Central Library SUMMER hours 2023 — Mondays/Wednesdays 9am-8:30pm; Tuesdays/Fridays 9am-6pm; Thursdays 11am-6pm; Saturdays, 10am-5pm (through June). *CLOSED* Saturdays in July/August and *CLOSED* Sundays.
FFRPL, Central Library, and all branches will be *CLOSED* for Juneteenth (Monday, June 19) and Independence Day (Tuesday, July 4).
FFRPL sponsored the 6th annual Anthony Mascioli Rainbow Dialogues on Saturday, April 1, featuring Keynote Speaker Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., Frederick Douglass Associate Professor of African-American Literature and Culture; Director, Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies at the University of Rochester. In his talk, Disobedience: A Politics for Radical Queer Life, McCune offered disobedience as an intentional refusal of the traditional narratives of queer life, and an invitation to lean into ways of knowing which privilege the marginal voices on which so much of LGBTIA+ storytelling relies.
FFRPL took the lead and once again created a consolidated multi-page web-based resource of programs, events, and services offered by Central Library for Black History Month February 2022 including the Tuesday Topics lecture Repairing the Historical Record through Community Collaboration, a talk on how the Library helps to foster Equity and Justice in our society with diverse cultural community representation in programs and services, such as Central’s new Archive of Black History and Culture (presented by Christine L. Ridarsky, City Historian & Historical Services Consultant, Rochester Public Library and Mekko Griffin Mongeon, the Exhibit Project Manager for the Clarissa Uprooted Project*); Exploring the Friendship of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali (presented by Mark Sample, professor at Monroe Community College); Very Beginner Drawing: Draw Like Artist Jacob Lawrence, a tutorial on the work and style of Jacob Armstead Lawrence, an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life; African American Abstract Art in New York during the 1960s and 1970s (presented by Cynthia Hawkins, Ph.D, Gallery Director and Curator of the Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery at SUNY Geneseo).
*watch the 25-minute video, Clarissa Uprooted: Youth and Elders Uncover the Story of Black Rochester, referenced by Mekko Griffin Mongeon in the “Repairing the Historical Record” talk.
FFRPL took the lead and created a consolidated multi-page web-based resource of programs, events, and services offered by Central Library for Black History Month February 2021 including Tuesday Topics lectures, Black History Lectures organized by Central Library’s Arts & Literature Division: “Charles Ethan Porter: Artist and Community” and “Dox Thrash: From Tenant Farmer’s Son to Artist at the Pennsylvania Federal Art Project;” the documentary “Black Men in White Coats;” (virtual) Fourth annual Anthony Mascioli Rainbow Dialogues; the exhibit Everyday People: the Dinkle Family and Rochester’s African American Past, curated by Central’s Local History & Genealogy Division; the online Smithsonian Poster Exhibit A Place for All People: Introducing the National Museum of African American History and Culture; and Central Library’s Understanding Black Experiences online resource guide.
