by: Gianna Fraccalvieri, QCL Information Assistant
Please join us in honoring Black History Month this February by viewing a selection of books celebrating the lives and work of various Black American artists, displayed on the main level of the Queens College Library (Rosenthal, 3rd floor). Curated by Amanda Lea Perez, our Substitute Visual & Performing Arts-Art Librarian, this cultural awareness collection seeks to emphasize the diverse history and ongoing influence of Black American artists in the world of visual and performing arts.
Some of the featured artists include Kara Walker, famous for her silhouetted figures among other multimedia works of art; Jean-Michel Basquiat, known for his neo-expressionist drawings, paintings, and graffiti street art; Faith Ringgold, renowned for her multimedia sculptures, performance art, paintings, and art education; and William Pope.L, remembered for his “interventionist public art,” performances, and much more. Other Black American artists including Lorna Simpson, Theaster Gates, and Charles White are highlighted in this selection, as well as scholarly sources analyzing the lasting impact these individuals had on the arts in the United States and beyond.
Seeking to “improve the representation of Contemporary Black artists in the QC collection,” Amanda has recently ordered more books that will soon be available to browse in the Art Collection (Rosenthal, 6th floor). Some of these new acquisitions include Amy Sherald: The World We Make,Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks, and Simone Leigh, among others. To further explore your interests, please browse the print books on display, use OneSearch to find related e-books and academic articles, meet with a research librarian in the Research Office (Rm. 344) and, of course, visit Amanda in the Art Collection!
Display curated by Amanda Lea Perez, Substitute Visual & Performing Arts-Art Librarian / Blog post written by Gianna Fraccalvieri, Information Assistant
by: Gianna Fraccalvieri, QCL Information Assistant
January 2024 is National Hobby Month! As we step into a new year and semester, consider picking up an old pastime or trying something new to enjoy the countless personal and professional rewards that hobbies can offer you. If you’re looking for a place to start, please visit the book display dedicated to the historical and current practice of popular hobbies in the U.S. located on the main level of the Queens College Library (Rosenthal 3rd floor).
This month’s cultural awareness collection seeks to provide a variety of hobby-related resources, from step-by-step guides to detailed histories and scholarly analyses of the social and emotional impacts of different leisurely ventures. Some of the activities highlighted in this display include cooking and baking, video gaming, reading and writing, DIY crafting, caring for plants and pets, physical fitness, fashion design and cosplay, stargazing, and much more! To further explore your interests, please browse the print books and E-Books on display, use OneSearch to find related sources, and meet with a librarian for in-depth inquiries.
Queens College Library (Rosenthal 3rd floor) book display of historical and current practices of popular hobbies.
Recent research has linked the perception of a positive work-life balance with the regular practice of hobbies among a sample of undergraduate students, suggesting that carving out time to enjoy personal interests outside of school and work could help reduce overall stress. Additionally, other articles report that having hobbies can enhance levels of productivity, creativity, and originality among scholars and professionals by encouraging more divergent thought processes throughout our daily responsibilities.
For more information about how to pursue your recreational interests as a member of the Queens College community, please review the following resources:
by: Gianna Fraccalvieri, QCL Information Assistant
On December 10th, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was published by the United Nations General Assembly to officially define and defend the inherent rights of all human beings for the first time in history. In honor of this milestone, the world celebrated the 75th anniversary of Human Rights Day on Sunday, December 10th, 2023. Please help us raise awareness for Universal Human Rights Month (UHRM) this December by visiting the book display on the main level of the Queens College Library (Rosenthal 3rd floor).
Highlighting the 2023 UHRM theme of “Freedom, Equality and Justice for All,” the books on display include works across the fields of history, political science, anthropology, sociology, gender studies, economics, and more to provide a multilayered perspective on universal human rights issues. Feel free to browse the physical books on display as this month’s cultural awareness installment, use OneSearch to find related E-Books, or meet with a librarian to discuss further research options.
As a major achievement in international and multicultural collaboration, the UDHR has been translated into more than 500 languages and influenced the formation of over 70 human rights treaties. To learn more about this legacy and how to get involved in universal human rights advocacy efforts, please visit the following links:
This November, please join us in observing National Family Caregivers Month (NFCM) by viewing the book display located on the main level of the Queens College Library (Rosenthal 3rd floor). According to the Caregiver Action Network (CAN), which is the non-profit organization responsible for organizing NFCM, there are “more than 90 million Americans who care for loved ones with chronic conditions, disabilities, disease, or the frailties of old age.” To learn more about the challenges across diverse caregiving experiences, and to explore supportive resources for caregivers and their families, please browse the books on display, search for E-books online via OneSearch, or request a research appointment with a librarian.
