BCALA Inc. April Newsletter

VOLUME 40

bcala newsletter

black caucus of the american library association inc.

national conference

Issue

#02

this issue q FIVE LADIES WHO CONTRIBUTED 10 q GREAT FIND AT THE LIBRARY 06 q STRUGGLE WITH SERIOUSNESS 04 q LIBRARY ADDED TO LANDMARK 08

save the date august 7-11, 2013 greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky

check out the new newsletter design updates from second un-hushed conference Carla D. Hayden gets 2013 award California librarians tackle “big read” 8th national conference Photo: Enquirer Media, courtesy of CincinnatiUSA.com

developing, promoting and improving libraries in the african american community www.bcala.org

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

contents

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this issue 04 My Struggle 06 BCALA Exec Scholarship 06 A Good Find @ the Library 07 Good Things from BCALA Corp.

08 Hooray!!!

10 Five Ladies 16 Second Un-hushed 17 Carla D. Hayden

14 more

Kentucky Poet Frank X Speaker MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Speaker Big Read Conference

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

from the president Jerome Offord Jr

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bcala newsletter

black caucus of the american library association

PRESIDENT Jerome Offord Jr.

Dear BCALA Members:

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elcome to your new newsletter! In January 2013, during the Executive Board meeting at ALA Midwinter, we decided that BCALA needed to take critical steps to improve our brand. We are a rich organization with a powerful history, yet, many do not know we exist. It is my hope that this newsletter, and its new format, will be something you can pass along to your friends, other associations, and future librarians with pride. I want to thank all the former editors, committee members, past Presidents, and Executive Board members who have committed time, content, and access to our wonderul organization by supporting, helping,

PUBLISHER BCALA INC. EDITORIAL Editor: Jason Alston Phone: 803-77-6493 Fax: 803-777-7938 Email: jasonalston@gmail.com CONTRIBUTORS Jason Alston Pat Toney kYmberly Keeton Tony Rose Andrew P. Jackson Jerome Offord Pamela Goodes Claudette S. McLinn ADVERTISING Sales and Marketing: Jason Alston Phone: 803-777-6493 Email: jasonalston@gmail.com NEWSLETER COMMITTEE Jason Alston Tiffany Duck Nzinga Holley-Harris kYmberly Keeton Michael Mungin Natasha Smith DESIGN Creative Director: Timothy Hykes Graphic Designer: Timothy Hykes

and serving to ensure that information about our beloved BCALA is available to the world.

I want to thank the authors for remaining committed to passing on information, sharing knowledge, and providing content about librarians and libraries that provide services to our communities. Finally, I want to thank Jason Alston, our Editor-In-Chief, and Timothy Hykes, Hykes’ Design Solutions, for responding to my request to move our newsletter to the next level. Read, enjoy, and share!

ENVIRONMENTAL BCALA is printed using soybased vegetable inks which have replaced petroleum based inks.

COPYRIGHT All material appearing in bcala newsletter is copyright unless otherwise stated or it may rest with the provider of the supplied material. The bcala takes all care to ensure information is correct at time of printing, but the publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of any information contained in the text or advertisements. Views expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the publisher or editor.

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

My Struggle with the Seriousness of Black Librarianship I’ve been told to be super professional. Be serious. Act right. I can’t I’ve spent a few years now pretending to be on board with the loaded rhetoric and over-romanticized image that my librarian friends and colleagues seem to have of themselves. But ultimately, this act has been much less comforting and reassuring as it has been exhausting.

And as I’ve struggled to keep up the act, I’ve repeatedly served as something of a source of humor for family, friends and frat brothers who likely see it all as an unfortunate self-parodying of a profession they don’t care to understand.

In the midst of it all, I’ve coped by being silly and trying to have fun with the jokes as they come. I’ve adopted a social media alter ego called “Billy Dee for Literacy” after a friend of mine began referring to me this way.

I occasionally take old rap lyrics and remix them with librarian or “booky” twists, most proud of my “I wonder if Heaven got an archives”, in reference to a hit by the late Tupac Shakur. And I’ve written a profanity-laced, standup comedy satire involving a character called “Mel-Boogie, Marksville Children’s Librarian”; the routine – which I’m sure I’ll never perform live – is heavily based on the comedy of Andrew “Dice” Clay.

I finally understand now that these coping mechanisms spawned from me not thinking I was allowed to let librarianship play the role I want it to play in my life. I want this to be my

career, not my identity. And I wish to approach every day I enter a library to do some type of work as a day that I will be helping someone; that’s what’s precious to me. I probably have as huge an ego as anyone else in BCALA, but helping someone in some real and practical manner is all I need in order to fill my egotistical need to be important to someone, somewhere.

I don’t concern myself with being a “cultural keeper”, or a “protector and preserver of knowledge”, or an “information professional” or a “messianic warrior gifted upon the world by Yahweh to annihilate Sir Ignorance and his evil henchmen, Captain Closed-Mind and Dr. Downsize DeArchives”, or whatever hyperrhetorical occupational identities we’re applying to ourselves these days. I don’t need to be any of these things in order to feel good about what I do if I am helping people, and frankly, I think they have little real-world application and feed into the stereotype that librarians are especially self-important.

