Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with this free concert, featuring Michael on vibraphone, David Gleason on piano, Brad Monkell on bass, and Pete Sweeney on drums. The band will perform both straight-ahead and Latin-influenced jazz, including the Bossa Nova and Samba.
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 19, 6 – 7pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: Registration appreciated. Email programs@hudsonarealibrary or call 518-828-1792 x101 to register.
This concert is made possible by the Albany Musicians’ Union, Local 14.
The Hudson Area Library hosts an exhibition from its Local Historical Maps & Atlases collection on view March – April 2023. This collection of maps, made between 1740 and 2001, illustrates the ways our city has changed and stayed the same over part of its long history.
This extensive collection was recently archived by Nina Boutsikaris, who along with Brenda Shufelt, History Room Coordinator, curated the exhibition. Ms. Boutsikaris states, “The library’s maps and atlases contain a treasure trove of information about the Hudson area and beyond, giving us a glimpse into the eras they represent. In addition, many show the artistry and scholarship of the map creators.” Examples of newly acquired urban renewal maps and photographs from Front Street prior to demolition are a part of the exhibition as well as how the library has used this collection for research and in the education of young persons.
Date/Time:
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 2, 6pm
Exhibition on view: March and April 2023
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: No registration required.
This giveaway is intended for children ages birth to five and their caregivers. It includes a Spanish/English bilingual board book version of The Itsy Bitsy Spider and the materials you’ll need to make your own itsy bitsy little friend!
Date/Time: Pick up begins on Wednesday, March 1
Pick-up location: Hudson Area Library Main Desk
Este obsequio está destinado a niños desde el nacimiento hasta los cinco años y sus cuidadores. ¡Incluye una versión de libro de cartón bilingüe en español e inglés de La Pequeña Arañita y los materiales que necesitarás para hacer tu propio amiguito!
La recogida comienza: miércoles 1 de Marzo
Lugar de recogida: mostrador principal de la biblioteca del área de Hudson
Program Description: Nationally Certified Career Services Provider, Beth Gordon, will work with you one-on-one to re-fresh your resume or brush up on your interview skills to land that next job.
Date/Time: Beth is available by appointment for one-one-one sessions offered at a safe distance in person at the Hudson Area Library or by telephone, Skype, Zoom, or FaceTime.
Registration: Email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x100 to schedule a one-on-one appointment.
Studies have shown that having a qualified person work through the process of seeking a job gives an individual a much greater chance of success. Beth Gordon is a Certified Career Services Provider, trained as a career coach through NCDA, the National Career Development Association. Beth provides professional development and advocacy to a diverse group of people who are out of work, looking to re-enter or join the workforce. She inspires and empowers individuals to achieve their career and life goals by consulting on resume writing, job search guidance, interview preparation and work ready assistance. Beth has training to help with, not only resumes and interview skills, but online job applications, and finding the right market for your particular job skills. She has access to job search resources online and in our area and has successfully taken many people through the process of searching for a job.
Our youth radio crew records their weekly Bound By Books radio show remotely on Tuesday afternoons. Tune in Friday evenings and Sunday mornings to hear tweens and teens, along with our library director Emily Chameides discuss books they love, books they’re currently reading, and other tween and teen media and literary topics. Bound By Books has been broadcasting on WGXC since 2011. In addition to the weekly show, past Bound by Books radio shows can be accessed online via the WGXC Audio Archive.
Recording: Tuesdays, 4-5pm
Broadcast: Fridays, 7pm and Sundays, 6:30am on WGXC 90.7FM
Register: Contact Emily at info@hudsonarealibrary.org to learn more.
Calling all anime and manga fans ages 9 – 18! We’re introducing a new Anime Club this month, and you’re invited! Join us to watch anime, eat Japanese snacks, win manga prizes, and meet your fellow otakus. ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა
Date/Time: Tuesdays, April 4 – 25, 3:30 – 5pm
Location: Hudson Area Library Teen Room
Registration: No registration required. All are welcome! For more information, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101
It has been said that an army travels on its stomach, never was this more true than during the dark days of WWII. This session examines the unprecedented contributions made by millions of ordinary Americans who fought the war literally in their own backyards growing food for themselves, the army and our allies in small plots known as Victory Gardens. Interactive discussion topics include: Where did the idea for these gardens come from? Why were these gardens so necessary? What did the government do to encourage their creation? What was grown in these gardens? How much did they actually help?
