NEWS:

Citizenship Program Funding Terminated for HPL's The American Place

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has terminated Hartford Public Library’s (HPL) Citizenship and Integration Grant award effective March 27. The Library is currently assessing the situation to determine its next steps. The discontinuation of the USCIS grant has impacted the operational capacity of HPL's Citizenship services, hindering the ability to adequately address the rising demand from underserved communities. Despite this setback, HPL remains committed to serving our immigrant community and facilitating their path to citizenship. 

Additionally, on March 14, the Trump administration issued an executive order calling for the elimination of the federal agency that supports libraries and museums, the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The order means that essential library services, workforce development, literacy efforts, programming, and more are now endangered. 

IMLS is an independent federal agency that supports libraries and museums in all 50 states and U.S. territories through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS administers federal grants to states, determining how funds are spent, and discretionary grants to individual library entities.

HPL and libraries across the country remain concerned about the impact these actions will have on our communities. 

For more information and steps you can take, please see the American Library Association (ALA) resource page HERE.

It's Almost National Library Week!

Now more than ever, showing support for libraries is essential. Millions of people visit their local library every week and benefit from the many free services.

Next week, join HPL in celebrating National Library Week, April 6-12.

Monday, April 7: Right to Read Day

Tuesday, April 8: National Library Workers Day

Wednesday, April 9: National Library Outreach Day

Thursday, April 10: Take Action for Libraries Day

To celebrate with you, we have an exciting exclusive offer for our HPL cardholders. During National Library Week, you can upgrade your current library card to a HPL's newest card for FREE at any HPL location.

Sunday, April 6 - Saturday, April 12, 2025

Celebrating National Poetry Month

Bluff

Danez Smith

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Finalist 2025

Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2024

". . . powerful self-indictment of art and the artist in an age of social and political collapse. Rooted in critical self-awareness in the midst of ongoing racial violence, mass protest, and political division, the poems showcase Smith’s growing skepticism toward poetry that is simply performative in its politics or that fails to radically engage with reality."

—Publishers Weekly

". . . sometimes you forget you’re reading poetry – the lines are unscented, matter-of-fact, which makes you feel you’re eavesdropping on an inner monologue, but the self-criticism does run the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing. . . "

—The Guardian

Find it HERE in our catalog

You Are Here:

Poetry in the Natural World

Ada Limón

A 2025 National Endowment for the

Arts Big Reads Selection

A 2024 NPR "Books We Love" Selection

“Whoever you are, you will find yourself and your own world in the expansiveness of this collection."

—Margaret Penkl, New York Times

“. . . beautifully curated anthology of 50 previously unpublished poems challenges preconceptions about “nature poetry” as it meditates on humanity’s relationship to the planet . . ."

—Publishers Weekly

Find it HERE in our catalog

Show Your Library Love

Visit any HPL location and fill out a heart with what you love about HPL.

For National Library Week, we will display the responses at each of our locations on our Wall of Library Love.

Stop by and tell us why you love and support HPL.

Baby Grand Jazz: Lewis Porter/Phil Scarff Group

Lewis Porter, pianist, keyboardist, and composer, appears on 30 albums with Dave Liebman, Marc Ribot, Gary Bartz, and more. His 2018 album Beauty And Mystery features John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Tia Fuller. His latest albums are the jazz-rock Transcendent with Ray Suhy on Sunnyside, and Solo Piano on Next To Silence. AllAboutJazz writes that Porter’s music draws from many sources to make “a beautifully creative whole" and that he is “a first-rate pianist.” He received a Grammy nomination in 1995 and has performed across the USA.

Phil Scarff has pioneered the performance of North Indian classical music on soprano saxophone, capturing the music's subtlety and depth. His performance at the famed Tansen Samaroh in Gwalior, India, with Saskia Rao de Haas was "The highlight of the festival" (Dainik Bhaskar). He has performed at venues like Nehru Center (Mumbai) and LearnQuest Festival (Boston). Phil leads world-jazz ensembles Natraj and the Lewis Porter-Phil Scarff Group and performs with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Composers Alliance.

Sunday, April 6 | 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. (doors open at 2:00 p.m.)

Center for Contemporary Culture

Downtown Library

500 Main Street

Baby Grand Jazz performances are free to the public. Can’t join us in person? Shows will be live-streamed on HPL’s YouTube and Facebook.

Thanks to our 2025 presenting sponsor, The Kaman Foundation, for its continuing support and longtime partners, The Hartford Jazz Society and WWUH 91.3 FM. 

Bilingual Workshops with Bank of America

Looking to start a business?

Join us for a three-part small business workshop presented by Bank of America, a committed partner in fostering economic growth and entrepreneurship.

Discover valuable tools, financial strategies, and resources to take your business to the next level. The workshop will be facilitated in both English and Spanish.

Registration required

Wednesday, April 2 | 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.

Dwight Library

7 New Park Ave.

Photo by Ken Ward

April is National Poetry Month

Celebrate National Poerty Month with us by taking a moment to pause and celebrate the beauty of Hartford.

HPL's Hartford History Center created a video in December 2020 highlighting a collection of Ken Ward photographs set to a reading of Wallace Stevens' poem Of Hartford in a Purple Light.

Of Hartford in a Purple Light, was published in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens in 1954.

More information about Ken Ward and Wallace Stevens can be found HERE.

A Place Like No Other

HPL offers engaging, educational, and fun programming for all ages.

Check out our full programming calendar HERE

Check out our Family Programming calendar!

Check out our Adult Programming calendar!

Check out our Youth & Teen Programming calendar!

“They stare. We stare. There’s no anxiety.

Milliseconds transform into hours.

We stroll the grounds and stop at every tree.

Their noses lead to everything I see."



―Ada Limón, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World

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