Category: Cover to Cover

CUNY Chapbook Festival, Part 2: Panel and Readings

Date: Thursday March 18, 2021
Time: 4:00PM – 5:30PM

Process & Collaboration: Designing Poetry Chapbooks in the Book Arts

Photo credit: Echosistemas (2020). Poems by Katerina Ramos Jordan. Designed and assembled by Erika Morillo, with printing assistance by Matthew Collins. 

Join us for an in-depth conversation led by three Book Artists with distinct practices, who will discuss their experiences designing and collaborating with poets on hand-produced limited edition chapbooks and other literary objects. CBA’s Programs Manager, Jenna Hamed will moderate this conversation with Aurora De Armendi, Erika Morillo, & Faride Mereb.

For nearly 50 years, Center for Book Arts has been supporting artists and book arts by presenting exhibitions, lectures, readings, and performances; providing opportunities for artists, writers, curators, and scholars through residencies. Their annual chapbook contest has been an elegant gateway for numerous emerging poets.

City University of New York MFA Reading: Four CUNY alumni read from their chapbooks. Featuring Dudgrick Bevins (City College), Charles Theonia (Brooklyn College), Jiordan Castle (Hunter College) and Leila Ortiz (Queens College)

“Our Pandemic Story Through Artifacts:” Annie Tummino on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday

On March 7, 2021, Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections & Archives at Queens College Library, was interviewed by LuLu Garcia-Navarro on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday to discuss the Queens College COVID-19 Collection, which is a part of the Queens Memory COVID-19 Project.  Tummino is a part of a collaborative effort in community archiving that includes Queens College Library, Queens Memory, and Queens Public Library.

The interview focused on the amazing work that archivists do to preserve our experiences and memories of this time.  It goes into the work of Tummino’s team in collecting the stories of COVID-19, documenting the digital artifacts (videos, oral histories, images, documents, etc.), and preserving them for the future so that there is a record of today’s experience during the global pandemic. As Tummino puts it, “the role of archivists is not only to preserve old records but also to figure out what’s happening in the world today that researchers and community members will want to be able to study and understand in the future.” 

Take some time and listen to the interview (3 minutes), explore the Queens College COVID-19 Collection, and maybe contribute your own story to the historical record.  Also, check out Tummino in the recent JSTOR Daily article, “Preserving the History of Coronavirus in Queens.”

Celebrating Diversity: Black History Month Resources!

Resources for African American Studies by James Tasato Mellone, Historical Cultural and Social Sciences Librarian

The QC Library is delighted to celebrate Black History Month (also known as African American History Month)! In this time of continuing struggle for racial justice we acknowledge the contributions to our global society made by African American culture and history!

When discussing diversity, we remember our African American fellow citizens, whether students or colleagues, or family or friends or neighbors, and recognize the centrality of the African American experience to the American experience. We also acknowledge the ongoing American civil rights movement led by African Americans past and present.

We present a new U. S. Civil Rights History research guide, and as part of our Africana Studies research guide we present a guide to celebrate Black History Month that provides a selection of films, books, and music,

Below are a few highlights!

BlacKKKlansman theatrical release poster

BlacKkKlansman (2018, 2h 15min) Directed by Spike Lee. “A black detective sets out to infiltrate the Colorado chapter of the Ku Klux Klan with the help of his Jewish colleague. In the midst of the 1970s civil rights movement, they risk their lives to obtain insider information on the violent organization” – Swank.

I Am Not Your Negro poster

I Am Not Your Negro; James Baldwin and Race in America (2013, 1hr 33min) Directed by Raoul Peck. “An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends–Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript.” – Kanopy

Cover Art

Motherhood So White by Nefertiti Austin
ISBN: 9781492679011
Publication Date: 2019-09-20

“All moms have to deal with choosing baby names, potty training, finding your village, and answering your kid’s tough questions, but if you are raising a Black child, you have to deal with a lot more than that. Especially if you’re a single Black mom… and adopting. Nefertiti Austin shares her story of starting a family through adoption as a single Black woman. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single Black moms, and confronts the reality of what it looks like to raise children of color and answer their questions about racism in modern-day America…”

A Past That Won’t Rest by Jim Lucas (Photographer); Jane Hearn (Editor)
ISBN: 149681651X
Publication Date: 2018-03-22

