their new book CAPITOL AMERICA
-- Thursday, November 9 from 4:00 - 5:00 --
Bibliophilic Advisor SPENCER STUART
author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Book and Manuscript Collecting
talks to and with you*, answering your questions:
Book Collecting in Today's World: It Ain't What You Think It Is.
*ZOOM ONLY, registration and ticket purchase required
-- Friday, November 17th at 5:30 --
Culture Writer CHRIS MOLANPHY
(Slate, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vulture, NPR Music’s The Record, The Village Voice, Billboard, and CMJ)
on his new book Old Town Road,
about the already classic single by Lil Nas X.
SCROLL FOR MORE DETAILS ON EACH EVENT!
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The Return of Randall Beach
Longtime New Haven types are well acquainted with journalist Randall Beach -- this book compiles profiles of local characters written over many years -- is a wonderful retrospective not just of Randy's writing career but really of New Haven as a city and a community. Come hear him discuss the book:
Saturday, November 4th, 1:00-3:00
Light refreshments served.
Read more about Randy's book here, and we'll see you on the 4th!
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Robert Lisak & David Ottenstein
A book that's been in process and evolving over many many years finally sees publication this fall. A photographic survey of the architecture, decoration, and setting of all 50 US state capitol buildings with descriptive text.
Master photographers Robert Lisak and David Ottenstein have created an unprecedented photographic portrait of all 50 US state capitol buildings, exploring architecture, interior spaces, furnishings, landscape settings, and urban locations.
Lisak and Ottenstein, longtime members of the New Haven community, celebrate this moment by visiting one of New Haven's historic landmarks, The Institute Library.
Saturday November 4, from 4:00 - 6:00
Light refreshments served.
Read more on Capitol America here
and we'll see you on the 4th!
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Spencer W. Stuart, Bibliophilic Advisor on Book Collecting Today
(Zoom event; please click here to register and purchase tickets)
Spencer Stuart, collections advisor, has worked in the antiquarian book trade for years, and has come to a guiding position wherein he assists people who are building their collections as well as trying to deaccession pieces from mature collections. One thing he recognizes is that book collecting now is not what it was when many of us began to acquire books -- it's complicated and surprising, how peoples' book acquisition processes have changed! Discuss the matter with Spencer via this Zoom dialogue, which you can think of as a seminar.
Zoom event only:
Thursday, November 9
4:00 - 5:00
it
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Chris Molanphy is a chart analyst and pop critic who writes about the intersection of culture and commerce in popular music. For Slate, he hosts the Hit Parade podcast and writes their “Why Is This Song No. 1?” series. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Vulture, NPR Music’s The Record, The Village Voice, Billboard, and CMJ. Chris is also a frequent guest on National Public Radio (Soundcheck, All Things Considered, Planet Money, On the Media) and on Slate’s podcasts The Gist and the Culture Gabfest.
We're thrilled to have Chris visit us at the Institute Library, and hope you'll come share this magic moment. Copies of Old Town Road will be available for purchase thanks to New Haven's own POSSIBLE FUTURES
Visit them at
131 Hotchkiss Street
in New Haven!
Friday, November 17, 5:30
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Music & Culture Writer Chris Molanphy on Old Town Road
In Old Town Road, one of the three debut volumes in Duke University Press's Singles series (think: the 33 1/3 books from Bloomsbury, but for singles, not albums) Chris Molanphy considers Lil Nas X’s debut single as pop artifact, chart phenomenon, and cultural watershed. “Old Town Road” was more than a massive hit, with the most weeks at No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 history. It is also a prism through which to track the evolution of popular music consumption and the ways race influences how the music industry categorizes songs and artists. By both lionizing and satirizing genre tropes—it’s a country song built from an alternative rock sample, a hip-hop song in which nobody raps, a comical song that transcends novelty, and a queer anthem—Lil Nas X troubles the very idea of genre. Ultimately, Molanphy shows how “Old Town Road” channeled decades of Americana to point the way toward our cultural future.