Date/Time: Monday, April 10, 6 – 7pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To register and receive the Zoom link, email columbiacountylibraries@gmail.com
This program is presented by the Columbia County Libraries Association.
For April’s STEAM Storytime, we will celebrate spring by reading ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s First Spring’ and creating jellybean structures!
Date/Time: Wednesday, April 12, 4 – 5pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: No registration required. All are welcome!
The program is presented in collaboration with Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood and Talk Read Sing Columbia, with support from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Local tech whiz Pam Doran will lead six free online tech labs, designed to help you navigate the digital world.
Date/Time: All sessions are on Mondays at 6:15pm.
January 30 – Photo Sharing and Archive Management
February 13 – Secret Tips & Tricks for iPhone
February 27 – Manage Your Cell Phone Storage
March 13 – Organizing and Managing Your Gmail
April 17 – Using Library Apps: Libby, E-books, Audiobooks
May 1 – Apps for Travel
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To register and receive the Zoom link, email columbiacountylibraries@gmail.com
This program is sponsored by the Columbia County Libraries Association.
Families living in Columbia County with children ages three and under are invited to attend this monthly play and parent support group. Each session will focus on a new discussion topic for parents, and play activities for the children. Stop by to gather parenting resources, ask questions, and enjoy a peer support space!
Date/Time: Thursday, April 20, 2 – 4pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: Registration is not required.
Join Monarda Community Care for a free drop-in care clinic, which will include ear acupuncture, ear seeds, acupressure, a wide variety of free herbal medicines, Narcan, Fentanyl test strips, zines, and more.
Participants receiving acupuncture treatment immediately experience a deep sense of calm, reduced cravings, relief from stress, emotional trauma and chronic pain. Using the NADA protocol, this treatment involves the gentle placement of up to five small, sterilized disposable needles into specific acupressure points on each ear. The recipients sit quietly in a group setting for 20-45 minutes. To learn more about the history of this practice and all of its benefits for those coping with the stresses of modern life, scroll down below.
Dates/times:
Saturday, April 15, 11am – 2pm
Saturday, May 27, 11am – 2pm
Saturday, June 10, 11am – 2pm
Note: To receive acupuncture treatment, you must arrive by 1:30pm.
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: No registration required. First come, first served.
This program is presented in collaboration with Spark of Hudson.
The NADA protocol consists of five specific auricular (ear) acupuncture points, that address the physical, mental and emotional symptoms of folks dealing with behavioral health issues; including addictions, mental health, PTSD and disaster & emotional trauma.
The NADA protocol is a 5 point auricular acupuncture treatment radically rooted in the community care and activism of the Black Panthers and Young Lords.
Dr. Mutulu Shakur and the folks at the Lincoln Detox Center led a revolutionary movement in the South Bronx during the 1970s where they developed the NADA protocol. They were looking for ways to serve vulnerable communities in their struggle with opioid use. These treatments turned out to be effective for detoxification, withdrawal, and stress management. Because of this movement, acupuncture will always be known as the peoples’ medicine.
Please watch the documentary @dopeisdeath (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua-m7AANkQ4) for a full history of this treatment and the communities it has supported for almost 50 years.
Ear seeds (beads), will also be available for those preferring to avoid needles but still wanting to receive this treatment.
We will also have a huge assortment of herbal medicine available to the community for free. Tinctures, glycerites, oxymels, herbal teas and more.
Benefits of the NADA protocol:
- Relief from stress and emotional trauma
- Increased calmness, better sleep, and less agitation
- Reduced cravings for substances, including nicotine
- Minimized withdrawal symptoms
- Decreased cortisol levels
- Several organ systems are stimulated and detoxified
Truly anybody can benefit from receiving this treatment.