When I hear such things, I can’t help but be reminded of the playground bully, teenage wannabe thug, or boisterous Hugh Hefner knockoff who spouts big talk in order to mask his deep insecurities and overcompensate for personal shortcomings, real or imagined.

Like most workers, I consider what I

do important. I wish, however, to keep this importance in perspective. There are workers whose work consists of pressing matters of life, death, health and long term future of individuals: our doctors, lawyers, emergency response personnel, primary school teachers, and farmers, among others. There are also workers whose importance honestly just doesn’t reach this critical level, yet such people still fill valuable roles: auto mechanics, journalists, social workers, mailmen, and others. I’m a librarian who believes his profession falls in the latter category and may even take a back seat in level of importance and impact to the others listed, and I’m okay with that. When interviewing for a previous position, I even told my consequent-employers that I chose librarianship because in my past work as a newspaper reporter, I had a huge, immediate, and potentially grave effect on people’s lives and I decided I didn’t want the pressures a gig like that, or being a doctor or a lawyer, brings. I’m not someone that society would be brought to its knees without, but I’m not irrelevant and unnecessary either.

Consider this. Suppose I equate librarians and auto mechanics in level of true societal importance. I think it’s a fair comparison as today’s society cannot function without free availability of information resources, and also cannot function without the ability to transport goods and ourselves from Point A to Point B and fix the machines that help us do it. But where I see equal importance, I see an extreme imbalance in self-importance and accompanying charged rhetoric. Once I start hearing the term “transportational keepers” trotted out, I’ll retract this statement; until then, however.

So you may see me call myself a

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“librarian” and nothing else. You may see me meeting a patron where they are, cracking a joke with them, talking sports with them, and shooting straight with them. You might see me saying off-color things on my Facebook page or elsewhere and not worrying about who I offend, since my job is supposed to support the free-flow of ideas, even from other librarians. You may see me suggest we have a conference in Denver so we can smoke weed there legally, and I may tell you straight up I’m visiting the strip club while we’re in Cincinnati, as the city ranks behind Vegas as having the second highest number of strip clubs per capita in the world. You may see me being myself as I find it funny that librarians say they want to evolve the profession’s image, but as soon as a new Black librarian is brought in, he is immediately pressured to conform to traditional norms while White counterparts deck out with piercings and tattoos. You might see me being me and not being all that serious all the time.

My prognosis is that approaching our role with a wee bit of humility may end up being a good thing, and checking the self-importance may assist with our image and our ability to connect with the users that we don’t want to lose.

For kicks, I googled the terms “librarian” and “self-importance” together to receive 1,720,000 hits; substituting “librarian” with other public servant positions like “mail man”, “social worker” or “teacher” never netted me over 500,000 hits, with most capturing fewer than 100,000. One notable exception to this exercise was “policeman”, which netted 1,900,000 hits for me.

Bringing it Back So why the title, which specifically calls out “Black librarianship”? Well, because to me it feels like some of the most self-important, most rigid, and most hyper-rhetorical practice is coming from my own, and I have a theory as to why.

An 80s baby, I’m not old enough to remember the days blatant segregation and denial of educational

and advancement opportunities to our people. In sharp contrast, I entered college and came of age in times where diversity initiatives may have made educational attainment easier for many students of color, and I have the previous generations to thank for that.

Fortunately, I grew up around Black people in the church, the schools, and the community at large who had come from dire straits and managed to excel in higher education and their subsequent careers. These people taught us about the past struggles, and had an undeniably harder time fighting for their educational credentials and clawing their ways into the professional work force. When you’ve started from so little and accomplished so much, everything you’ve done should be respected and taken seriously, from your four-year degree to your advanced degree(s), whatever they are in.

But those days are no more. Getting into and staying in college just isn’t as hard these days, a ton of people are doing it, and there’s nothing particularly special about having an undergraduate degree. And the MLS? Again, nothing special these days. Take it from a guy who’s earned one yet still doesn’t have adequate technology skills for many library positions today and actually gets trained by non-degreed paraprofessionals for some library duties. For past generations, having a masters degree probably meant something, and I imagine many old school Black librarians may have been the first in their families or only ones in their home communities to ever get a graduate degree of some sort. But among my contemporaries, having a masters in Library Science impresses no one, though supportive acquaintances have been known to offer a supposedto-be-reassuring “Oh, okay, that’s great”, when I state my credentials.

You see, back in the day, being a Black librarian was something to stand in awe of and something to honor. But today, there should be room for both the Black librarian who thinks they’ve come up and are into something that

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requires a special type of esteem, and the Black librarian such as myself who just wants to put his 8-10 in and go home, comforted by the fact that he woke up, did the best job he could that day, and earned the right to get a good night’s sleep. Since I entered library school, I’ve been made to feel that Black librarianship must be the most important path a person could ever embark on, and I should always have my nose in the air because of it.

But I’ve always known deep down that that wasn’t the case, and now I know that my not having an air about myself because of this doesn’t mean anything is wrong with me.

