Events - 24 May 19

The month-long show “San Francisco in Black and White” featuring photography by Yves Tourmen opens on Thursday, April 25th at 6 PM, and continues until Saturday, May 25th. The exhibit is free and open to the public. Join us on opening night for refreshments and meet the artist!

Yves Tourmen, a biologist and passionate photographer, shows photographs from his visits to San Francisco in 2017 and 2018. The exhibit features classic landscape shots, portraits and street photography. His Hasselblad camera, a vintage model from the 1970s, surprised many Californians, which gave him the perfect opportunity to start up a conversation with the locals and take many candid shots. Despite the digital age, Tourmen respects the traditional process and develops his photographs in his own darkroom.

Stop by the library from April 25th to May 25th during opening hours to view his work.

This is a special moment when the community comes together to talk about anything and everything (in English of course!) over a cup of coffee or tea. Coffee House is free and open to all library members. Just drop by, no need to reserve!

Come along and bring your knitting,

Have a natter while you’re sitting,

Or learn to knit with wool provided,

Needles loaned and stitches guided.

Knitted garments are très chic,

So be in vogue and start this week.

Knit and Natter is a free activity, open to all library members. No need to reserve, just come and enjoy! If anyone has some extra wool please bring it in. The Knitting group has a project knitting twiddle muffs and are looking for bits and pieces of washable wool.

American author, Jake Lamar, will talk about his play, Brothers in Exile, featuring the three most important African-American expatriate writers of the post-World War II era in Paris: Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Chester Himes.

Jake Lamar is the author of a memoir, six novels, numerous essays, reviews, short stories and a play. He is a recipient of the Lyndhurst Prize (for his first book Bourgeois Blues), a prestigious French National Book Center grant (for his novel Postérité), France’s Grand Prix for best foreign thriller (for Nous Avions un Rêve, French translation The Last Integrationist), and a Beaumarchais fellowship for his play Brothers in Exile.

Although inspired by people and real facts, Brothers in Exile is a work of fiction. The story revolves around Wright’s death and an official inquiry by the French authorities into Himes’ and Baldwin’s potential involvement. Lamar invents circumstances for the trio but builds those circumstances around the information that he has learned from reading about their fraternal affection and fierce rivalry. Click here to listen to the French radio adaptation of Brothers in Exile aired on France Culture.

This talk is free and open to the public. No reservations necessary, but seating is limited. The Speaker Series has been made possible with the support of the Embassy of the United States of America, France. / Avec le soutien de l’Ambassade des États-Unis d’Amérique.

Treat yourself to an afternoon of a collective reading of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. This activity consists of watching a BBC production on DVD and then reading relative scenes. This is a great activity for lovers of language and fans of the great wit. The activity is free for library members. Please sign-up by emailing group leader John Barritt here.