Events Calendar

READ and PLAY with your favorite baby or toddler! Reading, singing, talking and playing with your baby from the beginning is important because the roots of language are developing in a baby’s brain even before they can talk! Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

READ and PLAY together with children under age 5! Engaging with books, songs and playful experiences all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills​ and helps to build a lifelong love of reading. Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

Attention word lovers: exercise your brain by playing Scrabble with other adults!

This is a great storytime for kids who love to move!

Movement artist Aki B. will move through the picture books librarian Jessi H. reads aloud. Youth and their families will be encouraged to join in through added their own movements to the story.

This program is geared towards youth ages 2-5. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

READ and PLAY with your favorite baby, ages birth to 17 months! Reading, singing, talking, and playing with your baby from the beginning is important because the roots of language are developing in a baby’s brain even before they can talk! Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

READ and PLAY together with children under age 5! Engaging with books, songs and playful experiences all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills​ and helps to build a lifelong love of reading. Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

READ and PLAY with your favorite baby! Reading, singing, talking, and playing with your baby from the beginning is important because the roots of language are developing in a baby’s brain even before they can talk! Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

Do you have clothing or other fabric items that need mending? 

Volunteers from the Sewing Machine Project are offering free mending at Hawthorne Neighborhood Library every other Wednesday from noon - 2:00 pm. These helpful sewers mend clothing and can handle many other fabric-related repairs (exception: no zipper repairs).

Mending is done on the spot on a first come, first served basis. There’s no drop off or pick up, we do what we can do in the time allowed.

Drop in anytime between 12:00 - 2:00 pm!

Free assistance from AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers to help you fill out and file your Federal and Wisconsin personal income taxes. Call 608-246-4547 beginning January 17 to reserve a half-hour appointment (required).

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide provides in-person and virtual tax assistance free of charge with a special focus on taxpayers who are over 50 or have low-to-moderate income. Tax-Aide volunteers are trained and IRS-certified every year.

Some situations are outside the scope of the service -- see what type of taxes they can prepare or ask if in doubt.  You must have lived in Wisconsin for ALL of 2022 to use this service.

Click here for a list of all 2023 Tax Assistance dates at Central, Lakeview, and Sequoya Libraries, or take a look at our calendar. Appointments are required at all locations.

Free COVID-19 vaccines and boosters at the Goodman South Library, administered by Public Health Madison & Dane County!

Clinics will be held on Wednesdays from 12:30-3:30 PM. 

1st, 2nd, or booster doses of Pfizer and Moderna available while supplies last.

Everyone 6 months and older is welcome. 6 months-17 year olds need a parent or guardian present.

No appointments or registration necessary. But If you would like to plan ahead, appointments can be made at the Public Health of Madison and Dane County website below. No ID or insurance required.

Adults 50+ and their families can earn $300 towards their financial goals by attending three senior financial wellness events led by local experts. Sign up for the series today! 

Registering for this workshop will automatically register you for all three workshops.

This week's session is: Power of Attorney: What is it and should you have one?

During this session, UW Credit Union professionals will provide an overview of what a Power of Attorney is, what it does (and does not do), and how to fill one out. There will be plenty of time for questions and Power of Attorney Forms will be on-hand for individuals that want to complete them during the workshop. Our professionals are also authorized notaries and will be able to notarize completed Power of Attorneys during the workshop.

*Please note: individuals will need to have a valid ID (Drivers License, State ID, Passport, Military ID, or Matricula) to have forms notarized.

Please join us to play chess at our weekly, drop-in program! All ages and experience levels welcome.

Drop-in knitting. All experience levels welcome. Children under 9 must be accompanied by an adult for duration of program. Yarn and Needles provided for in-library use.

Bring the whole family out for an evening of creativity and exploration! Drop in to try out new dynamic new art forms and projects in a judgment-free, positive space facilitated by guest Bubbler artists and our youth librarian. All ages are welcome and materials will be provided.  Children 5 and under will need assistance from a caregiver.

As we recover from the holiday season and set our intentions for the new year, it's the perfect time to focus on mental health and wellness. Multiple libraries have partnered with Nikyra McCann to offer a series of events this Spring. This session includes exploration of the following topic: 

WEEK 3 Mindfulness: This workshop shows participants how to learn and participate in lifelong skills to minimize the stress of everyday life. Attendees will walk away with new awareness of what is taking place and how they chose to react to it. This teaches attendees how to have a little bit of space to decide how they want to respond, rather than reacting!

