Vol 9 # 1 October 15, 2024

Events at Our Library

Saturday, October 19, 10 - 11 am

Join us for a morning of Halloween crafts. We will make mummies, paper collage witches, and puffy little ghosts. This program is geared for toddlers, but older children are welcome.

Sip & Remember - Oaxacan Hot Chocolate and Ancestral Rituals

Saturday, October 26, 11 am – 12:30 pm

Using ancestral tools, Rufi’s Cacao will showcase how they get down in the kitchen to bring you Oaxacan hot chocolate – perfectly balanced between the richness of spices and dark chocolate notes that represent the culture and nostalgia of Oaxaca. You’ll taste a freshly made Oaxacan hot chocolate and dip their staple Pan de Muerto. Learn the history and significance of chocolate in rituals that honor the dead in memory of our ancestors and enjoy the sabores de Oaxaca.

Pop Up Game Night for Adults

Wednesday, November 6, 6 – 7:30 pm

Do you enjoy board games and meeting new people? Kick off International Games Month with a Game Night for Adults, 18+. It will be a fun evening of socializing and party games. Feel free to bring a friend or meet new ones. No experience required. Hope to see you there!

And our ongoing events!

Toddler Storytime

Every Tuesday, 10:15 – 10:30 am

Songs, active rhymes and stories especially for ages 18 months to 3 years. Every Tuesday morning at 10:15am. Stay and play after Storytime with fun age-appropriate toys through 11:15am.

Teen Pop Up Crafts

Every 2nd & 4th Tuesday, 3:30 – 4:30 pm

Come and hang out and get creative with us. Teens ages 13-18, all welcome. Snacks will be provided.

Knitting & Crochet Circle with Susan Segal!

Every 2nd & 4th Monday, 11 am – 1 pm

Join us for a delightful early afternoon of yarn, needles, and good company at our Adult Knitting & Crochet Circle! Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting, everyone is welcome!

From Sabah Abdulla, Branch Manager

For Halloween, OPL will be hosting Storytime at Key Route Plaza (41^st Street & Piedmont Ave), October 26th at 10 am. We are part of the annual Piedmont Avenue Halloween Parade and Celebration. Shani (Children's Librarian) and Stanley (Teen Outreach Librarian) will be there as our outreach librarians.

The Friends will also be present, and we’ll be providing them with, “share the love” books to distribute, along with some crafts for the kids to take and create. Please visit the Friends of PAL table at Key Route Plaza from 11 am – 1 pm.

Also on October 26, the Piedmont Ave Library (80 Echo Ave) will be hosting the Sip & Remember event from 11 am – 12:30 pm. It will feature Oaxacan hot chocolate and ancestral rituals. It'll be a beautiful sharing of rituals, and I'd love to have everyone interested join us.

From Nathan Page, Children’s Librarian

Class visits from Piedmont Avenue Elementary School have been a wonderful way to introduce children to the library—some for the very first time! Transitional Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second grade classes are all visiting the library on a monthly schedule. These visits are not only fostering a love of reading and discovery but are also providing many students an opportunity to explore what the library has to offer. Each visit includes storytime activities, complete with engaging books, songs, rhymes, and fingerplays, all of which help improve learning outcomes by boosting language development, motor skills, and memory. We're delighted by the excitement these visits bring and look forward to welcoming even more young readers.

Friends of PAL

Updates from OPL About Our New Branch Project

Library Director Jamie Turbak updated the Friends of PAL Executive Board on developments for the project for a new branch, next to the library, at 86 Echo Avenue:

· A Conceptual Design was provided to OUSD staff, similar to the all-new construction option presented at the Feasibility Study community meeting in May.

· Jamie will present an informational report to City Council about the Conceptual Design and results of the Feasibility study in November. The Friends will provide a support letter for her report packet by October 17, and also solicit letters from the elementary school PTA and Piedmont Avenue merchants. No Council action is required for this item.

· The Library Department will also work with OUSD staff to propose revisions to the Joint Lease Agreement that would extend the timeline for securing construction funding. The Friends plans to mobilize supporters to help get approval of the changes by the OUSD Board and City Council—watch for alerts in the coming months about this important step in keeping our campaign alive for the new building.

By Arleen Feng, Secretary, Friends of PAL

Programs for Adults – Calling all Readers

We’ve had some wonderful programs this year, from a Gelli Print workshop to Cool Season Gardening and now an Adult Game Night.

