Events Calendar

Small Group Coaching:

Do you have a creative project you are working on and would like consistent and constructive feedback? Join creativity coach Angela Johnson for a small group biweekly, supportive coaching sessions. Topics will include group sharing, question prompts, suggested homework, time to work in session, and more.

Limited to 6 participants, meeting over five separate sessions. Each session is two hours and registrants should commit to attending all five. Session dates are Thursdays mornings: 10/26, 11/9, 11/30, 12/14, 12/28.

Registration required, opens Oct 12.

Instructor Bio:

Angela Johnson is a professional artist, creativity coach and educator based in Wisconsin. She earned a master’s in Art Education, an MA in Art and an MFA with a focus in photography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work includes themes of nature, balance, and telling stories through individual and collective memories. She often incorporates scientific elements and concepts into her work. Collaborations with other artists and scientists  energizes her creativity.

Johnson is a fixture in the Wisconsin arts scene, with 20+ years of experience maintaining public art studios, teaching workshops, facilitating programs, leading public art installations and lecturing at universities. She has worked in museums, elementary schools, senior centers, colleges and universities. She has inspired and helped people of every age — from toddlers to 95-year-olds — reaching far into the depths of their imagination to discover and channel their creativity. She also teaches workshops on mindfulness and yoga.

Johnson is passionate about helping people unleash their creativity. “There’s an artist in everyone; you may just not have discovered yours yet,” she says.

Her motto: Visualize, Create, Inspire. 

This Creativity Coaching series is made possible by a generous donation to the Madison Public Library Foundation.

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

Thursdays, November 16 - December 7, 10:30am

(Note: No Storytime on Thursday, November 23.) 

In partnership with the City of Madison and Madison Public Library, the African Center for Community Development provides in-person assistance* to help offset housing costs by assisting residents with applications for services, jobs, and other financial benefits.

We provide help for people navigating application processes and filling out forms required for housing, immigration, food, health, and other community support services. For questions about the program, please call African Center at (608) 957-5623 or (608) 294-0066.

*Neither The African Center for Community Development nor Madison Public Library can provide legal assistance or advice.  We are not able to fill out applications on your behalf, or assess program eligibility. 

Come play in the children's area while local musician, Rin, plays a variety of songs on her fiddle and mandolin. This is informal music, meant to be enjoyed while playing, drawing, or reading in the children's area! ​For families/all ages.

The Grapes of Wrath.

Directed by John Ford.  Performances by Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Dorris Bowdon, Charley Grapewin.  20th Century Fox, 1940.  Drama.  129 min.  Not rated.

John Ford's powerful adaptation of the John Steinbeck classic about a destitute farm family migrating from Dust Bowl Oklahoma to "the promised land," California, during the Great Depression. Henry Fonda stars and Jane Darwell won a Supporting Actress Oscar as Ma Joad, the soft-spoken, determined matriarch of the clan. Ford won am Oscar for his directing.

Are you new to computers or looking to improve your skills?

Join us to improve your computer skills in a supportive environment.

Learn or brush up on how to:

• send, receive and reply to an email, 
• recognize and deal with spam
• organize and delete emails and search for messages.

There will be a question and answer session after the lesson. You can ask about what you just learned or questions you may have about using a computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Register for this class at the link below, talk to a librarian, or call the Central Library at 608-266-6350

These workshops are made possible with curriculum from the Public Library Association’s DigitalLearn.org initiative and with funding from AT&T

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card.

Learn more at dreambus.org

Play Minecraft in both creative and survival worlds! Ability to use a computer keyboard and mouse required. Recommended for ages 8 and up.

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card.

Learn more at dreambus.org

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

All are welcome to join Maria and create a space for wishing within the Bubbler Room. Each week, Maria will be in the Bubbler Room on Thursday evenings, hosting sessions to create enchanting art together. We will explore the magic that exists in the natural world, our community, and in ourselves. We will focus on combining words and images using printmaking, collage, and sculpture. We’ll delve into questions such as:

What are we wishing for (something we’ve never had or something we’ve lost or…)? 
What does it take for our wishes to come true?
Who or what grants them?
What kind of collective magic can we summon?
What offerings do we leave in return as we make our wish?
What rituals do we create around making wishes? 

All ages and abilities are welcome! Drop in, no registration required. 

When we wish, we wish for something just out of our reach of what seems possible. What would it take to bring it to make them come true?
Read more about her residency here: https://www.madisonbubbler.org/residencies/central

The Madison Writing Assistance (MWA) program offers free, one-to-one writing support for community members at library branches throughout the city. Our friendly, experienced writing coaches are happy to help with writing projects across a wide range of genres, including resumes, cover letters, application essays, grant proposals, fiction writing, memoirs, and more.

Schedule an appointment online with the link below, by phone, or in person.

MWA services are made possible through generous donations from the Evjue Foundation and UW Anonymous Fund, along with administrative and program support from the UW-Madison English Department, the UW-Madison Writing Center, and our Library and neighborhood center partners.

Need help with basic computer or Internet skills? Looking for assistance downloading library eBooks and audiobooks? We offer free one-on-one sessions on Thursday evenings!

Reservations required. Register online, in person, or call Lakeview Library at 608-246-4547.

Gathers most Thursday evenings! Middle and high school students can meet other aspiring authors, bounce ideas off one another, share their stories, and feel the creativity flow! Writing club is led by local author Carole Madrzak.

Many native seeds must break their dormancy via a process called cold, moist stratification. If you want to improve the chances of having transplantable seedlings in the spring, join WI Master Naturalist Alex Singer to watch a brief demonstration of making a mini-greenhouse using a transparent plastic jug or other deep plastic container with lid, followed by a hands-on demonstration of the same with Q&A.

Please bring your own container if you’d like to try your hand and take it home planted with native seeds that will be available through Lakeview Library's native seed library. Tools and soil will be provided, as will some additional native seeds from the presenter's own native yard.

Space is limited; registration is required for this event. Please use the sign up link below or call (608) 246-4547 to register. Registration opens on November 16 at 9 a.m., two weeks prior to program date.

About the Presenter

​Alex Singer has worked with Madison library staff to build upon the vegetable seed library project, most active in the spring, to include native plant seeds, which are most often best sowed/started in the fall. Having transformed his suburban yard into a Homegrown National Park over the past decade or so by replacing the majority of turf grass with native forbs and grasses, he works to spread the news and the plant diversity via such projects as well as giving away his yard's bounty, inviting groups to tour his yard, and giving talks on native plant propagation and their importance, as well as working toward the loosening of Madison's Natural Landscape ordinance.

Need help with basic computer or Internet skills? Looking for assistance downloading library eBooks and audiobooks? We offer free one-on-one sessions on Thursday evenings!

Reservations required. Register online, in person, or call Lakeview Library at 608-246-4547.