I spoke of coping mechanisms earlier, and when I see Black librarians of my Generation X and Millennial generations taking themselves all-too-seriously, I think that too must be a coping mechanism. We’re not widely respected outside of our field and we constantly have people questioning our relevance and our futures; nothing reassuring about any of that. Perhaps they have to be so serious because if they don’t take themselves seriously, no one is left to. I can understand, but maybe there’s coping and comfort to be had in recognizing and appreciating the collective. From doctors and lawyers to teachers and farmers, to factory workers, janitors, hair stylists, tow truck drivers and, yes, even us, all of it means something to society and none of it we wish to do without. If we focus on being something that makes society say, “Yes, I’m glad we have those people”, we won’t need to pat ourselves on the back with charged rhetoric and inflate ourselves with internally-generated importance.

We don’t have to think we save the world, we just have to be honest with our contributions towards helping the world turn.

Jason Alston BCALA Newsletter Committee

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

BCALA Exec Board Member Receives Scholarship

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CALA executive board member kYmberly Keeton received the Herman Totten Scholarship for the 2013-2014 school year. An MLIS student at the University of North Texas, Keeton was first elected to the executive board in 2012. The Totten Scholarship is in the amount of $1000, with half going directly towards tuition. The scholarship is issued by the University of North Texas. Totten is the vice president of university and community affairs at the school. kYmberly Keeton University of North Texas

A Great Find @ the Library

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ecently, the family of a prominent, local jazz pianist (Bross Townsend), donated his library collection to the Langston Hughes Community Library. The numerous boxes held approximately 350 books on music history and theory, biographies and books about listening and playing various forms of music.

Bross was blind from birth, yet, each time I saw him or heard him perform or we featured “The Bross Townsend Ensemble” at Langston Hughes, he had a big smile that brightened your day and the room. He was always upbeat, laughed heartedly and was truly “one with the piano”.

In my review of his collection, I came across a jewel that only a librarian could appreciate, and especially a member of BCALA. Within the hundreds of books I looked over was a hard cover copy of Famous Negro Entertainers of Stage, Screen, and TV (1967, Dodd, Mead & Company) by our own Charlemae Rollins.

This young adult book is in excellent condition, covered and was discarded from the Hillcrest Library of Queens Library.

We will gladly shelve this treasure by one of this well known and revered ancestor librarian from the Chicago Public Library in the Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County, it’s new, permanent home Andrew P. Jackson Queens Library

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Good Things from BCALA Corporate Member Amber Books!

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mber Books, the award winning imprint of Phoenix, AZ based, Amber Communications Group, Inc., was announced as an NAACP Image Award winner for “Best Literary Work - Youth/Teens” - for its title, “Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders” by Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and earned an NAACP Image Award for Literature at the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards Show, Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, February 1, 2013.

Tony Rose, Publisher/CEO, Amber Communications Group, Inc., stated in his acceptance speech, “On behalf of Amber Books, Gregory J. Reed, Esq., and the Keeper of the Word Foundation, we are extremely excited to have been honored with an NAACP Image Award for Literature.”, Rose added, “I want to thank God, with whom all things are possible and Gregory J. Reed, Esq., who brought “Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders”, an outstanding and historic collection of student letters to President Barack Obama, and his responses to those students from all across America, along with the President’s speeches, public statements, and quotations during his campaigns and tenure as President of the United States of America, to Amber Books.”

Rose stated, “We thank the NAACP Image Awards, The 44th Annual Image Awards Sub-Committee Members, The NAACP Voting

IMG© TONY ROSE, PUBLISHER, AMBER BOOKS AND GREGORY J. REED, ESQ., AUTHOR, “OBAMA TALKS BACK” SHARE A PROUD MOMENT TOGETHER AT THE NAACP IMAGE AWARDS

Members, our NAACP Image Awards Literary Coordinator, Annette Thomas, for her diligence and hard work on behalf of our African American Literary Community, and I thank my wife, Yvonne Rose, The Associate Publisher of Amber Communications Group, Inc., for her and her editorial and design team’s tireless work, and technical and creative skills, in making a great book even greater”.

Rose further added, “Thank you to everyone who made this outstanding NAACP Image Award in Literature possible!!! Thank you”.

The city of Phoenix recently proclaimed Feb. 22, 2013 as “Tony Rose and Amber Books Day” for Rose’s accomplishments.

Tony Rose Amber Books CEO

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

Hooray!!! Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center Added to Literary Landmark Register

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ver the forty-three year history of Queens Library’s Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center there have been many historical moments worth celebrating. The first historical fact is that the library was conceived by local residents and presented to Queens Library for its void in books and programs on the Black Experience for Queens County. Its grand opening as a LSCA Title I “federally funded special project” of Queens Library in 1969 began this unique relationship.

Named for the poet Langston Hughes, it was operated by the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst, Inc. (LAC), a notfor-profit, community-based organization, comprised of local residents, under the auspices of Queens Library. Second, this “partnership” between Queens Library and the Library Action Committee allowed for the LAC to be responsible for daily operations, staffing and budgeting of Langston Hughes Community Library from 1969-1987, when the LSCA Title I funding stream changed.

The third feature is the new relationship, under a Letter of Agreement between QL and the LAC in 1987 that remains in place today.

Queens Library assumed responsibility of funding and daily library operations, while the LAC assumed full responsibility and funding of the Cultural Arts Program (CAP) and after school Homework Assistance Program (HAP).