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NEWS FROM THE GALLERY UPSTAIRS: | |
DOWNTOWN BRIDGE:
The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Bridge Game at
847 Chapel Street
If you'd like to be added to the email list of players (because sometimes the schedule has to change), please reach out to
Eva Geertz: [email protected]
The secret population of
closet bridge players
and aspiring bridge players
in our midst
now meet Second Mondays
(but there is talk of a second night maybe?)
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The evenings start at 7:00 and run about 90 minutes. We've got several tables available, and decks of cards, and even score pads! | |
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Folks who haven't played in years, folks who are just starting to learn to play, and expert old hands -- all are welcome!
Hoping to see you here - we are organizing now for:
Monday, November 13th at 7:00 p.m.
(subject to change; please reach out to us for schedule confirmation)
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Friday Happy Hour Jazz |
Fridays in October | 5:30-7:00 p.m.
November 3 -- Carla Bley: In Memoriam
November 10 -- These guys don't blow the amps: Grant Green & Jimmy Raney
November 17 -- “Silo Busters” or as the Duke would have said, “beyond category”. LPs of Sinatra conducting Alec Wilder, of Peewee Russell with Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans compositions played by a String Quartet, and Max Roach with gospel singers, among others.
November 24 -- Duke Ellington in the 1940s. “Black, Brown and Beige” had its only complete performance at Carnegie Hall in 1943; eternal gratitude to the person who thought to record it. At the Institute Library it will not be a commercial blow out, but, maybe, a spiritual one.
Join a congenial little group up on the third floor of the Institute Library to listen to recordings you forgot about or never knew about and stick around a bit to discuss the music! BYOB beverage and treat.
Updates will be provided via the internal Jazz email list. Want to be added to that list? Let us know!
Please consider making a $5 donation when you come to Friday Happy Hour Jazz.
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The Institute Library's
Annual Holiday Party
Friday December 1, 2023
The Yale Alley Cats perform at
the Institute Library
with special guest
Malachi Dre Beasley
Admission is free for all with
up-to-date Library memberships.
All others, please pay $10 entry fee.
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The Operations Manager Speaks: | |
Mid-October, on a Wednesday afternoon, the Library had three young woman come visit for the first time. They're all recently moved to New Haven and were gobsmacked by what they walked into, once they came up the mysterious stairs. They came up because some random lady on the street had suggested, based on their goth vibes, that they might enjoy what was upstairs at 847 Chapel Street. (Yes: random lady was your Operations Manager.)
This is a fairly routine occurrence, of course. (Both the people being gobsmacked and the Operations Manager luring unsuspecting people into The Institute Library.)
What is not fairly routine is having a young person return a few days later with their father in tow. This is exactly what happened a week after those three young woman came upstairs on a Wednesday afternoon. This young woman, who is just getting her bearings in New Haven, discovered the Institute Library and when her father came to visit, it was on the short list of places in New Haven he had to see.
I was asked to give a tour, and gave one happily; Dad pulled out his phone and took pictures and asked a million questions... turned out, Dad's an architect (we should have known). Meanwhile, the daughter just looked so happy, all through the tour.
My sense was that Dad wasn't just happy to visit the building, and see its architectural details, but that he was happy that his daughter had so quickly found a special place that was comfortable and easy to get to and so placid. Moving to a new city is hard on anyone, and a parent worries about their child, but no parent needs to worry about their child when the child is at the Institute Library. We are boring in all the very best ways, and at the same time, not boring at all.
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We look forward to seeing you again! Or, for the first time!
As happens at the start of every academic year, there are many people who have recently joined the Library who I've not yet met, and some of you who joined online haven't given me a mailing address to send your card to you -- please come in and stop by the desk and talk to me about this! Or email me! We want you to have your card!
Onward, friends.
--Eva Geertz, Operations Manager
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Hours of Operation
Closed Sunday & Monday | Tuesday-Friday: 11:00-5:00 | Saturday: 12:00-2:00
Location
The Institute Library, 847 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 562-4045
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