Now @ MPL...

Milwaukee Job Development staff will be on hand at King Library (310 W. Locust) throughout October to help you find employment:

Monday, October 6, 4:30pm-5:30pm
This session is aimed at the 16-21 year-old crowd focusing on job readiness. It’s time to start thinking about your first or next job.

Friday, October 10, 1:30pm-2:30pm
Make sure to bring your resume to this job strategy workshop that focuses on finding job openings and offers terrific resume tips.

Wednesday, October 15, 5:00pm-7:00pm
How do you get that great position you’ve always wanted? This session focuses on exactly where the best jobs can be found and how to get them.

Martin Luther King Library
310 W. Locust Street
Monday, November 10
6:30 - 7:30 p.m

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

Winter Santiaga, the daughter of one of Brooklyn’s
most powerful drug czars, uses her own smarts to stay on
top after her father’s empire is threatened by a drug war.

Read the book and discuss it with other library patrons
while you enjoy some refreshments!

Wednesday, November 19th
Martin Luther King Library
310 W. Locust St.
2 - 4 p.m.
(414) 286-3098
ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

Staff from the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Milwaukee will give a brief presentation and library staff will show you how and where to get a free copy of your credit report. You don’t need to have a library card. A printout of one report per person will be provided free of charge. Staff from the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Milwaukee will be available to explain the report to you and provide additional information.

To get your free credit report, be prepared to provide your:
• Social Security Number
• Birth date
• Address or addresses where you have lived for the past three years
• Account numbers for utilities – gas/electric, cable, telephone, etc.
• Account numbers for any loans or revolving lines of credit you have

After her "stand-in mother" Rosaleen insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins her on a journey to South Carolina where the duo are taken in by three African American bee-keeping sisters. Have you seen the movie? Visit King Library next Monday afternoon or evening and talk about it! Find a copy of the book or sound recording here.

King Library Open Monday, 1/19

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, King Library will be open
on Monday, January 19 from 9am to 5pm.

All other Milwaukee Public Libraries will be closed January 19th.

Two programs are planned for the day. Read about them here.

While you're in King Library, please check out our artist's book created by
Amos Paul Kennedy which is on permanent display. Commissioned in
1997 for the renovation of King Library, the book contains quotes from
Dr. King and is approximately 10 to 12 feet in width when opened.
The handmade paper used for the pages comes from the leaves of
banana trees.

Help celebrate Black History Month at King Library with members
of the Wisconsin 29th Regiment,
Company F, U.S. Colored Troops Civil War reenactment unit.

Saturday, February 7
2:00pm-3:00pm
Discuss the history of African American soldiers in the Civil War
with Jack Tomlinson. See and touch Civil War uniforms and
weaponry and discuss tactics. Learn how African-American
soldiers served the Union Army with honor and distinguished
themselves in many battles.

See you there!

Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995 after President Obama was elected the first
African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, but before his political career began.

Toni Morrison has called President Obama "a writer in my high esteem" and the book "quite extraordinary."

Please come to King Library (310 W. Locust) to discuss Dreams From My Father:
Saturday, February 14
3:00pm-4:00pm

If you haven't read the book, be our Valentine and join the conversation anyway.
Tell us what President Obama's life, presidency and vision mean to you, to
Milwaukee, and to America.

King Library
310 W. Locust
(414) 286-3098
Saturday, May 9
1:00pm-2:00pm

Come to King this Saturday and share your thoughts (even if you don't have time to read the book) and have some refreshments with your neighbors. Call and we'll reserve a book (audio and large print are also available) for you.

What's all the excitement about rhyme? Why is rhyming so important? To find out, come to the free Rhymers will be Readers workshop from MPL's Ready to Read with Books2Go program for child care providers.

Rhyming is part of phonological awareness, which is one of the most important early literacy skills. Research suggests that children who start school with this skill in place tend to have an easier time learning to read. The best time to help children develop this skill is before they start formal schooling.

During this interactive workshop, you will learn about phonological awareness and how to help children develop this skill through simple activities, games, and music. Learn how phonological awareness can be fostered throughout your day with minimal planning.

Registration is required this program, so please call (414) 286-8423 to sign up. Also, please remember this program is for adults only. Workshop attendees will earn 1.5 hours of continuing education credits.

This workshop will be held:

Wednesday, June 17
6:00-7:30 p.m.
Martin Luther King Library

and repeated:

Saturday, June 20
10:00-11:30 a.m.
Central Library

King Library is one of three scholarship application distribution sites for the second annual Freedom Scholarship Essay Contest, sponsored by Alderwoman Milele Coggs. Two $500 scholarships will be awarded. Applications are also available online.

All essayists must be recent high school grads (2007-2009) who are residents of the
6th aldermanic district and have been accepted at a 2 or 4 year college for the fall of 2009.
Pick up an application to read contest rules and submission requirements.
All essays must be postmarked by August 6, 2009.

For more information, please contact Ms.Akuwa Dantzler at (414) 286-8640 or adantz@milwaukee.gov.

King Library
310 W. Locust St.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
6:30pm-7:30pm

This book is a brilliant debut from an important new voice in African American fiction, Dedra Johnson. Set in 1970's New Orleans, critics have drawn comparisons to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Please join your friends and neighbors to discuss the book and enjoy some refreshments.

King Library staff have reserved several copies of this book for your convenience. Please call 286-3098.

Genealogy can be challenging under the best of circumstances. However, few areas of American genealogical research pose as much of a challenge as the search for African-American families.

Joe Williams, President of the Milwaukee African-American Genealogical Society, looks to help out with that issue by exploring strategies for discovering your African-American ancestors in various periods of history.

He will cover topics such as where and how to begin, how to interview family and family friends and what to look for in your home, how to search the census, death records, indexes, how to search transition records from slavery to freedom, how to search records for slaves, and other indexes and records that will be useful to the search.

Registration is encouraged. Please call 414-286-3098 to do so.

This session is being offered at Martin Luther King Library on Saturdays, October 3 & 24, November 7 & 28, December 5 from 1:00-3:00 p.m.

On June 19, 1999, Stephen King was struck by a van while walking along a road near his home, sustaining injuries to his spine, hip, ribs, and right leg. One of his broken ribs punctured a lung, and he nearly died. His near-death experience shows its influence in Just After Sunset : 14 tales about obsession and compulsion, richly nuanced with multiple narrators.

Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel in the forest? Recall that house of gingerbread belonging to the child-devouring witch? Create a miniature gingerbread house with your own children and then display it--or eat it!

(Witches not included.)

Martin Luther King Library
Wednesday, December 2, 5:30-6:30pm

Central Library
Saturday, December 5, 10:30-11:30am
Call 286-3091 to register.

King Library's "Build Your Own Gingerbread House" program on Wednesday, December 2 was a great success: 56 kids and 10 adults attended. Some made gingerbread houses, and some ate them (pre-construction) instead.

More terrific Milwaukee Public Library programs can be found by clicking on the Library Events category on the MPL website.