LISTEN UP

Today we are going to explore a relaxation exercise using colors.  Color breathing is a simple stress reducing activity that may be quickly learned. It involves mentally picturing or meditating on a color that represents how you want to feel or what you want to let go in your life. 

FIRST CHAPTER FRIDAYS presents writings by bell hooks.  In childhood, bell hooks was taught that "talking back" meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure and daring to disagree and/or have an opinion. In this collection of personal and theoretical essays, hooks reflects on her signature issues of racism and feminism, politics and pedagogy. (Routledge)

POETRY OUT LOUD presents children's poetry by Shel Silverstein.

IPL is introducing a new series entitled PASSING THE MIC. The series will feature conversations with local movers and shakers in the Inglewood community.

Episode 1 features James Fugate.  One of the Co-Founders of Eso Won books, James speaks candidly with Adult Services Librarian Shawn Michael about the history of the Eso Won book store. The conversation covers topics ranging from Black Self-Reliance, the fallacy of bootstrap capitalism, James’s favorite mystery books, his most formative reads, and his surprising journey to end up in Leimert Park.

FIRST CHAPTER FRIDAY presents The Girl Who Wasn’t There by Penny Joelson. In this teen mystery/thriller, Kasia can’t believe her eyes when she sees a kidnapping of a young woman while looking out her window. Kasia is determined to speak with the only other witness to the kidnapping, a girl across the street who also was looking out her window. But when Kasia tries to connect with her, the neighbor tells her that there isn’t a girl living there. Yet, Kasia is certain she saw a girl in the window. There’s also Kasia’s illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, that makes it difficult for her go outside and make sense of who she sees in the window and solve this mystery.

FIRST STORY READING presents a collection of short stories by San Antonio-based Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros.  The collection reflects Cisneros's experience of being surrounded by American influences while still being familially bound to her Mexican heritage as she grew up north of the Mexico-US border.  These tales focus on the social role of women, and their relationships with the men and other women in their lives.

Join us for NIGHTMARE BEFORE BEDTIME a Storytime series for Adults and Teens. This installment is a horror short story written by Stephen King and first published in the August 2014 edition of Esquire. It was later collected in his 2015 short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. The story was inspired to Stephen King by the traffic in Paris.

A man on his way to a potentially career-changing appointment witnesses something that causes a moral dilemma. Should he report what he's seen and risk missing his appointment or ignore it? Nighty night...

How can we combat scattered thoughts and become more present in our lives? Using our five senses we can begin to ground ourselves. Here is a quick guided meditation to quiet your mind.

FIRST CHAPTER FRIDAYS presents Safiya Umoja Noble's Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.  A revealing look at how negative biases against women of color are embedded in search engine results and algorithms.

Run a Google search for “black girls”—what will you find? “Big Booty” and other sexually explicit terms are likely to come up as top search terms. But, if you type in “white girls,” the results are radically different. The suggested porn sites and un-moderated discussions about “why black women are so sassy” or “why black women are so angry” presents a disturbing portrait of black womanhood in modern society.

In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.

Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance—operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond—understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance.

An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century. (Review from Google Books)

POETRY OUT LOUD presents Jeanne Steig's collection of children's poems offering wry wit that will tickle your funny bone on topics like domestic disasters and harrowing piano lessons. Each poem is an ear-opener and sure to bring laugh-out-loud reactions!