If, years ago, you’d peered into the children’s section of the Altadena Main Library, you’d have seen a girl reading and keeping an eye on her three younger siblings.
That experience made an impact, because that girl grew up to become the current president of the library’s Board of Trustees, Kameelah Waheed Wilkerson.
“Over in that corner is where I spent a lot of my childhood,” says Wilkerson, who was on hand March 4 as the Altadena Library reopened following the Eaton fire.
Standing by a window looking out onto trees and the San Gabriel Mountains, Wilkerson recalled how that spot, which is now the magazine area, played a huge role in her early life.
“My three younger siblings and I spent a lot of time in the library, especially during the summers. We would walk there from our house, check out books, hang out a while … That corner was my favorite because it had all the books I was interested in.”
She can remember what she was reading, too. “There were two books that I checked out from that corner that were mine and my brothers’ favorites. I would read aloud to them at home and these were ones that we read multiple times,” she shared in a followup email about “Mad Mad Monday” by Herma Silverstein and “The Darkangel” by Meredith Ann Pierce. “I actually bought them as an adult and keep them as memories.”
Wilkerson spoke with gratitude that the library had survived when so many homes and businesses had been destroyed by the wildfire.
“I’m just over the moon – I’m getting goosebumps – that this is one of the places that survived. It’s like a message from the Creator for me,” she says.
As the library doors opened, patrons were met with balloons, words of welcome and VIPs, including Altadena Library District Director Nikki Winslow, Board of Directors president Mark Mariscal and – my own personal VIPs – the branch librarians, including that Friend of the Book Pages, Librarian Helen. It was great to see them all.
“This is like my happy place,” says Wilkerson, who noted – like a true library fan – that she was pretty sure she had a book on hold that had been awaiting pickup since the library had been forced to close. (She, like her interviewer, also had a stack of books that had been waiting months to return to the library.)
The branch was a happy place for pretty much everyone there, including Altadena resident John May, a computational mathematician who’d brought his son Wallace and a friend there to read.
“We are extremely happy that the library is open today,” says May with a laugh. “The fact that school was not open today made it the perfect time to come in.”
“This is definitely a bright spot, and it’s going to be a core part of the rebuilding of the community,” says May about the library. “I know it’s going to be years, but having this community hub survive is important.”
Then we talked about the branch’s excellent graphic novel section. May was reading a copy of Lloyd Alexander’s wonderful fantasy novel “The Book of Three,” which I’d just read a few months back, and I’d grabbed the second volume of Pornsak Pichetshote’s noir detective comic series, “The Good Asian.”
As the morning progressed, things began to get back to normal as patrons arrived to use the computers, pick up and drop off books, or perhaps use some of the innumerable offerings in the Fab Lab, a maker space featuring 3D printing, sound mixing equipment and an embroidery machine.
“The community is going to need us now more than ever,” says Winslow. “We’re a trusted resource.”
Maybe the surest sign that the library was back and functioning normally was seeing a patron named Nancy and her three kids leaving with stacks of reading material– including that of her eldest son, who’d loaded up on titles about wild animals, the Bermuda Triangle and other, as he put it, “creepy stuff.”
“We are really excited to be back,” said Nancy as they headed off with their bounty.
This Saturday, March 8, the library will host its Second Saturday concert from 6:30-8:30 p.m. featuring local band Suave. To register, visit www.altadenalibrary.org/programs.
On Tuesday night, I went down to the Los Angeles Public Library Central Branch to watch Banned!, a free event featuring musical adaptations of suppressed works performed by Vox Femina Los Angeles women’s chorus.
The texts were adapted from books such as Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay,” and Alex Gino’s “Melissa,” as well as Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “The Merchant of Venice.”
While it’s easy enough to stream music these days, you forget how profoundly moving it is to be in the same room as a group of humans using their powerful voices together in song.
Possibly my favorite pieces of the one-hour program were these: “It Is the Silence,” an adaptation from “Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank; “Heather’s Dream,” based on Lesléa Newman’s “Heather Has Two Mommies”; and a song based on Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” with soloist Angelica Rowell delivering an absolutely stunning performance.
Will an event like this change minds about allowing the rich variety of voices we have to be heard? I don’t know if it’s fair to ask an evening of song to do that in the face of the steady stream of noise on our phones, socials and screens. Maybe creating beauty and thoughtful work out of what’s upsetting and divisive in the world today is enough.
Or maybe art simply provides strength and community during difficult, fractious times, reminding us, like a chorus, we’re better when we can work together and recognize the humanity in each other.
If banning literature is the silencing of voices, the lovely work of these talented women showed the joy, passion and tremendous value that can come from just being open and willing to listen.
Another performance of Banned! is scheduled for March 23 at the Ebell of Los Angeles.
This weekend
My talented colleague Emily St. Martin will be interviewing Mikel Jollett, the author of the acclaimed memoir “Hollywood Park” and frontman of the band Airborne Toxic Event.
The free conversaion will be at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, in the Padua Room at Hughes Center, 1700 Danbury Road, Claremont.
Not only is Emily a massive book nerd, but she’s also got plenty of experience talking to rock stars, so this should be a terrific event.
For more information, see The Friends of the Claremont Library event page.
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New time for ‘Bookish’
The next event, which is Fri. March 21, at 4 p.m., will salute SCNG’s Notable list of California authors and feature novelist and writer Lidia Yuknavitch.
Want to watch previous Bookish shows? Catch up on virtual events and more!