The city’s three library systems \u2014 the Brooklyn Public Library, the Queens Public Library, and New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island \u2014 all offer free events all year round. And while things may slow down a bit in August, there is still plenty to do.<\/p>\n
Here are some highlights for the month:<\/p>\n
BIG EVENTS:<\/p>\n
The New York Public Library is hosting a writing workshop with the Brooklyn science fiction writer N. K. Jemison<\/a>. It\u2019s billed as a \u201cWorldbuilding Workshop,\u201d and aims to help guide you through all the things that go into creating an entire fictional world, like the language of it, the terrain, the people \u2014 or other creatures \u2014 who inhabit it.<\/p>\n Jemison is, of course, the author of “The City We Became,” which is this summer\u2019s Big Summer Book Club<\/a> pick. You can also hear her speak with WNYC\u2019s very own All Of It host Alison Stewart at the book club\u2019s big event<\/a> at the Delacorte Theater on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n The workshop takes place in person, Aug. 1, at the Bronx Library Center on East Kingsbridge Road. We are, however, sorry to say it\u2019s been sold out for weeks. You can still sign up for the livestream, though.<\/p>\n The Queens Public Library is offering a peek into the past and possibly the future of New York City, with an exhibit created by the New York Botanical Garden that looks at what New York was like hundreds of years ago, before the skyscrapers, cement and pigeons. It\u2019s called \u201cBefore New York<\/a>,\u201d and it\u2019s on now through Aug. 24 at the central branch in Jamaica. On Aug. 12 they’ll also host a lecture by Dr. Eric Sanderson, who created the exhibit.<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Public Library is doing something interesting. At 12 of their branches are spaces where people can make a free, one-hour-long video call to incarcerated family members. The TeleStory program<\/a> sets people up in a private room with a screen to let you talk to a loved one in any one of 11 state prisons run by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. If you\u2019re bringing kids when making your call, the library also provides them with toys and books and someone to help keep them occupied.<\/p>\n BRANCH EVENTS:<\/p>\n Brooklyn\u2019s Jamaica Bay Library<\/a> is hosting a music workshop and singing circle called Ghanani. The library describes it as based on the tradition of Palestinian women folkloric singing circles. Participants will get lyric sheets for traditional songs in Arabic that also have English transliterations, so even those who don\u2019t share the language can participate.<\/p>\n The East Flatbush Library is hosting a two-week domino tournament<\/a> starting on Aug. 11. The first-place winner gets a prize, and, of course, the bragging rights of being the best at the bones. Registration is required, and they say come with your partner.<\/p>\n The New York Public library is recording people\u2019s audio stories for StoryCorps project, \u201cWe the People.\u201d That\u2019s taking place on different days at the Charleston<\/a>, Roosevelt Island<\/a>, Wakefield<\/a>, Grand Concourse<\/a>, Stavros Niarchos Foundation<\/a> and Todt Hill-Westerleigh<\/a> library branches. You have to be at least 18.<\/p>\n But if you\u2019re not yet older than 18, the Bronx Library Center on E. Kingsbridge Road is holding a teen trivia night on the Haitian Revolution<\/a>. So you can test your knowledge of the only successful uprising by enslaved peoples in human history that led to the founding of a state. If you find that you know more about, say, Bonaparte Napoleon than Fran\u00e7ois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, this is your chance to get up to speed. They\u2019ll have snacks.<\/p>\n And in Queens, the Langston Hughes branch in Corona is doing a series they\u2019re calling \u201cAdultin\u2019 August<\/a>,\u201d which is every Thursday, and the line up for those events include line dancing, a silent disco, and live music.<\/p>\n FOR THE KIDS:<\/p>\n This month, NYPL is inviting kids to build monsters. They\u2019re holding a Monster-Building Creative Writing Workshop<\/a>, that\u2019s Aug. 3 at the Stavros Niarchos branch Children’s Center.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an hour-long workshop presented by the kids writing nonprofit Cosmic Writers, and everyone who comes gets a free copy of their \u201cMonster-Building Handbook\u201d. This is aimed at kids ages 8-12, and you do have to register.<\/p>\n If tutus are more your thing than monsters, you have other options. The QPL is offering two free ballet classes<\/a> for kids ages 6-11 at the Rockaway Beach Boulevard branch.<\/p>\n For older kids there are also workshops at the East Elmhurst<\/a> branch on using your voice to address the climate crisis and environmental justice. They\u2019re also hosting a workshop<\/a> \u2014 through the Cosmic Writers workshop \u2014 for middle schoolers, inviting kids to create and tell their own utopian and dystopian stories and vision for the nation. That\u2019s at the Bayside Branch.<\/p>\n And then in Brooklyn, two cool things, both for teens: The Williamsburg branch is hosting Saturday Sewing for Teens<\/a> on Aug. 8, where the library provides sewing machines, instructions and snacks for kids who want to work on their looks for prom, or Comic Con, or anything.<\/p>\n