Our Diwali celebration was a huge hit!
Many thanks to all who joined us.
We have more good things heading your way.

Family Holiday Concert
Feel the magic of the season with Sam Pasco Band
Wednesday, December 15th, 11 a.m.
Downtown Library 
500 Main St., Atrium

Kwanza Celebration of Community, Family & Culture
Celebrate with guest storyteller Valerie Tutson.
Thursday, December 30th, 2 p.m. 
Downtown Library
500 Main St., Atrium
The 2021 National Book Awards were announced!
Check out two of the winners
Jason Mott
Winner: Fiction Category
For while this heartbreaking and magical book entertains and is at once about family, love of parents and children, art and money, it’s also about the nation’s reckoning with a tragic police shooting playing over and over again on the news. And with what it can mean to be Black in America.

“It should be one of your favorite books. ... Poignant and beautiful.” — Good Day LA

"This novel twisted me up and turned me inside out, dazzled me, surprised me and moved me.” —Charles Yu, author of National Book Award winner Interior Chinatown
Tiya Miles
Winner: Nonfiction Category

All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today.

"A remarkable book.” — The New York Times

“Read this book and then pass it on to someone you love.” — Martha S. Jones, author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers
Since 1950, The National Book Awards celebrates the best in literature each year. You can find all the 2021 winners HERE
Dance. Dance. Dance.
Viva la
Bomba A'che!
Join dance instructors Gloria & Roberto Cepeda and learn the sounds and the moves of the traditional Puerto Rican dance Bomba!

Wednesday December 1st, 8th, 15th 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Park St Library @ The Lyric
603 Park St.

It's fun — we promise!

Please register HERE
Try Freegal!
Free music streaming and downloads with your HPL card!

“Where words fail, music speaks.” — Hans Christian Andersen
The 2022 Grammy Nominees Were Announced!

With Abba, Tony Bennett and Belinda Carlile on the list it's hard to imagine these are 2022 Record of the Year nominees.

Check out these albums and more on Freegal


Freegal Music is a download music service that the Hartford Public Library offers, free of charge, for use by library cardholders.

Every library cardholder can download three songs per week, and stream up to three hours per day.

You can start listening HERE

Baby Grand Jazz Is Back!
Save the Date: Baby Grand Jazz returns for its 19th season on January 2nd

Our highly popular Baby Grand Jazz Series is back!

With a stellar lineup of the best jazz musicians in the region, these are concerts you won't want to miss.

Stay tuned for more info. Performances will be streamed every Sunday in January, February, March and April (except Easter Sunday) on HPL's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Your Support Makes A Difference.
BEYOND WORDS is our annual signature fundraising event. The Library goes beyond words, every day, with diverse and transformative programs and services for our community.

Please consider supporting Hartford Public Library through our annual Beyond Words fundraising event. Join us at the Hartford Marriott Downtown or watch along from home.

Learn more HERE
“So maybe time is just how we measure meaning. Maybe time is how we best measure love.”― Jason Mott, Hell of a Book