Queens College Library’s Book Display for National Family Caregivers Month
As this month’s edition of the Library’s cultural awareness book displays, this collection acknowledges the 2023 NFCM theme of #CaregiversConnect by elevating educational resources, shared stories, and support networks across a variety of caregiving situations. Organized support services, such as those offered through the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL), may alleviate some of the emotional, practical, and financial pressures experienced by family caregivers throughout their honorable efforts to help their loved ones.
For more information about how you can get involved in supporting the NFCM 2023 #CaregiversConnect campaign, please consult the following resources:
by: Gianna Fraccalvieri, QCL Information Assistant
Queens College Library Halloween Display – Rosenthal 3rd fl.
As Tuesday, October 31st approaches, we invite you to stop by the main floor of the Queens College Library (Rosenthal 3rd floor) to view this year’s Halloween book display! If you are interested in learning more about the history of Halloween, horror fiction and film, and similar topics, please come in to browse the physical collection. You can also peruse related E-books online via OneSearch, explore our digital and streaming resources, and meet with a librarian to discuss more in-depth research questions.
Children’s Books
Additionally, a selection of Children’s books is available if you are looking to entertain the younger loved ones in your life with age-appropriate stories this Halloween. This collection is part of the Library’s cultural awareness book displays for October 2023, as well as our display for Italian American Heritage Month. Feel free to ask about the displays at the Information Desk.
Events
Upcoming Halloween-related events on campus include the screening of the Japanese horror film:
The Ring on Tuesday, October 31st from 5:00pm – 8:00pm
The film will be shown in Queens Hall 120, presented by the Japanese Studies program. For more information, contact joshua.rogers@qc.cuny.edu.
Display and blog post created by Gianna Fraccalvieri, an Information Assistant at Queens College Library and MLS/MA student at Queens College GSLIS.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. We selected featured resources to celebrate the diverse and vibrant traditions and cultures of Asian American and Pacific Islanders in honor of their achievements and contributions to society.
The AAPI Heritage Month 2023 guide provides open and licensed QCL resources highlighting the AAPI people’s experiences and voices. You can find more information of interest in the Asian Studies guide. Below are a few featured resources, including facts, books, digital archives, and streaming media.
AAPI Heritage Month coincides with “two key milestones: the arrival of the nation’s first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and Chinese workers’ pivotal role in building the transcontinental railroad (completed May 10, 1869)” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023).
In the United States, the estimated population of Asians alone or combined in 2021 was 24 million, and the estimated population of Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders was 1.7 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023).
The visualized total population of Asian Alone (left) and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Alone (right) by State. Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau; 2017-2021 American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates. Social Explorer prepared the visualization.
“RISE is a love letter to and for Asian Americans – a vivid scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which our culture was forged and transformed, and a way to preserve both the headlines and the intimate conversations that have shaped our community into who we are today.”
“From the number one bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere,” Our Missing Hearts is “a deeply suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear.”
“Five girls. Three generations. One great American love story. You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture – for better or worse.”
New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2021
“Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, TASTES LIKE WAR is a hybrid text about a daughter’s search through intimate and global history to understand herself and the cultural roots of her mother’s condition.”
“Bruce Lee embodies the intermixture of cultures that results from transnational flows of people, ideas, and capital.” This book highlights “Bruce Lee’s influence beyond martial arts and film” as an “Asian and Asian American icon of unimaginable stature and influence.”
Visit us to find more featured books in “Cultural Awareness Month Displays” at Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, 3rd floor Commons.
Digital Archives and Websites
Asian American Arts Spotlight: “American artists of Asian heritage bring a combined legacy to their work, and varieties of Asian thought and spiritual practice have had a profound and lasting influence on a remarkable number of Western artists. Influence has been a two-way street between contemporary American art practice and Asian cultures, past and present.”
Tagging and Transcription for Chinese Heritage Records: “The records are a major resource for the study of Chinese immigration and Chinese American travel, trade, and social history from the late-19th to the mid-20th century. Because many documents relate to individual immigrants, they are invaluable for the study of Chinese and Chinese American family history.”
National Park Service Celebrates Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month: “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a rich heritage thousands of years old and have both shaped the history of the United States and had their lives dramatically influenced by moments in its history. Every May during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and throughout the year, the National Park Service and its partners share those histories and the continuing culture thriving in parks and communities today.”
The Center for Asian American Media: “The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Collection contains 63 films that speak to the Asian experience through the lens of history.” The collection contains “a diverse array of subjects from a variety of geographic locations” and “biographies that show a glimpse into the life of young Asian Americans who struggle with identity, adversity, and overcoming complex obstacles in order to achieve their goals, and even the smallest wins in life.”