Explanation of the NADA points:
Shen Men:
Shen Men is a Master Point. Master points are always electrically active in comparison to other points on the ear. This point is often needled first in acupuncture, it relaxes the mind and helps the body to become more receptive to treatment. Shen Men is also known as Divine Gate, it is so powerful that it treats almost everything – stress, anxiety, depression, pain, inflammatory diseases, etc.
Sympathetic / Autonomic:
Bringing us out of fight-or-flight mode. Our sympathetic nervous system is designed to jump start our bodies into fight-or-flight mode for survival purposes. When that part of our system is activated, our digestive and organ functions shut down so that we can put all our energy into doing whatever is required to survive an emergency situation.
However, many people often live in a constant sympathetic nervous system state, always on high alert, anxious, fearful, and energetically out of balance. Living this way leads to a multitude of mental, emotional, and physical health issues; insomnia, anxiety and digestive issues are some of the most common. Parasympathetic mode, on the other hand, is where we should be most of the time. This is where our body regenerates and heals. Treating the Sympathetic / Autonomic Point will bring your body back to this state.
Kidney:
In Eastern Medicine, the kidney meridian is associated with fear. This point improves willpower, calms fear, is good for backache, and calms digestion.
Liver:
In Eastern Medicine, the liver meridian is associated with anger. This point helps to lift depression, support digestion, improve blood circulation, alleviate aches and pains, and help us to better assimilate our experiences in life.
Lung:
In Eastern Medicine, the Lung meridian is associated with the emotion of sadness. The lung point controls breathing, cleanses the skin, assists in letting go mentally, supports the process of grief and facilitates forgiveness.
The History Room’s April collaboration with the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History is a virtual talk by Kate Mulry.
In the late seventeenth-century the English sought to bring political order to the empire through projects of environmental improvement. This talk explores why drainage orders were often among the first projects initiated by new English officials in colonial New York. By ordering swamp and marshland drainage, officials sought to remake places they worried were unhealthy, unruly, and unproductive. At the same time, they expected to transform the residents of those places. This presentation will highlight changing ideas about nature, governance, and public health in the early modern Atlantic World.
Date/Time: Thursday, April 27, 6-7:30pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To register and receive the Zoom link, click here.
The Jacob Leisler Library Lectures are made partially possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Foundation and Hudson River Bank and Trust.
Sing and dance your way through spring with local musician, Abby Lappen, during our Movement & Music Storytime sessions. Toddlers, kids, and families of all ages will enjoy this bright, animated program as they learn how to use stories, songs and motion to develop early literacy skills.
Date/Time: Thursdays, through May 25, 4 – 5pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: Registration is appreciated, but not required. Email youth@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101.
HAL Book Group
The HAL Book Group will discuss West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge for this month’s meeting. All are welcome.
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 22, 5 – 6pm
Location: In person, Senior Center Game Room (2nd Floor of the Armory building)
Registration: To participate in the book group, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101.
Nonfiction Book Group
The Nonfiction Book Group will discuss The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family by Kerri Greenidge for this month’s meeting and discussion.
Date/Time: Monday, March 27, 6 – 7pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To join the discussion, email info@hudsonarealibrary.org to receive the Zoom link. All are welcome.
The Friends of the Hudson Area Library’s spring Book and Bake Sale will include books for all ages, CDs, DVDs, and some scrumptious baked goods. All proceeds will benefit the Friends, who support library collections and programming.
Date/Time: Friday and Saturday, March 17 and 18, 10am – 3pm
Sunday, March 19, 1 – 3:30pm
Bakers’ Drop-off: Thursday, March 16, 10am – 5pm and Friday, March 17, 10am – 5pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Be a part of The Hudson Area Library’s Teen Advisory Council! HAL TAC is made up of youth (grades 6 – 12) who take on leadership roles in creating and hosting tween/teen library programs and participating in community events representing the library. Interested? Join us for our March meeting!
Date/Time: Tuesday, March 7, 4 – 5pm
Location: Hudson Area Library Teen Room
Registration: For more information, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101
In celebration of libraries and the people who love them, we’re encouraging new library card sign-ups this month by offering free gifts to the first 35 new cardholders! If you or someone you know is ready to register for their first library card, stop by today to pick-up a card and a heart-shaped bucket full of goodies!