The fourth feature is Langston Hughes Community Library as the home of The Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County, housing New York State’s largest circulating Black Heritage collection found in any public library. To date, the collection consists of over 45,000 volumes of print and non-print materials on the Black Experience.

“It is fitting that our library received this national recognition...”

The most recent historical moment for the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center is its recent addition to the Literary Landmark Register by United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, Inc. This designation is given to “any special location that is tied to a deceased literary figure, author or his or her work”.

Although Hughes lived the last twenty years of his life in Harlem, New York, the library is the first public institution named for the “Poet Laureate of Harlem” (James Mercer) Langston Hughes (February 1,1902- May 22, 1967).

The ceremony took place Saturday, February 23rd with a bronze plaque presented by

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You can visit the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center at 100-01 Northern Boulevard Corona, New York 11368. The website is: www.libraryactioncommittee.org. The phone number is: 718 651-1100.

Rocco Staino, board member emeritus of United for Libraries, in front of a packed, excited auditorium of supporters, residents, Queens Library staff and dignitaries and elected officials. Tom Galante, Queens Library President and CEO, Jackie Arrington, President of the QL Board of Trustees, Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) and Grace V. Lawrence, Chair of the Board of Directors, LAC, received the bronze plaque, which will be affixed to the front of the building in perpetuity. Elected officials in attendance were Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, (an original staff member at Langston Hughes), NYS Assembly Member Jeff Aubry, City Council Member Julissa Fererras and District Leader George “Jamel” Dixon.

novelist and social activist. Known as “The People’s Poet”, his works span from the Harlem Renaissance (1920’s) through the Black Arts Movement (1960’s), writing over 860 poems in his lifetime. Hughes’ signature poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers is timeless.

His essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain reflects pride in his heritage. Let America Be America Again and Freedom’s Plow speak to all people, of all cultures.”

Andrew P. Jackson Queens Library

“It is fitting that our library receive this national recognition as the first public institution in the nation, named after Langston Hughes during Hughes’ birth month and in Black History Month, and we are also elated to learn this is the first such designation for Queens County.” said Jackson.

The plaque reads: United for Libraries Literary Landmark Register Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center Queens Library First public institution named for (James) Langston Hughes (1902-1967).

African American poet, essayist, playwright, IMG© ANDREW P. JACKSON (CENTER), A FORMER BCALA PRESIDENT, PRESENTS THE LITERARY LANDMARK REGISTER PLAQUE

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

Five Ladies Who Contributed to the Success of a Non-Traditional Library Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) Queens Library

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uring the month of March, we celebrated Women’s History Month. History has revealed the impact women have made at all levels of our society from the world stage to our local communities, and in every profession and discipline.

There have been names of women in history that are most recognizable, like Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz, Barbara Jordan, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ida B. Wells and Mary McLeod Bethune. And of course, there are many prominent women in our profession whose names we should recognize, such as Clara Stanton Jones, Eliza Atkins Gleason and Effie Lee Morris, Charlemae Rollins, Dorothy B. Porter, Carla Hayden and Henrietta Smith, and so many others who have paved the way for both men and women library professionals to follow.

Although I often credit Dr. E. J. Josey, Tom Alford, Sr. and Dr. Stanton Biddle as my role models, I could not let this past Women’s History Month pass by without paying respect to several women who paved the way for me and the success I’ve had as a librarian and arts administrator in a very nontraditional setting and environment.

All but one were librarians, with one being a talented artist but mostly a creative arts administrator. All were

strong, African American women who saw beyond the norm of their day to help establish a solid foundation for a new “federally funded library project” conceived by a Black community and presented to the Queens Library in the mid 1960’s.

As director of Queens Library’s Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, I’ve received numerous awards and accolades for its success and development for my work at the helm over the last thirtythree plus years. But, the success of this library has always been a team effort, among the staff but also from the voice of the community that conceived it. The Langston Hughes Community Library is one of the most recognized and longest running projects funded by the 1960’s Library Services and Construction Act, Title I (LSCA). Founded by the residents of the Corona-East Elmhurst community in Queens, New York and funded and operated through the Queens Library, it opened for public service in April 1969 and was known as a “federally funded special project”. Unique in its origins

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I could not let this past Women’s History Month pass by without paying respect to several women who paved the way for me

and design, the Langston Hughes Community Library was operated by the Board of Directors of the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst, Inc. from 1969 through 1987, under the auspices of the Queens Library. This is still a unique partnership and solid relationship between a communitybased not-for-profit organization and a large municipal library system.

Langston Hughes is the home of the Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County, housing over 45,000 volumes of print and non-print materials on The Black Experience,

the largest circulating black heritage collection found in any public library in New York State. It was established at an 11,800 sq. ft. two-story former Woolworth’s Department Store, storefront for 30 years (1969-1999) before it moved two blocks to its current 24,000 sq. ft. library building.

Library services took place on the first floor while community meetings, arts programs and workshops and the afterschool homework program were housed on the second floor. The new building has a children’s room, a research room, 150-seat performance

ready auditorium, two 100-seat performance rooms, an art gallery, 100seat outdoor courtyard and a classroom for the after school Homework Assistance Program and computer training classes.