About the Presenter:

Nikyra McCann is the Founder at Still Standing Enterprise LLC and Motivational Speaker who has been featured throughout the world. She specializes in inspirational workshops and seminars pertaining to mental health. We offer therapy through Art & Music for those who have experienced mental health circumstances. Still Standing Enterprise is the Home of Uniquely Beautiful Boutique. Nikyra sits on the Board of Directors for NAMI Dane County as well as Housing Initiatives. She also sits on the CCS Coordination Committee. Here at Still Standing Enterprise it is our hope that you continue to Smile!

Love anime, or been wanting to get into it? Join us Wednesday evenings in March for Meadowridge Library Anime Club's History Month to watch and talk about some of our favorite historical anime!

This week, we will be watching Onihei. It’s the latter half of the Edo period when cruel thieves feared Heizo Hasegawa, known as “Heizo the Oni". He is the head of Arson Theft Control. He never tolerates injustice and punishes criminals who violate the three articles of a thief. Surrounded by quirky characters, Heizo rids the injustice that infests the city of Edo.

This anime is appropriate for ages 15 and up. Come hungry! Dinner will be served at this week's anime club. 

This free group English class will be offered mostly online using Zoom.
You can take your Zoom class on your smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, or
a computer. 2 classes will take place in-person at the Meadowridge
Library (5726 Raymond Rd) on Thursday 3/9 and 5/4.
You will practice speaking, listening, reading, writing and new vocabulary
in English. Topics include talking about family, health, making
appointments, phone calls, small talk, and more!
For more information, please call (608) 268-6425 or email
bex@litnetwork.org.

--

Esta clase de inglés grupal gratuita se ofrecerá principalmente en línea
utilizando Zoom. Puede tomar su clase por Zoom en un teléfono
inteligente, tableta, laptop, o computadora. Dos clases estarán en
persona en la Biblioteca de Meadowridge (5726 Raymond Rd) 03/09/2023 y 05/04/2023

Practicará hablar, escuchar, leer, escribir, y nuevas palabras en inglés.
Los temas incluyen platicar acerca de su familia, salud, hacer citas,
llamadas telefónicas, conversaciones casuales, y más.
Para más información, llame al (608) 268-6425 o envie un
correo electrónico a becky@litnetwork.org

Drop in knitting: Learn a new craft or work on that unfinished project with other neighborhood knitters.

How diversity initiatives end up marginalizing Arab Americans and US Muslims. One of Donald Trump’s first actions as President was to sign an executive order to limit Muslim immigration to the United States, a step toward the “complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” he had campaigned on. This extraordinary act of Islamophobia provoked unprecedented opposition: Hollywood movies and mainstream television shows began to feature more Muslim characters in contexts other than terrorism; universities and private businesses included Muslims in their diversity initiatives; and the criminal justice system took hate crimes against Muslims more seriously. Yet Broken argues that, even amid this challenge to institutionalized Islamophobia, diversity initiatives fail on their promise by only focusing on crisis moments.

Evelyn Alsultany argues that Muslims get included through “crisis diversity,” where high-profile Islamophobic incidents are urgently responded to and then ignored until the next crisis. In the popular cultural arena of television, this means interrogating even those representations of Muslims that others have celebrated as refreshingly positive. What kind of message does it send, for example, when a growing number of “good Muslims” on TV seem to have arrived there, ironically, only after leaving the faith? In the realm of corporations, she critically examines the firing of high-profile individuals for anti-Muslim speech—a remedy that rebrands corporations as anti-racist while institutional racism remains intact. At universities, Muslim students get included in diversity, equity, and inclusion plans but that gets disrupted if they are involved in Palestinian rights activism. Finally, she turns to hate crime laws revealing how they fail to address root causes.

In each of these arenas, Alsultany finds an institutional pattern that defangs the promise of Muslim inclusion, deferring systemic change until and through the next “crisis.”

In Love: a Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom

Author Bloom’s husband Brian develops early-onset Alzheimer’s, and facing the reality of the diagnosis and its impact on his future dreams and plans, the couple goes to the Dignitas organization in Switzerland so Brian can end his own life. Join us for discussion. Newcomers welcome!