This incentive is supported by a generous donation from the Friends of the Hudson Area Library.
Join us for the Black Earth Wisdom book release celebration! Leah Penniman’s Black Earth Wisdom is a soulful collection of illuminating essays and interviews that explore Black people’s spiritual and scientific connection to the land, waters, and climate. This joyful book release event will include earth ritual, panel discussion, drumming and dancing, poetry, musical performances, refreshments, giveaways, and beloved community.
Learn more about the book at blackearthwisdom.org and @black.earth.wisdom on Instagram
Date/Time: Saturday, March 4, 1 – 4pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: Free and open to the public. Reserve a spot here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-earth-wisdom-book-release-tickets-503368487697
HAL Book Group
The Hudson Area Library Book Group, which reads a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, will read The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate for this month’s meeting and discussion. All are welcome.
Date/Time: Wednesday, February 22, 5 – 6pm
Location: In person, Senior Center Game Room (2nd Floor of the Armory building)
Registration: To participate in the book group discussion, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101.
Nonfiction Book Group
The Nonfiction Book Group will meet for a discussion of All That She Carried by Tiya Miles.
“In 1850s South Carolina, just before nine-year-old Ashley was sold, her mother, Rose, gave her a sack filled with just a few things as a token of her love. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter, Ruth, embroidered this history on the bag–including Rose’s message that “It be filled with my Love always.” Historian Tiya Miles carefully follows faint archival traces back to Charleston to find Rose in the kitchen where she may have packed the sack for Ashley……”
Date/Time: Monday, February 27, 6 – 7:30pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To join the discussion, email info@hudsonarealibrary.org to receive the Zoom link. All are welcome.
Artist Ellie Irons offers a paint-making demo and painting session featuring watercolor paints made from the feral and weedy vegetal life inhabiting current-day Hudson’s South Bay. The event will also include the launch of a paint-making handbook with instructions for making weedy watercolor paints, and including natural/cultural histories of plant species common along post-industrial stretches of the Hudson River waterfront, and a series of feral plant solidarity postcards for visitors to paint and take away.
This event will start in the newly redesigned Ecotopian Collection space at the Hudson Area Library. The Ecotopian Collection is a set of books, objects and interactive projects designed to inspire thought and action to achieve an ecological future in Hudson. It is a partnership between the Hudson Area Library and Toolshed, a Hudson-based organization that gathers and shares tools for living ecologically and was originally conceived by artist Mary Mattingly in collaboration with Sayler/Morris.
Date/Time: Wednesday, March 1, 5:30 – 6:30pm
Location: Hudson Area Library Ecotopian Collection and Community Room
Registration: No registration required.
Funding for this event and for the handbook, which will become part of the Ecotopian Collection, is provided by Toolshed. Ellie’s work with pigments at the Hudson waterfront came out of a residency at Basilica Hudson supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Council for the Arts and Toolshed.
Ellie Irons is an artist and educator living and working on Mohican land in current-day Troy, New York, USA. From foraged watercolor paintings to un-lawning experiments, her work combines socially engaged art, ecology fieldwork, and embodied learning. She is a co-founder of the Next Epoch Seed Library and the Environmental Performance Agency, collaborations investigating relationships between humans and spontaneous urban plants (aka weeds). Her solo and collaborative work has been part of recent exhibitions on contemporary environmental art, including The Department of Human and Natural Services at NURTUREArt, Ecological Consciousness: Artist as Instigator at Wave Hill, and Unsettled Nature at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Her work has been covered by publications ranging from Art in America to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Irons received a BA from Scripps College in Los Angeles and an MFA from Hunter College in New York. In December 2021, She completed a PhD in arts practice at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, focused on socially engaged environmental art. She is currently a community science educator and lab manager at the Sanctuary for Independent Media’s NATURE Lab, and an artist in residence with Toolshed’s Ecotopian Library. Toolshed is a platform to gather and share tools that empower individuals and communities to live ecologically. It consists of a tool lending library (Toolshed Exchange); the Ecotopian Collection at the Hudson Area Library; and an on-line journal that will become a publication (tool-shed.org). It was founded by artists Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris (Sayler/Morris) in collaboration with Timothy Furstnau.