To ensure quality library standards and proper collection development during its formative years, Queens Library assigned a well-trained librarian to serve as library advisor to Langston Hughes, as the manager of Langston Hughes was not required to be a librarian. Over the course of its forty-three years, only two of the four

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Five Ladies Who Contributed to the Success of a NonTraditional Library (continue from page 11) managers earned a MLS degree, (Charlyne Gadsden and myself). This LSCA project was to provide a “non-traditional” approach to providing library services to the urban community of Corona-East Elmhurst and its mission was to transform “non-readers and non-library users into readers and library users” through “any means necessary”.

This tribute pays honor to five ladies, African American professionals who deserve to be recognized for the critical roles they played in establishing the library’s early success and creative, yet unconventional, professionalism that is often overlooked in the growth of the Langston Hughes Community Library. Without their daily contributions, commitment and skills the non-traditionalism of this library project may have failed and its mission never met.

The first of these ladies is Evelyn Hall (employed with Queens Library from 1954-1996) who grew through the ranks in Queens Library from an hourly-rate page to become a Branch Manager, Principal Librarian and Regional Manager, following her success at establishing and developing the collections at Langston Hughes with a twist to the use of the Dewey Decimal System. To allay the fears of using this public cataloguing system by many library users, a colorcoding system was devised to represent the catalogue’s 000-999 numbering system, which made it easier to search for books. In the 1980’s, when the public adjusted to using the Dewey Decimal system the color-coding approach was eliminated.

Another community service that has its origins at Langston Hughes is Information and Referral Services (I&R), which was designed to establish the library as the “hub of the community”, the central place where residents came to get their questions answered or assistance and guidance for serious issues when they did not know who or where to go. Langston Hughes may be the first public library with “community” as an integral part of its public name as it was not only founded by the community, but residents had an ongoing voice in its services and operation. The community was foremost in its design to meet the needs of all residents, of all ages. Today, all 63 Queens Library locations have been renamed “community” libraries and focus on the specific needs of their demographics.

Evelyn is also credited with marketing the library nationally through a traveling exhibition of a hand-painted mural, depicting the founding history of Langston Hughes Community Library, which was displayed at the 1970 ALA Annual Conference in Detroit, MI., and later hung in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and libraries in Tallahassee and Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. This was later documented in a full-page article that appeared in the Sunday New York Times on March 21, 1971.

Under Evelyn’s guidance, the “non-traditional” collection

development approaches used in the early days at Langston Hughes are now standard in public libraries across the country. In addition to the color-coded catalogue approach, the extensive use of paperback, multiple copy collections was used to stretch the budget. Intermittent face-out book shelving rather than spine-out was an early marketing tool to attract the attention of the prospective reader when they saw Black faces on the covers of a book. This worked especially well with children, tweens and teens.

Evelyn and her staff circulated comic books, although frowned upon by most librarians, which proved extremely successful with reluctant readers and younger readers. One of most popular was the Golden Heritage series, based on Black History. Today, of course graphic novels are used for the same purpose and are found in every library. Some of the more popular books of the day were: Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver, Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Where Do We Go From Here, The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon, as well as Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe, now all classics. The Langston Hughes Community Library may never be given formal credit for developing these strategies, but these techniques were used extensively during the 1970’s.

Langston Hughes may be the first public library with “community” as an integral part of its public name as it was not only founded by the community, but residents had an ongoing voice in its services and operation.

During that period, Langston Hughes offered regularly scheduled book talks, author readings and art exhibitions and a host of cultural programs that allowed children, tweens, teens and adults to meet authors, poets and performers first hand, and attend quality musical performances, right in their own community. Some of those featured authors and poets included John Steptoe, John Henrik Clarke, Paul Robeson, Jr., Elton C. Fax, Verta Mae Grosvenor, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Tom Feelings, and Sonia Sanchez.

Next are two Principal Librarians, Jewel Nicholson (employed with Queens Library from 1953-1989) and Joan Cole (employed with Queens Library from 1966-1999), who served as our Regional Managers and helped develop the management skills of librarians assigned to Langston Hughes, and especially familiarize and train me in Queens Library’s organizational standards while allowing us to

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maintain the flexibility of our “non-traditionalism” in Langston Hughes’ operations. In addition to their excellence in professionalism they also served as wonderful role models for all staff. This can’t be said of some of the early regional managers assigned to us as they never accepted an alternative approach to library services and found us in conflict with their own training and idea of library services.

In essence, they never had the “flexibility” of thought when it came to non-traditional library services.

The last librarian I highly admire and recognize in this piece is Charlyne Gadsden (employed with Queens Library from 1973-1980 and 1988-1995). When I began my employment at Langston Hughes Community Library in 1980, she was the Manager and I was appointed assistant manager. Having two years of college majoring in business administration and eight years of human resource experience with the City of New York, I came with organizational skills, but no understanding of library operations. I worked with Charlyne for six months before a family health emergency forced her to resign and relocate. In January, 1981, I was appointed library manager. In 1988 she returned to New York City and Queens Library and we gladly welcomed her back to serve as our Assistant Branch Library Manager.

Charlyne and I lived two blocks from each other in East Elmhurst. We worked well together and loved serving our home community. She was the consummate librarian and I marveled at her knowledge and collection development skills. She knew the Dewey Decimal System like the back of her hand and could refer a customer to the desired place in the stacks with such ease. We worked as a team until her health declined and she was forced to retire in 1995. She was close friends with Evelyn, Jewel and Joan and their combined passion for our library meant they were always close by for professional advice, friendship and attended most of our programs and every major event.