At their September 24 meeting, Friends considered ideas for possible programs for next year. In addition to suggestions for more author talks and craft or maker sessions, these ideas were mentioned:

Janet Margolis, Master Gardener, presenting a workshop, Cool Season Gardening

· A panel of librarians or booksellers to discuss book bans or other hot topics

· Special reading events such as play reads, or sections of Ulysses on Bloomsday (June 4 -the day highlighted in the book)

· Group discussions--either reading specific books together or short pitches from each person highlighting a favorite or interesting read

· Book swap--open to people with books to re-home and also people who don’t bring a book

· Reading challenges for unusual themes such as diverse places.

Friends will follow up on some of these ideas with the help of our branch librarian and interested volunteers. Let us know of your ideas and interests at contact@FriendsofPAL.org

There will be no Friends meeting this month but we will have a table at the Piedmont Ave Halloween celebration. October 26th. Join the fun and visit us at Key Route Plaza,

11 am - 1 pm.

Friends of the Oakland Public Library

Fall Sale At the Bookmark, 933 Broadway

Saturday & Sunday October 19 - 20,

Join us for our annual fall sale! Members receive 50% off on Saturday, October 19, and everyone receives 50% off on Sunday, October 20. Don't miss our special store hours during the sale weekend:

10 AM - 6:00 PM.

🎊SAVE THE DATE🎉

PANIL’s 50th Anniversary Party

Sunday, November 10, 2 to 4:30 pm

Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave

This is PANIL's 50th year -- 1974 to 2024 -- and there is going to be a celebration with a Neighborhood Trivia Game with Prizes, Speakers, and Refreshments. All are invited. AND IT’S FREE! NO RESERVATIONS NEEDED.

The Avid Reader by Louis Segal

I’ve been an avid reader since I could read. In high school I used to cut school to read in the Berkeley Public Library. I’m writing this column to share some of the books I love. I hope, perhaps, you might grow to love a few of them.

Aaron Cometbus’ The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah [2008, PM Press]

Recovering from travel and travails I read a lot of books in September. Out of these many I choose to review Aaron Cometbus’ book. It is an eccentric history of the independent bookstores, small businesses, and street life on Telegraph Avenue. It intertwines these subjects with anecdotes, gossip, and the occasional rant. Born in 1968, Berkeley-bred Cometbus entered adolescence in the 80s. He has been a zine writer, a novelist, a promoter of Punk, a musician, a Northside boy, a dropout, and a man who clearly loves the book business. Born 20 years before him, I fancied myself an organic intellectual, an avid reader, a street kid, a hippy, a flaneur and as the ‘60s matured into the early ‘70s, a psychedelic Bolshevik. I left my childhood on the Avenue. For years I found refuge, diversion, and excitement at Robbies, Pepes, and the Med, at Tsubos and KJAZ. I was a habitue at a slew of bookdealers: Farrell’s, Yenan, Granma, Moe’s, Cody’s, University Books, and Bibliomania. I worked at Holmes books on 14^th Street in Oakland and loved North Beach for City Lights, the Mission for China Books and its many librerias, and Market Street for its ever-edifying human parade and the original Holmes Books. Bookstores and libraries were my sanctuaries. Separated by different neighborhoods and zeitgeists Cometbus and I share many enthusiasms.

His book is good, and its real strength is its care and diligence in compiling the histories of Moe’s, Cody’s, Shambala, Print Mint, Shakespeare and Company, Black Oak, and some of the bookstore scenes up in Sonoma County. To this end he interviewed, among others, Moe’s daughter, Bob Baldock, Malcolm Margolin, Pat Cody, Dorothy Bryant, and R. Crumb. In telling his story he links the advent of quality paperbacks and book trading with new business models that grew topsy turvy from the 50s to the 70s. Full of gossip and details, Loneliness is a pithy, opinionated romp through Berkeley Telegraph’s denizens. He shares anecdotes, histories, knowledge, and gossip. And beyond this he celebrates -and excoriates- the Avenue’s street people, flaneurs, poseurs, characters, readers, writers, and dealers.

There are lacunae. Cometbus doesn’t mention Farrells, University Books, not Yenan nor Granma nor Bibliomania. When he opines about Berkeley, he doesn’t even mention Berkeley’s fabled South Berkeley. Where is Berkeley’s substantial Black Diasporic? Where is Reid’s Records or Marcus Books? His love of bookstores doesn’t reveal a passion for books themselves. His reading is only occasionally informed by books qua books. He’s more interested in the truck and trade of books. But for those of us who are bibliophiles, those who grew up on Telegraph Avenue, or near it, this is a very enjoyable book. It is vibrant and if you grew up in the East Bay, if your jam is books, Loneliness will keep you entertained, illuminated, irritated… and calling out for more.

https://larrylivermore.com/interview-with-aaron-cometbus/