Happy New Year!

Explore the Y2K scare with technology librarian, Josh, as he interviews Marley Mcdonald and Brian Becker, directors of the HBO documentary Time Bomb Y2K. We'll revisit the global panic, technological fears, and lessons learned from the turn of the millennium.

More about Time Bomb Y2K

As the clock counted down to the 21st century, the world faced a potential technological disaster: a bug that could cause computers to misinterpret the year 2000 as 1900. Crafted entirely from archival footage and featuring first-hand accounts from computer experts, survivalists, scholars, militia groups, conservative Christians, and pop icons, Time Bomb Y2K is a prescient and often humorous tale about the power and vulnerabilities of technology.

We are excited to invite Hanif Abdurraqib back to the podcast to discuss writing, building community around art, and basketball! Hanif is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio whose new book "There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension" is both an Indie and New York Times bestseller. 

Hanif will return to the library on June 6th, in conversation with poet and essayist Franny Choi, as a part of Bexley Centennial Author Series. We hope to see you there!

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

The first part of this episode is an interview with Dr. Wayne Schlingman and Dr. Stephan Frank from the OSU Astronomy Department to talk about the eclipse: the science, the history, and general coolness of having a eclipse past through our backyard! 

The second part is a discussion between BPL Director Ben Heckman and the first American woman to conduct a spacewalk, Astronaut Kathy Sullivan. She discusses her new children's book, How to Spacewalk: Step-by-Step with Shuttle Astronauts and being the "the world's most vertical woman!"

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

The best of 2023! 

Timestamps

Adult Fiction (:24)

• The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

Adult Non-Fiction (7:38)

• Birth: Three Mothers, Nine Months and Pregnancy in America by Rebecca Grant 

Youth (14:11)

• Just Because by Matthew McConaughey and Renée Kurilla 

Movies (19:44)

• Past Lives

Video Games (25:31)

• Honorable Mentions:

• Dead Space

• Baldur's Gate III

Music (33:42)

• Nickel Creek - Celebrants

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read. The theme for Banned Books Week 2023 is “Let Freedom Read” and it’s being celebrated from October 1-7. A PEN America report for the first half of the 2022-2023 school year tracked 1,477 instances of individual book bans that have affected 874 unique titles. Book bans disproportionately target authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors, and other marginalized groups. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, and history have been removed from library shelves across America. In today’s episode, we talk to Sabrina Baêta from PEN America and author Grace Ellis about the current state of book banning in America, the impact that book bans have on creators, libraries, and young readers, and what we can do to stand up against book bans and protect the freedom to write, read, and access information. Grace Ellis will be at the Bexley Public Library on Wednesday, October 4 at 7:00 PM for a Conversation on Censorship to celebrate Banned Books Week.

Grace Ellis is a New York Times-bestselling, GLAAD Media Award–winning author and script writer. Born and raised in Ohio, she studied theater and journalism at The Ohio State University. Her graphic novels include the much-lauded "Lumberjanes," the long-running "Moonstruck," and several pieces for DC Comics. Her latest book, "Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith," was a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and won the 2023 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. In 2022, Grace was given an Ohio Individual Excellence Award in playwriting for "Holding It Together," a site-specific play for high schools. Her next DC book, DIANA AND THE HERO’S JOURNEY, is out this fall. In 2023, she wrote the play “EXPLICIT CONTENT FOR TEENS,” about the fall out of a play’s censorship in a public highschool. Grace lives in Columbus, Ohio, where she can often be found eating ice cream or petting a cat.

Sabrina Baêta is a Program Consultant with Freedom to Read at PEN America. She engages in research and awareness-building around censorship attacks on public K-12 education, especially as it relates to literature accessibility in libraries and classrooms. Sabrina graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Bachelor of Music in Voice. She earned her Masters from the University of Central Florida in Nonprofit Management. She is a poet, essayist, and writer and prior to PEN America, worked in educational publishing and in a variety of performing arts and education nonprofits.

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary

Ohio State Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor, Ness B. Shroff, and BPL Technology Librarian, Josh Bryant, discuss the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI), including its history, applications, ethics, and future implications. Whether you are a complete newcomer to the world of AI or a seasoned expert, there will be something for everyone in this enlightening and informative discussion.

Watch Dr. Shroff take the AI quiz here!

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary

For Holocaust Remembrance Day we pulled an episode from one of our most recent author events with Elizabeth Petuchowski.

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary

A celebration of Toni Morrison with two of Ohio’s most revered poets and authors as Hanif Abdurraqib and Dionne Custer Edwards discuss the influences of Toni Morrison’s work on their own and celebrate the importance of her legacy as writers and Ohioans.

Toni Morrison Day is celebrated on February 18th in Ohio, commemorating the birth of the literary giant and possibly “the greatest Ohioan we’ve ever had,” as Hanif Abdurraqib remembers her. Morrison often used Ohio as a setting for her novels, from examining the influences and disparities of White and Black families living in post-Depression era Lorain in The Bluest Eye to exploring the insidious reach of slavery over the Ohio River in Beloved. Toni Morrison’s writing shed the white gaze and centered stories that explored the terrors, hopes, and dreams of Black lives and communities. 

Hanif Abdurraqib - a 2021 MacArthur Genius' Grant Recipient - is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is the author of the poetry collections The Crown Ain't Worth Much, a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and A Fortune For Your Disaster, which won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Prize, and the essay collections They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, named a best book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others; Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest, a New York Times Bestseller, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the National Book Award; and A Little Devil In America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, which was shortlisted for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

Dionne Custer Edwards is a writer, educator, and the Director of Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Her work in the arts and education spans 25 years, including nearly two decades at the Wex where she pioneered several groundbreaking education programs that include Pages, an art and writing program serving hundreds of high school students a year from across central Ohio. Dionne has received acknowledgments and awards that include professional fellowships with Americans for the Arts, the Jefferson Center for the Arts, and a GCAC Arts Educator of the Year. Dionne is co-editor of a forthcoming book series by Ohio State University Press, On Possibility: Social Change and the Arts + Humanities, with the first issue due out in 2023.

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary

The best of 2022! 

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary

Here is the list of highlighted items from the BPL staff:

Fiction Books

• Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez

Non-Fiction Books

• I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jeanette McCurdy

Youth

• 0-3 yrs

• The Hair Book - LaTonya Yvette and Amanda Jane Jones

• My Parents Won’t Stop Talking! - Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden

• A Taste of Magic - J. Elle

• Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao

• We Made It All Up - Margot Harrison

• Builders & Biomes

Movies

• The Batman

Video Games

• Elden Ring

Music

• Madison Cunningham - Revealer

Vampire Week is here! Plucked from our blog, Julianna tells us about her favorite vampire movies and everything the library has to offer this week.

Julianna mentions some of her favorite vampire movies. Here’s a list of them: 

• Interview with the Vampire

Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!

Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org

Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary