Tompkins County Public Library

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Library to Host Ornament-Making Program

Tompkins County Public Library will celebrate the holiday season with a multi-generational ornament-making party, Thursday, December 3 at 6 p.m. in the Thaler/Howell Programming Room.

Open to individuals and families of all ages, this program is free, and all materials will be provided.


For more information, contact Information and Learning Services Librarian Teresa Vadakin at tvadakin@tcpl.org or (607) 272-4557 extension 272.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Library to Host Senior Theatre Troupe

Tompkins County Public Library will host an encore performance by the Senior Citizen Theatre Troupe of Lifelong, Thursday, December 3 at 5:30 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room.

An annual Library favorite, the Senior Theatre Troupe performs humorous and serious stories from troupe members’ lives.  They perform simply, with no lights, props or sets. The theatre being performed is developed from themes the actors pick, and the stories they tell are based on their own experiences.  The theme of their fall performance is “physical appearance.”

The Troupe is directed and coordinated by Sue Perlgut and features Natasha Tall, Carol Santucci, Sue Norvell, Deirdre Silverman, Mark Silverman, Jean Senegas, Barbara West, Eva Luby, Sandy Stein.  The plays and theatre exercises performed are developed using improvisational theatre techniques, some of which will be demonstrated during the Library performance.

For more information about the Senior Citizen Troupe, contact Lifelong at 607-273-1511.

This program is free and open to the public.  For more information, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension 248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.


The Senior Theatre Troupe of Lifelong receives grant support from the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Library to Host Free Writing Workshop




Explore the therapeutic value of writing as Tompkins County Public Library hosts “Writing Through the Rough Spots,” Saturday, December 5 from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the BorgWarner Community Room.

Facilitated by veteran educator Ellen Schmidt, this workshop will offer writing exercises designed to help participants develop insights about themselves and others.
Schmidt has been teaching for 25 years and is known for her “Writing Through the Rough Spots” workshops, held in Ithaca, and offered each semester at Cornell University.

This program is free and open to the public; however, advance registration is required.  

To register, contact Schmidt at www.WritingRoomWorkshops.com or schmidt.ellen@gmail.com.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Library, Ithaca City of Asylum to Present Local Panel on the Role of Place and Displacement in Literature

Tompkins County Public Library and the Ithaca City of Asylum (ICOA) will partner for “Voices of Freedom 2015,” a moderated panel discussion on the importance of place and displacement in literature, Thursday, November 19 at 7 p.m. in the Library’s BorgWarner Community Room.

Novelist and essayist Edward Hower will moderate a distinguished panel of local authors, including Raza Ahmad Rumi, Gabriel Urza, Valzhyna Mort and Ishion Hutchinson.

Rumi, ICOA’s sixth writer in residence, joined the Ithaca College faculty as a Visiting International Scholar in Residence this fall.  A policy analyst, journalist and author from Pakistan, Rumi has become a leading public voice against extremism and human rights violations. In March, 2014 he was the target of an assassination attempt—which killed his driverby a militia linked to the Taliban. Rumi’s travelogue, “Delhi by Heart:  Impressions of a Pakistani Traveller,” was published  in 2013 by Harper Collins.

Urza, an assistant professor at Ithaca College, has family roots in the Basque country, which is the setting for his novel about the Basque independence movement, “All That Followed.” Before joining the Ithaca College faculty, he spent several years as a public defender in Reno, Nevada.

Mort is a poet born in Minsk, Belarus in its last decade under Soviet rule. The New Yorker describes her as someone who “strives to be an envoy for her native country, writing with almost alarming vociferousness about the struggle to establish a clear identity for Belarus and its language.” She has received the Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry Magazine, and the Burda Prize for Eastern European authors, and is currently a visiting assistant professor at Cornell University.

Hutchinson, an assistant professor and the Meringoff Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in the Department of English at Cornell University, was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. His poetry has been widely published and has won numerous awards, including the 2011 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, the 2013 Whiting Award, and the 2011 Academy of American Poets Larry Levis Prize.

The program will begin with a short reading by Rumi and will conclude with an opportunity to meet the writers during a free reception.

For more information, contact Carrie Wheeler-Carmenatty at (607) 272-4557 extension 248 or cwheeler@tcpl.org.  To learn more about City of Asylum programs, visit ithacacityofasylum.wordpress.com.


Voices of Freedom is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York State's 62 counties. The GAP grant is part of NYSCA's Decentralization program, along with the Artist in Community Grant and the Arts Education grant. The Decentralization program is administered in Tompkins County by the Community Arts Partnership.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Library to Host Sensory Storytime

Children ages 3 through 7 are invited to move, sing and play at Tompkins County Public Library’s “Sensory Storytime,” Saturday, November 21 at 3:30 p.m. in the Thaler/Howell Programming Room.

This program is free and open to children of all abilities; however, it is especially designed for children with sensory integration challenges. “Sensory Storytime” features interactive books, songs, and activities to stimulate the senses and promote learning. Children who have previously struggled to sit through other storytimes may find “Sensory Storytime” a better fit.

Participants who pre-register for the program will receive a free copy of “Hug Machine” by Scott Campbell. To register, call the Youth Services Department at (607) 272-4557 extension 275, or email Youth Services Librarian Kate DeVoe at kdevoe@tcpl.org.

“Sensory Storytime” has been made possible by the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation through a grant from Elmira Savings Bank and through funding provided by the Bernard Carl and Shirley Rosen Library Fund of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County and Tom and Maria Eisner’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County.


Monday, November 2, 2015

Library to Host Family Science Program

Tompkins County Public Library invites parents to cultivate a lifelong love of science Sunday, November 8 as the Library partners with Cornell University’s Science, Engineering and Educational Development (SEED) program for a hands-on workshop about the physics of music and biological bonding.

Families with children ages five and older will learn about the physics of music and sound by making musical instruments. Participants will also have a chance to learn about biological bonding by making gel capsules and oobleck, a material with properties of both a liquid and a solid.

This free program begins at 2 p.m. in the Library’s Thaler/Howell Programming Room.


For more information, contact the Youth Services Department at 607-272-4557 or Brenna Funfar at brf38@cornell.edu.