Queens College Library video collections on AAPI: Using QCL online catalog OneSearch and streaming video databases to find more video collections of interest.
It’s okay to not understand something. Sometimes we just need to sit down and talk about “it”. This workshop is designed to bring people together to discuss everyday issues and have uncomfortable conversations.
Set with the concept of speed dating, participants will be paired to have a timed one-on-one discussion on a variety of topics that include race, gender, sexuality, religion, mental health, and other topics, to ask each other questions so that they can learn about issues that they are unfamiliar with. This is an opportunity to talk, listen and learn about the differences that make us unique in our own ways.
Come join us as we get comfortable with being uncomfortable and let’s talk about “it”!
The library is pleased to announce that the papers of Queens College basketball legend Lucille Kyvallos are processed and available for research. Transferred to Special Collections and Archives last summer, the collection includes administrative, coaching, and teaching records; awards, photographs, and publications; and other materials that shine a light on the history of women’s college basketball from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.
Madison Square Garden, Queens College vs Immaculata College Poster, 1973. Photo credit Richard Lee
Select items from the collection are on display in a library exhibit, Leaving it All on the Court: Queens College’s Lucille Kyvallos and her Iconic Legacy. Stop by Rosenthal to see photographs, trophies, awards, and primary documents from this extensive and multilayered collection. The exhibit opened March 1st in celebration of Women’s History Month but will remain on display through December of this year. The exhibit is located in the display cases in the Charles J. Tanenbaum room and adjacent lounge area on the 3rd floor.
Lucille Kyvallos is a trailblazer of women’s basketball in collegiate sports. She was the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Queens College from 1968 through 1981, holding an overall record of 239-77. Kyvallos helped bring her team and the sport to the national stage: she coached the first women’s college basketball game played at Madison Square Garden in 1975 and led the 1977 US National Women’s Basketball Team at the World University Games to a silver medal, among other accomplishments. During her tenure, she worked tirelessly to promote women’s college basketball and bring it to a wider audience.
Sarah Barlow-Ochshorn, a graduate Fellow from the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS), processed the collection and curated the exhibit, thanks to generous funding from Lucille Kyvallos and the Department of Recreation and Athletics.
United States National Women’s Basketball, World University Games Team 1977 Lucille Kyvallos and the 1973 Team, Photo credit Richard Lee, Lucille Kyvallos Athletics Records
Lucille Kyvallos playing for St. Demetrios, circa 1950s
“Getting to learn about Lucille and her impact on women’s collegiate basketball has been a joy. The materials in her collection reveal the perseverance, resilience, and teamwork that led to the success of the QC women’s basketball team in an era when women’s sports lacked adequate support and resources,” said Sarah.
Interested in learning more about Lucille Kyvallos and her collection?
Access the finding aid for the Lucille Kyvallos Athletics Records and Papers now! To book a research appointment, please email qc.archives@qc.cuny.edu.
View an oral history with Lucille Kyvallos, or download the transcript, on the Queens Memory portal.
by Carlo Minchillo, Substitute Librarian for Research & Information Services
The Queens College Library celebrates Italian American Heritage & Culture Month this October, where we acknowledge the history of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans, their journeys and experiences in America, and their contributions to our society. Our leaders have continuously called upon Americans to learn more about the history of Italian Americans through education, programming, and participation in cultural events.
In that spirit, we have compiled a list of books/ebooks, streaming films/television series, streaming music, and scholarly works in Italian-American studies that are available through our print and digital collections at the Queens College Library. The full list can be found in our updated library guide. Here are some highlights to get you started.
Historical Facts
About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. between 1820 and 2004. The greatest influx of migration took place between 1880 and 1920 when over 4 million Italians came to America.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, born in Brooklyn, NY, has been the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He is well-known for his work in HIV-AIDS research and combating outbreaks of the West Nile virus, SARS, Ebola, and COVID-19.
An Italian-American broke the gender barrier in U.S. politics. Geraldine Ferraro, a schoolteacher turned criminal prosecutor and congresswoman from Queens, was the first woman on a major party ticket, running for vice president alongside presidential candidate Walter Mondale.
There has been an odd reluctance on the part of historians of the Italian American experience to confront the discrimination faced by Italians and Americans of Italian ancestry. This volume is a bold attempt by an esteemed group of scholars and writers to discuss the question openly by charting the historical and cultural boundaries of stereotypes, prejudice, and assimilation.
This is the life story of Rosa Cavalleri, an Italian woman who came to the United States in 1884, one of the peak years in the nineteenth-century wave of immigration. A vivid, richly detailed account, the narrative traces Rosa’s life in an Italian peasant village and later in Chicago.
