Events Calendar

Growing Voices Music Class is an interactive class for caregivers and their children, birth-5, to play, learn, and bond with music. In our classes we sing, play instruments, dance, and have fun together! 

Enjoy music from 9:30-10:30, stay to play and spend time with other families immediately following. 

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

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

A special storytime series woven together with playful mindfulness practices for children and their caregivers to do together. Comfy clothing encouraged!

Books, songs and mindful practices all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills​ as well as a lifelong love of reading. After about 20-30 minutes of stories, songs, and a few mindfulness games we'll end with a time for child-led play together in our children's area. You are welcome to stay as long as you like!

Library programs are always free. Siblings and friends are welcome.

READ and PLAY together with children 5 & under! Stories, songs, and rhymes for about 20 minutes, followed by playtime and an art project. 

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.

No registration, free of cost, and older siblings 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 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!

Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body by Rebekah Taussig has been selected as the 2024-2025 Go Big Read book.

Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.

Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn’t fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life.

Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.

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

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.

Please contact Meadowridge Library at 608-288-6160 for more details and information!

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

Need help with basic computer or Internet skills? Get assistance with opening an email account, writing a Word document, navigating the internet, keeping your files safe, and more.

Call 608-266-6350 to make a 30-minute appointment.

Computer Assistance is sponsored by the Digital Equity Project.

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

Join local artist Amy Mietzel for hands-on art projects!

School-age children (elementary and middle school) are invited to join us for this kid-led Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Be a part of an adventuring party where you'll use your imagination and creativity to explore a fantasy world in an epic quest. Our Dungeon Master Jared will provide support and help guide campaigns along with our adult D&D experts and our Youth Librarian Ruth.

This weekly session is for beginners.

About D&D: Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game that allows each player to create their own character to play. These characters embark upon imaginary adventures within a fantasy setting. A Dungeon Master (DM) serves as the game's referee and storyteller, while maintaining the setting in which the adventures occur.

Join other young people and their caregivers for a relaxing art workshop. Decorate a glass jar to fill with affirmations and kind words. Take what you make with you when you leave.

All materials are provided, no registration, and free of cost.

Youth 8 years and younger must bring an adult, or responsible older sibling, with.

With the recent finds and recoveries of several ancient dugout canoes from Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, there's a heightened awareness of the use of these ancient watercrafts throughout the state and surrounding waterways. This presentation focuses on the recent discoveries of two dugout canoes and how the recovery of these coincided with a recent canoe build the Ho-Chunk People have completed. The ongoing, collaborative inter-agency work now taking place puts a spotlight on the extensive research and collaboration being conducted between the Wisconsin Historical Society and the various tribes of Wisconsin.

About the presenter: In 1999, William “Nąąwącekǧize” Quackenbush began a career in the Ho-Chunk Nation Heritage Preservation Department as a Lands Specialist but soon transferred over to their Cultural Resources Division to become the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) for the Ho-Chunk Nation to address tribal preservation needs. William also became the Cultural Resources Division Manager in 2006 and currently manages the Ho-Chunk Nation’s Cultural Resources Division. 

Part of the Teejop and Beyond: Celebrating Native Nations series in partnership with Ho-Chunk Gaming Madison and made possible thanks to the Friends of Madison Public Library. Visit madpl.org/teejopandbeyond for more info.

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

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

Presented in partnership with Forward Theater Company.

Join the Wisconsin Book Festival and Forward Theater Company for a kickoff event previewing the world premiere of Forward Theater’s Murder Girl! This event will feature playwright Heidi Armbruster talking with Joanne Berg, owner of Mystery To Me bookstore, about crafting an original screenplay and Forward Theater actors performing a snippet or two from the show. Get ready for Friday night fish fry with a side of hilarious whodunit!

It’s close to 5:00 PM, and the crew at Marty’s Supper Club in the woods of Wisconsin have big fish to fry. Twins Eric and LeeAnn are trying to keep their family business afloat, but a little thing called murder may get in the way. Open your holiday season with this home-grown, world-premiere comedy about found family, old fashioneds, and where to stow the roadkill. For more about Murder Girl tickets, visit www.forwardtheater.com.