Learn to express yourself in real life situations and develop Spanish language skills for work, travel, or just for fun! Lessons include grammar and vocabulary as well as an introduction to arts and culture from different countries. This free program emphasizes conversational Spanish skills in fun and friendly classes for both “Complete Beginners” and “Advanced/Intermediate” learners.
Date/Time: Tuesdays, February 7 – April 11
Complete Beginners class: 5 – 6pm
Advanced/Intermediate class: 6 – 7pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: Space is limited! To register and receive the Zoom link, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org
This program is supported by the Bank of Greene County.
Columbia County was an important community for reform movements and the Underground Railroad in the 19th century. Numerous freedom seekers made their way to the region, knowing that support was available from abolitionists, both black and white.
The Underground Railroad Education Center brings to the public the historically documented accounts of both freedom seekers and abolitionists, highlighting the leadership roles occupied by African Americans abolitionists, identifying who they were, what they did, where they engaged in their activities as they sought to ensure that the promises of our nation’s Declaration of Independence were available to all.
Date/Time: Monday, February 20, 6pm
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Registration: To participate in this virtual talk, email columbiacountylibraries@gmail.com or click here to join the Zoom event.
Presented by The Underground Railroad Education Center; hosted by Columbia County Libraries Association.
Operation Unite NY, in collaboration with the Hudson Area Library, presents Photography Land and River! This exhibition and opening reception will share work documenting the experiences of youth and adult participants who attended photography workshops led by JD Urban and apprentice S. Trianna.
Date/Time:
Opening Reception: Wednesday, January 11, 5 – 6:30pm
Exhibition: Wednesday, January 11 – Tuesday, February 14
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: No registration required. For more information, email elena@operationuniteny.org
Photography Land and River! was sponsored by a grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
We’re throwing a party for LGBTQIA+ youth and allies! Students in grades 6 – 12 are invited to join us for karaoke, dancing, snacks, pronoun button-making, candy box crafts, raffles, giveaways, and more! For more information and to register, email programs@hudsonarealibrary.org or call 518-828-1792 x101.
Date/Time: Sunday, February 12, 2 – 4pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
Registration: No registration required. All are welcome!
This program is supported by generous donations from Trixie’s Oven, Lil Deb’s Oasis, Spotty Dog Books & Ale, and Supernatural Coffee & Bakery.
Join Culinary Historian Peter G. Rose for her talk on the History of Chocolate in the Hudson Valley. Ms. Rose will discuss the early trade by the Valley’s Dutch settlers in the 17th century and the subsequent manufacturing developments of chocolate through the 18th century into the late 19th century. There will be free samples of locally made chocolate from Verdigris Tea & Chocolate Bar and other local businesses at the event.
Date/Time: Saturday, February 11, 1pm
Location: In person, Hudson Area Library Community Room
The Jacob Leisler Library Lectures are made partially possible through the generous support of the Van Dyke Family Foundation and Hudson River Bank and Trust.
Culinary historian Peter G. Rose was born in the Netherlands and came to the United States in the mid-1960s. She has contributed a syndicated column on family food and cooking to the New York-based Gannett newspapers for more than twenty years and written articles for magazines such as Gourmet, Saveur and the Hudson Valley Magazine. She is the author of 10 books on the Dutch influence on the American kitchen. She received the 2002 Alice P. Kenney Award for research and writing on the food customs and diet of the Dutch settlers in New Netherland. She lectures nationally and internationally on a variety of topics related to Dutch and Dutch-American culinary history, including at the Smithsonian Institute, the National Gallery, the Peabody Essex Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Bryn Mawr College, New York University, the Culinary Institute of America, and in the Netherlands, at the University of Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery in The Hague. Ms. Rose was part of a group of more than 100 scholars, who investigated the history of chocolate in America, sponsored by the Historic Division of Mars, Inc., which culminated in a book Chocolate: History, Culture & Heritage (Wiley, 2009).
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