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Interactive Trash Lab!
Housed in a fully accessible, 27-foot-long repurposed cargo trailer, Trash Lab features more than 10 playful interactive stations, engaging stories, and a wealth of data, along with compelling photography and video footage. The exhibit’s whimsical exterior and immersive interior environment will capture visitors’ imaginations as it travels throughout Southern Wisconsin. The exhibit explores the social justice, economic, and environmental effects of waste, connecting our local experiences to both local and global outcomes. Trash Lab will help community members of all ages better understand the implications of the waste they produce, how landfills work, and new opportunities for more sustainable solutions.
https://landfill.countyofdane.com/projects/WastandRenewableProjects/Trash-Lab
Nature Playgroup! (ages 2-6)
Online Author Talk: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us–A Sweeping History of Food and Culture with Smithsonian Curator Paula J. Johnson
Virtually step into the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History with Curator Paula Johnson as she discusses the book Smithsonian American Table: The Foods, People, and Innovations That Feed Us.
American Table is a sweeping history of food and culture that summons everyone to the table for a fresh look at some of the people, ingredients, events, and movements that have shaped how and what we eat.
Johnson, curator and project director of the American Food History Project, will discuss several stories featured in the volume, with an emphasis on those that intersect most directly with the Smithsonian’s research, collecting, and programming around food history.
During this event, Johnson will engage viewers in discovering the connections between food and American history:
- How immigration and migration has shaped (and continues to shape) American tables,
- How food companies have influenced home cooks through advertising, from Jell-O salads to Crock-pots.
- How individuals from Brownie Wise to James Beard and Julia Child inspired generations of cooks and eaters across the United States.
- And show viewers how uniting in the kitchen can change the shape of our collective futures, specifically highlighting growers and chefs who are reclaiming and reinventing regional and cultural traditions, including Indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques.
After this enlightening, enriching, and entertaining webinar, you can cook your way through the recipes that are featured in the volume that reflect American history and culture. Hungry for more? Register now!
About the Author: Paula Johnson is a Curator in the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and is responsible for strengthening and maintaining the food history and marine resources collections. She is also the Project Director for the Smithsonian's multi-faceted American Food History Project and director and co-curator for the exhibition, FOOD: Transforming the American Table, which opened in 2012; a refresh of the exhibition was completed in 2019. As one of the curators who collected Julia Child’s home kitchen in 2001, she was also on the team that developed the exhibition Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian, on view from 2002 to 2012. Over more than three decades at the Smithsonian, Johnson has collected a wide range of artifacts and archives reflecting the work and experiences of diverse Americans and communities.
Johnson has published books and articles on the Chesapeake Bay, maritime communities, and material culture, and has lectured widely on these and topics related to American food and wine history, field research, oral history recording, and community-based documentation. She is an inaugural member of the editorial collective for Gastronomica: The Journal for Food History and received the 2020 Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities Award. Johnson is working on a book about Julia Child’s home kitchen for publication in Fall 2024.
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Getting Started with Astrology
Busy Bee Baby Storytime (ages 0-2)
Friendly Foxes Storytime (ages 2-5)
Enjoy 20-30 min of Storytime with Angelika as she reads books, sings songs, and shares early literacy tips. Ages 2-5 years old but younger and older siblings/friends are always welcome. Our goal is to provide an opportunity to introduce children to reading and language in a fun way.
Stay aftward to play and socialize.
No registration is needed.
Free drop-in program.
Monona Public Library Friends Frenzy
4K STEAM Saturday
Hola! Cuentos y Canciones | Spanish Storytime
Tech Tutoring
Got a gadget that has you down? Have a tech challenge you need help with? Sign up for a 30-minute session with Dan, the amazing tech guru! This program is offered on the first and third Saturday of each month. If unable to attend a scheduled session, please call 24 hours in advance to cancel or reschedule.
This session does NOT replace professional technical support. Dan is unable to assist with complex topics such as hacked systems, publishing e-books, etc. Dan may offer advice on these types of topics but will not be able to directly assist.