“Collects never-before-published photographs taken by Jim Lucas (1944-1980), an exceptional documentary photographer. His black-and-white images, taken during 1964 through 1968, depict events from the civil rights movement including the search for the missing civil rights workers in Neshoba County, the Meredith March Against Fear, Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s visit to the Mississippi Delta, and more. The photographs exemplify Lucas’s technical skill and reveal the essential truth in his subjects and the circumstances surrounding them…”

Barbara Hendricks: Duke Ellington and Gershwin

Warner Classics, 2007, accessed in Naxos Music Library database

Wynton Marsalis: Jazz 6 1/2 Syncopated Movements and Jump Start

Sony Classical, 1997, accessed in Naxos Music Library database

Celebrating Diversity: Black History Month

In Honor of Black History Month, Queens College announced a full calendar of events —celebrating Black history, culture, and achievements while also addressing today’s struggles for racial equity. This year these events have gone virtual, making them readily accessible to the broad audience that cannot attend them in person during the pandemic. Sessions will address such varied topics as the future of Black women in the technology sector, the role of theatre in social change, and hip-hop, including a performance and workshop.

For calendar and event information, visit the Black History Month website.

Events will be live-streamed on YouTube

Prof. Yearwood moderated Grassroots Youth Activism

Watch our own Simone L. Yearwood, Deputy Chief Librarian, Associate Professor, as she moderates a discussion with QC Alum (Class of 2019) and newly elected New York Assemblyman (D) Khaleel Anderson on Grassroots Youth Activism as a bridge to elected office. Assembly Member Anderson, the youngest Black assembly member in New York State history, was elected to serve Assembly District 31 in Queens in the November 2020 election.

Watch Professor Yearwood moderate the discussion on YouTube:

Check out the Black History Month events on the YouTube Channel.

CUNY CHAPBOOK FESTIVAL

Dates: February 18, March 18, and April 15, 2021

“In an age when everything is never fast enough, the chapbook is a small anchor to the moment; it is a pause to read and relish,” says Kimiko Hahn, poet, professor, and one of the festival organizers.

The chapbook, a modest publication has had an impressive longevity dating from early printing press publications to today’s editions, whether stapled and photocopied, hand-lettered on hand-made paper, or digital. 

This three-day festival revives an earlier incarnation that took place at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Funded by the Executive Vice Chancellor Jose Cruz’s Office of Academic Affairs and the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, the events are virtual and registration is open to the public.

Highlights include:

  • Keynote: Matvei Yankelevich, poet, translator and the executive director of Ugly Duckling Presse, will speak on “The Chapbook Then and Now.” He also recorded a video on how to make a chapbook, available on the website.
  • Musical performance: Cornelius Eady Trio will perform work whose lyrics are published in numerous chapbooks. 
  • Reading: Alicia Ostriker, N.Y. State Poet Laureate, will read from her chapbook Ideas of Order and Disorder, created just for the festival.  The presentation of this stellar hybrid collection will include her photographs. 
  • Panels include how to compile and chapbook and how to start a chapbook press.
  • Student reading: CUNY alumni from Brooklyn, City, Hunter, and Queens Colleges will read from their chapbooks.

The website also features an exhibition from the Library’s collection of chapbooks as well as a virtual Chapbook Fair. 

“Romaniote Memories” Digital Exhibit Launched

In 1999, photographer Vincent Giordano made an unplanned visit to the small Kehila Kedosha Janina (KKJ) synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. He knew little about Judaism or synagogues, and even less about the Romaniote Jewish tradition of which KKJ, built in 1927, is the lone North American representative. In this he was not alone. Romaniotes are among the least known of Jewish communities. Beginning in 2001 and guided by members of the KKJ community, Giordano documented the synagogue and its religious art of the congregation using film, video, and audio. This included trips to Greece to document KKJ’s mother city of Ioannina, and its small Jewish community. 

In 2019 the Giordano family donated the archive of Vincent’s work to Queens College, where it is a major part of the Hellenic American Project and is preserved as part of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library’s Special Collections and Archives. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Special Collections and Archives has not yet processed the physical materials in the Vincent Giordano collection. Fortunately, we were able to use scans of Giordano’s prints and negatives to create a new online exhibit “Romaniote Memories, a Jewish Journey from Ioannina, Greece to Manhattan: Photographs by Vincent Giordano.” Many of these images have never been presented in public before.