This final tribute goes to Marian Glenn Straw (employed with Library Action Committee 1975-1981), a very talented artist and arts administrator who established and coordinated the Cultural Arts Program (CAP) at Langston Hughes. She was a close friend and confidant of Charlyne’s.

I credit Marian with instilling in me a “management philosophy” for Langston Hughes that still applies today.

While Charlyne engrained an understanding of the purpose and business and services of a public library in me, Marian sat me down, when Charlyne suddenly resigned, to make it clear that for Langston Hughes to be truly effective, it had to be managed as a “cultural institution” and not simply as a public library offering cultural programs, a major difference.

This operating style is what sets the Langston Hughes Library Center apart from other libraries. She taught me the art of grant writing, arts management and to always keep the community first and foremost when planning and selecting cultural programs.

One of Marian’s most successful cultural programs was

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the Theatre Arts Workshop. Keith David, one of today’s prominent actors began his acting career in our workshop in the 1970’s as did Dr. Shirlene Holmes, who was featured in several of our productions. Today, she is a successful playwright and Associate Professor with the Department of Communications at Georgia State University. The Library also hosted a journalism workshop and produced a community newspaper, The Corona-East Elmhurst Transition Press in the 1970’s, which served as a training ground for many teens who eventually made journalism their profession. Two of the most memorable theatre productions the library featured were John Barracuda’s highly successful musical adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf” and Richard Wesley’s The Mighty Gents and Day of Absence.

In 1987, the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center gained full status within Queens Library. In February 2013, the Library Center was added to the Literary Landmark Register in recognition of being the first public institution named for the famed poet. Today, our library still serves as a model of non-traditional library service with direct community involvement. Libraries designed with similar community involvement can be found in Ft. Lauderdale, North Sarasota and Tampa, Florida. We stand firm on the strong shoulders of innovative library professionals who designed a unique library philosophy.

I’m proud to be a part of this legacy with its rich past as we continue to grow and serve our community for the future.

I am extremely blessed and grateful that I had the opportunity to be mentored by these five women. Their contributions to this library and to me personally can never be overlooked and surely will never be forgotten. We owe them a debt of gratitude for the many hours they gave to the library and cultural center and for sharing their talents and energy to help us grow and develop. When the traditional library community said, “Well, Langston Hughes is not a ‘real’ library”, Evelyn, Jewel, Joan, Charlyne and Marian said, “That’s because they just don’t understand. They just don’t get it.” Today, the library community-at-large owes a debt of gratitude to these pioneers of “non-traditional” library services as these are now standards of the public library’s operating style today.

Thanks, ladies. You will always be remembered.

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker Conference Luncheon Speaker

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rank X Walker, 20132014 Kentucky poet laureate and originator of the word ‘Affrilachia’ to describe the culture of African-Americans living in the Appalachian region, will speak Friday, August 9, at noon at the Author Luncheon during the 8th National Conference of African American Librarians (NCAAL). The conference theme is “Culture Keepers VIII: Challenges of the 21st Century: Empowering People, Changing Lives”.

The founding editor of PLUCK! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, Walker recently published his sixth collection of poetry, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, (University of Georgia Press). His other books include Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate This Ride, Black Box: Poems, Affrilachia, and Buffalo Dance: the Journey of York (winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award), and When Winter Come: The Ascension of York. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry and the Thomas D. Clark Literary Award for Excellence.

Walker is currently an associate professor in the Department of English and director of the University of Kentucky’s African American and Africana Studies program in Lexington. He has held academic positions at the University of Louisville, Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Transylvania University in Lexington, and Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights. Walker was founder and executive director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, founder of the Affrilachian Poets, program coordinator of the University of Kentucky’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural

Center, and assistant director of Purdue University’s Black Cultural Center in West Lafayette, Indiana. He was also vice president of the Kentucky Center for the Arts and executive director of the Governor’s School for the Arts, both in Louisville.

He has lectured, conducted workshops,

He will speak Friday, August 9, at noon at the Author Luncheon read poetry, and exhibited at more than 300 national conferences and universities including the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry, Northern Ireland; Santiago, Cuba; University of California at Berkeley; Notre Dame University in Indiana; Louisiana State University at Alexandria; University of Washington in Seattle; Virginia Tech in Blackburg; and Radford University in Virginia.

Walker has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in fine arts in writing from Spalding University in Louisville. He also holds honorary doctorate degrees from both University of Kentucky and Transylvania University. A book signing immediately follows the luncheon at 1:45 p.m.

Pamela Goodes

BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry to Keynote BCALA National Conference Melissa V. Harris-Perry, host of MSNBC’s weekend talk show Melissa Harris-Perry will serve as opening session keynoter August 8 from 1 to 2:45 p.m., during the 8th National Conference of African American Librarians (NCAAL), hosted by the BCALA.

Harris-Perry, professor of political science at Tulane University in New Orleans, is founding director of the “Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South”. She previously served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Princeton (N.J.) University. She will participate in an interview-style format at the opening session, followed by questions from the audience.