ArtStudio Kids! (ages 2-5)
View the Solar Eclipse
Nature Playgroup! (ages 2-6)
Online Author Talk: From Murder to Atonement–Confronting My Son’s Killer with Diane Foley & Colum McCann
Join us for a one-of-a-kind conversation with National Book Award-winner Colum McCann as he is joined by Diane Foley, the inspiration behind the heartrending book American Mother.
American Mother is the story of a mother who, in the course of confronting her son’s killer, gets to the elemental heart of violence and forgiveness. Diane Foley is the mother of Jim, a freelance journalist captured and beheaded by ISIS in 2014, an image that became one of the most iconic of the 21st century. Seven years later, Diane gets the chance to spend three days with the murderer of her son in a Virginia courthouse, inspiring her to tell her life story. What unfolds is one of the most compelling narratives in recent literary history, channeled into searing reality by New York Times bestselling author Colum McCann, who brings us on a journey of strength, resilience, and radical empathy. You are sure to be moved by McCann's writing and Foley’s uncompromising love, register now!
About the Authors: Colum McCann is the author of seven novels, three collections of stories and two works of non-fiction. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he has been the recipient of many international honors, including the U.S National Book Award, the International Dublin Literary Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish Arts Academy, several European awards, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages. He is the President and co-founder of the non-profit global story exchange organization, Narrative 4. He is the Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence in Hunter College, in New York, where he lives with his wife Allison and their family. His most recent novel, Apeirogon, became an immediate New York Times best-seller and won several major international awards. His first major non-fiction book, American Mother, will be published in March 2024.
Diane M. Foley is the mother of five children, including American freelance conflict journalist James W. Foley. She founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation in September 2014, less than a month after his public execution. Diane is currently serving as the President and Executive Director of JWFLF. Since 2014, she has led JWFLF efforts to fund the start of Hostage US and the International Alliance for a Culture of Safety, ACOS. In 2015, she actively participated in the National Counterterrorism Center hostage review which culminated in the Presidential Policy Directive-30. This directive re-organized US efforts on behalf of Americans taken hostage abroad into an interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs and a White Hostage Response Group. Previously, Diane worked first as a community health nurse and then as a family nurse practitioner for 18 years. She received both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.
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Graphic Novel Book Club (Ages 8-12)
Busy Bee Baby Storytime (ages 0-2)
Creating & Making Together: Embroidered Canvas Art
Using a bit of embroidery, paint, and canvas, we’ll create a unique piece of art.
Friendly Foxes Storytime (ages 2-5)
Enjoy 20-30 min of Storytime with Angelika as she reads books, sings songs, and shares early literacy tips. Ages 2-5 years old but younger and older siblings/friends are always welcome. Our goal is to provide an opportunity to introduce children to reading and language in a fun way.
Stay aftward to play and socialize.
No registration is needed.
Free drop-in program.
Memory Screening
Nature Playgroup! (ages 2-6)
Monthly Knit Night
Busy Bee Baby Storytime (ages 0-2)
LEGO Lab! (ages 5-12)
Online Author Talk: A Literary Examination of Power, Love, and Art with Xochitl Gonzalez
We cannot wait for you to join us as we chat with award-winning and bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez about her newest novel Anita de Monte Laughs Last.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite. In 1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name had been all but forgotten―certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student was preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret. But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both Anita and Raquel, this is sure a novel (and a conversation) that you don’t want to miss. Register now!
About the Author: Xochitl Gonzalez is the New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming. Named Best of 2022 by The New York Times, TIME, Kirkus, Washington Post, and NPR, Olga Dies Dreaming was the winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize in Fiction and the New York City Book Award. Gonzalez is a 2021 MFA graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her nonfiction work has been published in Elle Decor, Allure, Vogue, Real Simple, and The Cut. Her commentary writing for The Atlantic was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A native Brooklynite and proud public school graduate, Gonzalez holds a BA from Brown University and lives in her hometown of Brooklyn with her dog, Hectah Lavoe.
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