The exhibition is curated by Samuel Gruber, President of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments and designed by Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections and Archives, Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library. The opening reception, featuring a conversation with curators, distinguished guests, and friends, will take place via Zoom on Thursday, February 11, 2021 at 5 pm (register here). 

The exhibition is sponsored by the Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Hellenic American Project, and Center for Jewish Studies at Queens College, as well as the International Center for Jewish Monuments, an independent non-profit organization. The Library and Center for Jewish Studies will be teaming up to offer a paid internship for a student to help process and catalog the Giordano collection during the next academic year.

Culture Watch: QC Library Recommends (Dec. 2020)

by Michael Deering

Although we are almost out of 2020, let’s not rush through this holiday season! Though it may be a bit quieter than usual, this season should be a time of good will towards all. Stay in touch with loved ones and if you need some entertainment for yourself, or to share with others, here are some excellent free events from Queens College and beyond to bring into your homes. Warmest wishes from myself and all of us at Benjamin Rosenthal Library!

Music

  • Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30PM: The Queens College New Music Group presents a concert of New Works for Mixed Ensembles. This group consists of Aaron Copland School of Music composers who are interested in the many directions music is going.
  • Wednesday, December 9 at 7:30PM: Join the Queens College Choral Society, Vocal Ensemble and Treble Choir for an Evening of Choral Music! One highlight will be the world premiere of Karen Siegel’s Meditation for live remote choir including a Q&A with the composer.
  • Thursday, December 10 and Thursday, December 17 at 7PM: The Louis Armstrong House presents short films featuring projects inspired by Louis Armstrong. Inside the Laughing Barrel will air on the 10th followed by Letters on the 17th. Register for the free live streams here.
  • Thursday, December 10 at 8PM:  Jazz Foundation of America Presents Bird Calls, a COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund Digital Concert featuring the music of, and the music inspired by, Charlie Parker. RSVP here.
  • Friday, December 11 through Friday, December 18: The US-China Music Institute presents the China and Beethoven Festival. The virtual festival will showcase how Beethoven’s legacy is more relevant than ever and also explore Beethoven’s legacy in China as a heroic figure during the changing politics of the 20th century and China’s oscillating affiliation with Western classical music. Register here!
  • Saturday, December 19 at 3PM: The Kupferberg Center for the Arts brings Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Elena Moon Park to your screens. Enjoy a set of reimagined folk and children’s songs from East Asia. Join her to sing and dance along to Taiwanese train songs, Korean and Chinese New Year’s songs. RSVP here!

Literature

  • Tuesday, December 8 at 7PM: Kupferberg Center for the Arts presents Off the Page: Cherríe Moraga and Vanessa Pérez-Rosario in Conversation. Cherríe Moraga is an internationally acclaimed poet and author who has been active since the 1980s. You can learn more about her and RSVP for the free event here.  
  • Wednesday, December 9 at 7PM: Catch the worldwide facebook premiere of The Library that Dolly Built. This documentary traces icon Dolly Parton’s history that led her to create the Imagination Library which provides free literature for young children. RSVP for this feel great premiere here!
  • Thursday, December 17 at 3PM: We think having free access to these cultural riches is something to celebrate! This event will bring together a diverse group of organizations, musicians, artists, activists, and thinkers to highlight the new works entering the public domain in 2021 and discuss those elements of knowledge and creativity that are too important to a healthy society to lock down with copyright law. Register for Public Domain Day here!

Theatre

  • Available December 10 through December 11: Christopher Plummer and Nikki M. James star in the Stratford Festival’s 2008 production of the George Bernard Shaw play, Caesar and Cleopatra. 
  • Friday, December 11 at 8PM through December 15: Lesli Margherita stars in Who’s Holiday? A solo play by Matthew Lombardo about middle-aged Cindy Lou Who, who recalls the night she first met the Grinch. Filmed Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre in 2017. You can catch this play and a ton of other impressive and hysterical productions on Broadway Cares Youtube channel! 
  • Available through December 24: Milwaukee Rep is making their 2016 production of the classic, Mark Clement’s A Christmas Carol, available through Christmas Eve. Be sure to fill out this form to receive the link!