She is author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (Yale, 2011) which argues that persistent harmful stereotypes - invisible to many but painfully familiar to black women - profoundly shape black women’s politics, contribute to policies that treat them unfairly, and make it difficult for black women to assert their rights in the political arena. Harris-Perry’s first book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought (Princeton University Press, 2004), won the 2005 W. E. B. Du Bois Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and 2005 Best Book Award from the Race and Ethnic Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

A columnist for The Nation magazine, Harris-Perry writes a monthly column also titled “Sister Citizen”. In addition to hosting her MSNBC show, she provides commentary on U.S. elections, racial issues, religious question, and gender concerns for a variety of other media outlets.

Harris-Perry’s academic research is inspired by a desire to investigate

the challenges facing contemporary black Americans and to better understand the multiple, creative ways that African Americans respond to these challenges. Her work is published in scholarly journals and edited volumes and her interests include the study of African American political thought, black religious ideas and practice, and social and clinical psychology.

She travels extensively speaking to colleges, organizations, and businesses in the United States and abroad. In 2009, Harris-Perry became the youngest scholar to deliver the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard University. She also delivered the prestigious Ware Lecture in 2009, becoming the youngest woman to ever do so.

Harris-Perry has a bachelor’s degree in English from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., a doctorate in political science from Duke University in Durham, N.C., and an honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. She also studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

She is an advisory board member for “Chef’s Move!”, a program whose mission is to diversify kitchen management by providing training, experience, and mentorship to minority applicants from New Orleans, sending them to New York City for culinary school training, and then bringing them back again to become leaders in the kitchen and in their community.

Pamela Goodes

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

Second Un-hushed Conference a Success

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n April 6, UNC-Greensboro ACE scholars April Parker, Rachel Smith, Touger Vang and Mari Noguchi organized a conference that had a different feel to it by using interaction, known as “skillsharing”, rather than the normal lecture form. It was a nice break from the norm knowing I would be part of the presentation rather than just trying to remember the take away points.

The focus of the conference was multicultural and diversity, and the topics presented represented the theme very well. The most standout of the sessions were “Feng Shui in the Library” - a session about using the art form to balance a library; “The Human Library” - a session where people share their stories about a particular topic relevant to their lives (this one I was a presenter for and spoke about my experience in the Navy); and “Lively Librarians”- where UNCG fitness instructors showed us how to de-stress during the day at work. And

that’s just to name a few of the nine sessions available.

The best part of the conference was the keynote speaker, Dr. Alexis P. Gumbs, a co-creator of the Mobile Homecoming Experiential Archive, writer, and Found of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind Program. Instead of just speaking to the audience, Dr. Gumbs decided to talk a little bit about her experiences, read a

‘‘The best par of the conference was the keynot speaker, Dr. Alexis P. Gumbs, a co-creator of the Moble Homecoming Experiential Archive...” poem, and then do an “Oracle Session” where audience members would ask professional or personal questions and get an answer based on the poem she read. It was a unique way of interacting

BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

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Carla D. Hayden receives the 2013 Joseph W. Lippincott Award

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013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Joseph W. Lippincott Award, which honors distinguished service to the profession of librarianship. Presented every year since 1938, the award is named for Joseph W. Lippincott, a noted publisher, author, naturalist and sportsman of the “J.B. Lippincott Company”, an independent Philadelphia publisher that was acquired by Harper LIBRARY JOURNAL © PHOTO COURTESY OF LIBRARY JOURNAL & Row in 1978. They later merged into “Lippincott, Williams &Wilkins”.

Lippincott was the grandson of Second Un-hushed conference a industrialist Joseph Wharton, founder Success (continue from page 16) of the Wharton School of Business with the audience at a conference and and of the University of Pennsylvania. made everyone feel as if she was sitting Lippincott was a strong supporter there talking to just them. Her speech of education and libraries, and his definitely set the tone for the rest of the grandson Joseph W. Lippincott, III day. continues to support this most distinguished award.

Overall, the conference was a success Carla D. Hayden, executive director and I could definitely see myself and CEO of the Enoch Pratt Library in being interested in attending another Baltimore, is the winner of the 2013 interactive based conference. I am Joseph W. Lippincott Award. This super proud of my cohort members annual award is sponsored by Joseph for organizing this conference and W. Lippincott III. for those of us who volunteered or “The jury for the 2013 Joseph W. presented in the conference. Hopefully, Lippincott Award is delighted to next year this event will happen again honor Carla Hayden for her many with the next set of ACE Scholars! accomplishments during a long, varied and distinguished career in American (Editor’s note: Ronunda Claiborne is librarianship,” said Chair Winston Tabb. part of the Class of 2013 ACE Scholars Among the achievements specially Cohort at UNC-Greensboro. ACE is an noted by the jury and the many IMLS-funded diversity recruitment colleagues who wrote in support of this initiative) award are Dr. Hayden’s two decades of visionary leadership as executive Ronunda Claiborne director/CEO of the Enoch Pratt Free UNCG ACE Scholar Library, which she has restored to

national prominence, making it a national leader in providing access to the Internet and to digital collections; her extraordinary success in positioning the Pratt Library as a major and indispensable force in civic, community and municipal affairs; her outstanding service as president of ALA, where she spearheaded efforts to attract and train underrepresented groups to the library profession through the Spectrum Initiative and successfully challenged the government’s attempts, under the Patriot Act, to gain unwarranted access to library records; and her national leadership as a member of the steering committee overseeing creation of the pioneering Digital Public Library of America, and as a presidentially appointed member of the National Museum and Library Services Board.

