Events Calendar

Featuring CDs, audiobooks, and higher priced books which include award winners, signed by authors, rare, first editions, and Golden Books. All proceeds support library programming.

CDs are $1.00 each and 12 for $10.00. 50% off audiobooks. (Cash and check only)

Visit the MPL Friends Bookstore during the sale!

Growing Voices Music Class is an interactive class for caregivers and their children, birth-4, to play, learn, and bond with music. In our classes we sing, play instruments, dance, and have fun together! After the class, participants can stay for free play.

These classes are generously provided by the Friends of Central Library.  

Parents and toddlers, join Zen Ed Wellness for an interactive yoga class that incorporates the magic of stories! 

Yoga mats will be provided, and no experience is necessary.

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.

¡Leemos y cantamos juntos en español! Participar con libros, canciones, y experiencias divertidas es una parte esencial del desarrollo de los niños y ayuda a crear un amor eternal por la lectura. Recomendamos este evento para niños de 0 a 6 años de edad.

Let's read and sing together in Spanish! Engaging with books, songs, and play is an essential part of early development and helps foster a lifelong love of reading. This event is recommended for ages 0-6.

Find help navigating application processes and filling out forms required for housing, immigration, food, health, and other community support services.

In partnership with the City of Madison and Madison Public Library, the African Center for Community Development provides in-person assistance. Examples include: 

• Disability
• Employment
• Housing
• Passport
• Social security
• Unemployment
• WIC

For questions about the program or to schedule an appointment, please call the 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 cannot fill out applications on your behalf or assess program eligibility.
 

Learn how to use Metro Transit’s fixed route city bus service. Topics include using Google Maps, Transit, and other digital options; paper schedules and phone service; and discounted fare options. Metro employees will answer your questions about bus travel and provide one-on-one assistance in English and Spanish.

Idiocracy.

Directed by Mike Judge.  Performances by Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Dave Herman, Michael McCafferty.  Twentieth Century Fox, 2006.  84 min.  Rated R.  Comedy / Drama.

In 2005, average in every way private Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is selected to take part in a secret military experiment to put him in hibernation for a year along with a woman named Rita (Maya Rudolph). The slumbering duo is forgotten when the base they are stored on is closed down and are left in stasis until 2505. When they finally wake up, they discover the average intelligence of humans has decreased so much that Joe is now the smartest man in the world. 

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.

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

Come be in community with other teens during this after-school program at Goodman South Madison Library! Every day after school teens are invited to decompress with art activities, video games, movies, board games, social time or quiet time to do homework together. Drop in or stay for the whole time - It Takes A Village is intended as a place for youth ages 12-19 to find their people, access resources, have fun, and rely on their village for support and wellness.

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

Description

The River Food Pantry's Munch Truck will be stopping outside Hawthorne on Thursdays from 4:40PM - 5:00PM.

About River Food Pantry & Munch Truck

Launched in 2016, Munch is our mobile meals program that delivers free healthy meals to children and adults in over a dozen low-income neighborhoods throughout Madison. Each meal contains a sandwich or main menu item, a fruit or vegetable, a grain, a treat, and a drink. Everyone is welcome to take home a free meal. No registration or ID is required.

Neighborhoods served by Munch have large populations of children eligible for free school lunch. To bridge the gap that exists when school lunch is not available, Munch operates up to 6 days per week, Monday–Saturday, any time school cafeterias are closed (including breaks and periods of remote learning).

For any questions or comments, please contact the Munch staff at munch@riverfoodpantry.org or (608) 661-1223.

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.

Join us for a mystery book group discussion of "Dream Girl" by Laura Lippman. Books are available at the library. New members always welcome!

"Aubrey, the title character of Gerry Andersen’s most successful novel, Dream Girl, is so captivating that Gerry’s readers insist she’s real. Gerry knows she exists only in his imagination. So how can Aubrey be calling Gerry, bed-bound since a freak fall? A virtual prisoner in his penthouse, Gerry is dependent on two women he barely knows: his incurious young assistant, and a dull, slow-witted night nurse.

Could the cryptic caller be one of his three ex-wives playing a vindictive trick after all these years? Or is she Margot, an ex-girlfriend who keeps trying to insinuate her way back into Gerry’s life?

And why does no one believe that the call even happened?

Isolated from the world, drowsy from medication, Gerry slips between reality and dreamlike memories: his faithless father, his devoted mother; the women who loved him, the women he loved.

Now here is Aubrey, threatening to visit him, suggesting that Gerry owes her something. Is the threat real or a sign of dementia? Which scenario would he prefer? Gerry has never been so alone, so confused – and so terrified.

And then he wakes up to another nightmare—a woman’s dead body next to his bed—and the terrifying uncertainty of whether he is responsible." -- Amazon.com

Join Madison Public Art Project’s (MPAP'S) upcoming April Community Crochet Day at the Meadowridge Library. The MPAP is always looking for new ways to connect art & community. Our upcoming installation, The Wildflowers of Wisconsin, will be a large fiber public art mural designed by fiber artist Kiersten Darling. In creating this exciting mural we are inviting the community into the art-making process to help crochet the individual floral elements that will be included in the larger artistic composition.

Join the fiber fun!

Yarn supplies, a crochet hook and pattern will be provided by MPAP for use upon arrival. If you have a crochet hook you can bring it with you size 8 (5mm). Workshop fiber artist Sapphira Afifi will facilitite the workshop showing the crochet stitches to make the Swamp Milkweed flower.

The Wildflowers of Wisconsin offers a creative way for neighbors to connect with each other and become part of the public art process. Join us to help create this exciting new project! This public art project encourages individuals to rethink their own consumption habits and raises awareness about climate change. For more project information visit: www.MadisonPublicArtProject.org

This is a FREE workshop.

Registration is required to reserve your seat and project materials.

Please bring your own crochet hooks if you have one (size 5mm)

Yarn materials, materials, and patterns provided for workshop for art project use.

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 Tuesday and 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.

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

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

Join us every third Thursday, 6:30-8:30pm to play board games!

There will be a mix of longer-play games (Settlers of Catan, Betrayal at House on the Hill, etc) and some shorter games (Code Names, Exploding Kittens, Yahtzee, and more!)

Snacks will be provided, no registration needed!