The large majority of the twenty million Italian Americans are law-abiding, hard-working, and accomplished. Yet the image of Italian Americans is often distorted by stereotypes portrayed in popular media. This book counters those stereotypes with brief sketches of Italian Americans who have achieved success and enriched the lives of others.
Maligned by modern media and often stereotyped, Italian Americans possess a vibrant, if largely forgotten, radical past. Bencivenni delves into the history of the sovversivi, a transnational genration of social rebels, and offers a fascinating portrait of their political struggle as well as their milieu, beliefs, and artistic creativity in the United States.
This study reviews forty years of Italian-American government employment in New York City and New York State. The study analyzes the percentage of Italian Americans in 411 New York State and 391 New York City occupations, including management and professional, service, and skilled and unskilled government employment.
The QC Library celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month! Led by the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, this annual initiative, celebrated in October since 1945, recognizes people with disabilities as part of an inclusive workforce. The 2022 theme is “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation.”
Persons of working age with a disability are unemployed at a much higher rate than persons without a disability, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are also more likely to be employed part-time, in the service industry, or self-employed. What do scholars make of these phenomena? What do the experiences of people with disabilities say about equity (or the lack thereof) in workplaces? Or about the very ideas of productivity and work? To find out, dive into the National Disability Employment Awareness Month page in our new Disability Studies research guide.
But work is only one small part of the picture. This month also marks the publication of our research guide for Disability Studies generally. As an interdisciplinary field emerging in the late 20th-century along the lines of Gender Studies or Latino Studies, Disability Studies uses a variety of methodologies to analyze the meanings attributed to human differences, whether bodily or mental. People with disabilities have been at the forefront of both activism and scholarship that challenge the idea of what’s “normal,” and the attendant social exclusions that hide behind that idea. Especially significant have been disabled persons’ activism and theorizing around the disconnect between human beings and the built environment (think of curb cuts, ramps, elevators) in pursuit of equity for everyone. Radical scholars in disability studies have long positioned their research in the wider context of human liberation from all forms of oppression.
Here are some highlights from the Disability Studies research guide:
“During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans with all sorts of disabilities came to be labeled as ‘unproductive citizens.’ […] By tracing the experiences of policymakers, employers, reformers, and disabled people caught up in this epochal transition, Rose masterfully integrates disability history and labor history. She shows how people with disabilities lost access to paid work and the status of ‘worker’–a shift that relegated them and their families to poverty and second-class economic and social citizenship. This has vast consequences for debates about disability, work, poverty, and welfare in the century to come.”
“This is the first book to challenge the concept of paid work for disabled people as a means to ‘independence’ and ‘self determination’. Recent attempts in many countries to increase the employment rates of disabled people have actually led to an erosion of financial support for many workless disabled people and their increasing stigmatisation as ‘scroungers’. Led by the disability movement’s concern with the employment choices faced by disabled people, this controversial book uses sociological and philosophical approaches, as well as international examples, to critically engage with possible alternatives to paid work.”
“Contends that disability is a central but misunderstood element of global austerity politics. Broadly attentive to the political and economic shifts of the last several decades, Robert McRuer asks how disability activists, artists and social movements generate change and resist the dominant forms of globalization in an age of austerity, or ‘crip times.'”
“‘Sex, Identity, Aesthetics: The Work of Tobin Siebers and Disability Studies’ uses Siebers’ work as a launchpad for thinking about contemporary disability studies. The editors provide an overview of Siebers’ research to show how it has contributed to humanistic understandings of ability and disability along three key axes: sex, identity, and aesthetics.”
“The authors provide a probing analysis of such topics as deinstitutionalization, housing, health care, assisted suicide, employment, education, new technologies, disabled veterans, and disability culture. Based on interviews with over one hundred activists, The Disability Rights Movement is a complex and compelling story of an ongoing movement that seeks to create an equitable and diverse society, inclusive of people with disabilities.”
“Academic Ableism brings together disability studies and institutional critique to recognize the ways that disability is composed in and by higher education, and rewrites the spaces, times, and economies of disability in higher education to place disability front and center. […] Examining everything from campus accommodation processes, to architecture, to popular films about college life, Dolmage argues that disability is central to higher education, and that building more inclusive schools allows better education for all.”
“The fifth edition of The Disability Studies Reader addresses the post-identity theoretical landscape by emphasizing questions of interdependency and independence, the human-animal relationship, and issues around the construction or materiality of gender, the body, and sexuality. […] The collection addresses physical disabilities, but as always investigates issues around pain, mental disability, and invisible disabilities as well.”
