Events At Lakewood Public Library

April 17
Poetry Month:
On the Flyleaf

Herbert Woodward Martin Celebrates Poetry and Song

Poems are nothing more than songs. Songs are simply poems sung. These simple truths form the essence of Herbert Woodward Martin’s beliefs and craft. Martin is perhaps best known as a scholar and performer of the pioneering African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar’s works— performances that he’s taken as far west as Chaminade University in Hawaii and as far east as The Alexandrine Library in Egypt. He's also the celebrated author of eight volumes of poetry. In this program, Martin will both demystify verse and praise its virtues. First, he will give an impromptu demonstration of how to write a poem using words supplied by the audience. Then he will discuss the legacy of the Dayton born Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar only lived thirty-three short years, barely glimpsing the dawn of the twentieth century, but his verses have proved enormously influential. Martin will perform some of these pieces, blurring the line between recitation and full-throated song. Any skeptics who might be in the audience will have the dust blown off their preconceptions when they are confronted by the power, rhythm and humanity contained in a sequence of mere words, read with conviction and unabashed reverence. This is a program that you simply must witness. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

April 17

Booked for Murder: Laugh Out Loud Mysteries: "Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke

Murder is serious business… But sometimes solving the crime can be a hoot. Come share the laughs and air your accusations with this fun and friendly group of readers. For full book descriptions, visit www.lakewoodpubliclibrary.org/bookclubs.

Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Meeting Room


April 19
Lakewood Public Cinema: "The Doors" (1991)

Directed by Oliver Stone

Jim Morrison got to know a lot of people in his short life and every one of them remembers the larger-than-life icon differently. This makes writing a straightforward biography challenging, but for a filmmaker like Oliver Stone—with a talent like Val Kilmer up his sleeve—it serves as a license to rewrite the story of the band, the 60s and the nation itself according to his own shamanistic vision. Kilmer not only looks like Morrison, but he sounds eerily like him, too. (The soundtrack famously boasts vocals from both the actor and the icon and few can tell the difference.) His performance increases in mesmerizing power as the story traces the poet's journey from shy, reserved youth to drugged-out Lizard King. As the fame of The Doors grows, Morrison's obsession with death increases. The band grows weary of missed recording sessions and no-shows at concerts. Sinking deeper into a haze, having mystical sexual encounters with a rock journalist witch, he finally slips away.
Saturday, April 19 at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium


April 20

Holiday: Easter

Sunday, April 20, Closed All Day

April 22
Meet the Author: "Polarity" by Jeanne Paulding

Polarity is the story of three separate universes held apart by a giant supercomputer. The machine has grown weak and his demise will almost surely bring about the end of existence. Can two young strangers from different worlds save him before all time runs out? Lakewood author Jeanne Paulding offers an ambitious, character-based science fiction novel for her literary debut. The giant supercomputer known as the Conductor resides in a small universe called The Waiting Room that was built to repel the two larger universes from each other. If they are allowed to crash into the Waiting Room, life in all three will simply blink out of existence. Tom and Kara, two young captives from different worlds, are being held in the Waiting Room along with

the sinister Kurt and fatherly Icarus. There is precious little time to sort out everyone’s motives, but plenty of questions to go around. Does the Conductor need to be fixed or does it need to be terminated? Does it need to be saved at all? Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.
Tuesday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium


April 23
Poetry Month:
Water’s Footfall: The Poetry of Sohrab Sepehri presented by Dr. Mohammad Jafar Mahallati

Sohrab Sepehri was born in 1928 on a journey between Kashan, his family's home, and Qum. An acclaimed painter, Sepehri published eight books of poetry during his lifetime and traveled widely throughout the world, including Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, China and Japan, the United States and South America. Many of his poems were influenced by his relationship with nature and his studies of Eastern philosophy and visual arts. They were often composed in a cadence similar to spoken language, considered a radical innovation at the time. Sepehri died in 1980 and in Iran is considered to be one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. The French poet and translator Pierre Joris described Sepheri as, “a modernist Muslim for whom the black stone of the Kaaba was the sunlight in the flowers. He tried to invent a world in poetry and a poetry in the world as had not been seen since the Nishapur of Omar Khayyam. He made it new, indeed—writing a poetry that is a geometry of breath from which music grows, with its cargo of light.” Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, one of Sepheri’s English translators, is currently Presidential Scholar in Islamic Studies at Oberlin College. He served as Iran's ambassador to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989 and successfully negotiated a peace agreement to end the war between Iran and Iraq. His scholarship has focused on Islamic and Sufi poetry and most recently on the philosophy of friendship. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.
Wednesday, April 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

April 24
A Lyrical Life: Reflections on Life-Journeys through Poetry and Song presented by Rabbi Enid Lader
Explore your own life journey through poetry in this four-week program presented by Case Western Reserve University. The roads upon which you've traveled are marked by steps still to be taken. Rabbi Enid Lader will lead a discussion of poetry and song that beckons us to reflect on what it means to think of our lives as a journey and how the text of our lives reflects our values. We will explore the questions of what we want to pass on to the next generation and what is in store for us in the future. Rabbi Enid C. Lader has served the Beth Israel -The West Temple congregation since August, 2012. Active in the Educational Director's Network, Enid also served in various capacities on the regional board for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) and has taught the west side Taste of Judaism and Feast of Judaism classes for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland for over twelve years.
Thursday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium


April 26
Lakewood Public Cinema: "Jacob’s Ladder" (1990) Directed by Adrian Lyne

This is not a horror movie as some would have it, but a philosophical drama disguised as an effects-heavy, supernatural thriller. Tim Robbins plays a New York postal worker who can't keep his head straight. Haunted by memories of his wife, his dead son and his time in Vietnam, he's most disturbed by the fact that his memories don't add up. There are contradictions and hallucinations—at least he hopes they're hallucinations. Visions of a demon-infested city seem to be leading him somewhere, driving him towards a tragic fate. Maybe he has a fever. Maybe the government experimented on his platoon with weapon-grade LSD and he's just having flashbacks. Maybe everybody who's trying to help him is secretly out to get him. “The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you. They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... and you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.”
Saturday, April 26 at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

 

April 27          
Sunday with the Friends: Wallace Coleman

Wallace Coleman keeps it real, playing old school blues. An unbroken chain of songs and stories, passed down through musical generations, connects him directly to the crossroads birth of the blues. Like a million other Americans in the 1950’s, Coleman left his home and headed north looking for work, but he didn’t leave the state of Tennessee without a deep and abiding love for roots music. A rare talent for the blues harp brought him to the attention of Robert Lockwood Jr.—Lockwood was never a big fan of harmonica players, but he was impressed enough to bring Coleman along on the tour for the next ten years. Today, Wallace Coleman is a living blues legend in his own right and we are lucky to have him play for us here in Lakewood.
Sunday, April 27 at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium


April 27
Hands-On Help with eReaders

Do you own a shiny, new eReader, but don’t know how to download any of the thousands of free titles that are available through the Library? Make an appointment with a knowledgeable staff member who can show you  around the bells and whistles of your device, whether it’s a Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone or something else entirely. Let’s talk.
Thursday Nights at the Madison Branch - Call (216)228-7428

Sunday Nights at the Main Library - Call (216)226-8275 ext. 127

April 30
Poetry Month:
Weather by Dave Lucas

In this debut collection, named winner of the Ohioana Book Prize in 2012, Dave Lucas turns and returns to Cleveland. The weather he writes about arises from the lush light of the natural world and the hard rain of industry. Poem by poem, Lucas surveys the majesty and ruin of landscape and lakefront, paying tribute to the shifting seasons of a city, of a terrain, and of those who dwell there. “I love our weather. There's always a moment in the winter when I'm sick of it and a moment sooner in the summer. But I love the steel look to the sky in winter. It makes our few days of crystal blue in spring and fall all the more worthwhile. I use the word weather as a verb. This city is weathering the storm. The town has been beaten down, but many Clevelanders take that as a point of pride. Like the coffee mugs say, ‘Cleveland: You gotta be tough.’” Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

Wednesday, April 30 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

May 1
A Lyrical Life: Reflections on Life-Journeys through Poetry and Song presented by Rabbi Enid Lader
Explore your own life journey through poetry in this four-week program presented by Case Western Reserve University. The roads upon which you've traveled are marked by steps still to be taken. Rabbi Enid Lader will lead a discussion of poetry and song that beckons us to reflect on what it means to think of our lives as a journey and how the text of our lives reflects our values. We will explore the questions of what we want to pass on to the next generation and what is in store for us in the future. Rabbi Enid C. Lader has served the Beth Israel -The West Temple congregation since August, 2012. Active in the Educational Director's Network, Enid also served in various capacities on the regional board for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism) and has taught the west side Taste of Judaism and Feast of Judaism classes for the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland for over twelve years.
Thursday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium
May 8, May 15


May 3
Lakewood Public Cinema: "F for Fake" (1973)

Directed by Orson Welles

Trickery. Deceit. Magic. In Orson Welles' free-form documentary, the legendary filmmaker (and self-described charlatan) gleefully engages the central preoccupation of his career—the tenuous line between truth and illusion, art and lies. Beginning with portraits of world-renowned art forger Elmyr de Hory and his equally devious biographer, Clifford Irving, Welles goes on a dizzying cinematic journey that simultaneously exposes and revels in fakery and fakers of all stripes—not the least of which is Welles himself. Charming and poignant, F for Fake is an inspired prank and a searching examination of the essential duplicity of cinema.
Saturday, May 3 at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

May 4             
Sunday with the Friends: Samba Joia

After five hundred years of carnival, Brazil has produced a number of musical genres marked by intense layers of complicated and liberating rhythm. This Cleveland-based bateria, or drum group, is on a mission to build community through the sharing of vibrant Brazilian music and culture, wherever they are called. Many players have come and gone and come back for more over the years. One thing they all share in common is the Brazilian ability to check their egos at the door, let loose and have fun.
Sunday, May 4 at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library Auditorium

Read More on Library
Volume 10, Issue 8, Posted 2:32 PM, 04.15.2014