“Dr. Hayden’s achievements, accurately described by various nominators as ‘visionary,’ ‘transformative,’ ‘indispensable’ and ‘legendary,’ demonstrate in an exemplary way the ‘distinguished service to the profession of librarianship’ the Lippincott Award was established to honor,” said Tabb.

The 2013 Joseph W. Lippincott Award will be presented at the ALA Awards Ceremony Reception on June 30, during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

Linda Jolivet & Nicole Branch

the discussion focused on Their Eyes Were Watching God, written

by Zora Neal Hurston

California Librarians Black Caucus Tackle “Big Read”

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n Saturday, March 2, 2013, members of the California Librarians Black Caucus served on a discussion panel for San Leandro Public Library’s “Big Read”. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the discussion focused on Their Eyes Were Watching God, written by Zora Neale Hurston.

Mary B. Monroe, New York Times

Reginald Constant.

ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT © 2013 PAT TONEY

bestselling author, moderated the enlightened discussion, which touched on issues of sexuality, Black love, paternalism, economic relationships, slavery, domestic violence and the Harlem Renaissance.

Pat Toney San Francisco Public Library

BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

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BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

READING IS GRAND!

CELEBRATING GRAND-FAMILIES TELLING OUR STORIES @ YOUR LIBRARY

A Project of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association 2013 Grant Information Sponsored by BCALA Reading Is Grand Program Overview Reading Is Grand! Celebrating Grand-Families @ Your Library is a literacy program designed to reach out to African American children and families through shared stories.

Sharing stories, both oral, written, and visual, are the building blocks of literacy. It is through this exchange that children learn about their world and how people relate to each other in it. Shared stories inspire growth, encourage exploration, and boost self-esteem. The program builds literacy through reading, storytelling, art, and/or dramatic play.

Reading is Grand! is a celebration of the important role grandparents play in the lives of children. It is through their infinite wisdom and experiences that children learn the unique cultural and familial values that help them grow into valuable contributors to the community.

The Reading Is Grand! Celebrating Grand-Families @ Your Library literacy grant is designed to provide financial support to libraries and community organizations who want to introduce the Reading Is Grand literacy program into the library setting focusing on African American culture.

Grant Eligibility Libraries (public, school, academic, community college, special, or rural) and community organizations that serve children and their families are eligible to apply. Libraries and community organizations can collaborate together on a Reading Is Grand! program. The program must be in a library setting.

Grant Criteria Programs must focus on the Reading Is Grand! program concept with an emphasis on African American culture and traditions and literacy activities. Selection criteria will be based on creativity and originality of the Reading Is Grand program. Selection will also be based on the action plan, level of community involvement, impact of the program, and publicity.

Grant Award Amount $500 grant from BCALA Use of Grant Funds Winning projects will be awarded $500 to purchase books, supplies, and/or activities for their program based upon their creativity and originality. (Note: A brief report of the completed program along with the spending of funds and 15 digital photos of the event must be submitted within 30 days after the event is held.)

Grant Deadline Applications must be received by May 15, 2013.

Grant award will be announced at ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago, IL. Please submit the Reading Is Grand! grant application describing the type of program, the action plan, and what your library or library/community organization would do with the grant award. (See application.)

To get an application, contact Dr. Claudette S. McLinn FAX: (805) 583-0207 Email: cmclinn@aol.com

BCALA NEWSLETTER VOLUME 40, ISSUE 2

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The National Conference of African American Librarians presents the “Soul Side of the Windy City Tour”

Bronzeville Community

Oprah’s “Harpo” Studio

Ida B. Wells Home

Chess Records

Rainbow Push Headquarters

Chicago’s only Black-­‐owned Skyscraper

Millennium Park

The Great Migration

Black Metropolis

Etta Motten Barnett’s Home

The Magnificent Mile

Birth Place of Gospel

Lorraine Hansberry’s Home

Site of First Open Heart Surgery

Cradle of Black Drama

Obama’s Victory Celebration

Obama’s Favorite Places

Birth Place of Black History Month

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US 1 All-­‐Black Regiment

Underground Railroad Stations

The Defender Newspaper Headquarters

Largest Black-­‐Owned Advertising Agency

Join us for a Three-­‐ Hour Bus Tour of Over 50 sites Friday, June 28, 2013 – 3:00pm-­‐6:00pm Boarding is at 2:30 pm from McCormick Place Shuttle area $50 per person (Optional Box Lunch-­‐ $8) (Tour Services provided by Black Coutours (773) 233-­‐8907-­‐ www.blackcoutours.com)

Mail checks to: BCALA for 8th NCAAL-­‐Bus Tour Dr. Stanton Biddle, Treasurer NCAAL P.O. Box 174 New York, NY 10159-­‐0174 or pay online at http://www.bcala.org/NCAALChgoTour.html

For further questions please contact Emily Guss, eguss@uic.edu *Event subject to cancellation if the minimum of 35 participants is not met.