Prince George's County Memorial Library System

PGCMLS in the News ❗🗞️ PGCMLS’ Books From Birth program,  in collaboration with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, is making a big impact in the lives of young Prince Georgians. This month, the Library celebrated sending its 1-millionth book. The program, which mails free books to kids from birth to age five has already reached over 35,000 children in the county! 📚 Read more in this WTOP article: https://lnkd.in/eSgNGeJX

Kids can create their own snow globes. Craft your own "Letting Go" plate and at the end of the program, let it all go and get rid of them. Join a virtual book discussion of “Temple Folk.” Make your a crochet scrunchie. Families will enjoy a family movie night watching “The Great Muppet Caper.” Build a paper reindeer and make it fly. Join a virtual book discussion of “Temple Folk.” Make a crochet scrunchie. Kids can practice reading with a gentle companion. Enjoy a screening of Disney Pixar’s “Wish.” All event this week: https://lnkd.in/ePMyZAwB 

Do you love the Library? Then come work with us! We’re looking for an experienced Communications Specialist to bring their talents to PGCMLS! For the full list of qualifications and to apply, visit: https://ow.ly/H45550UoFF6. If you or someone you know is looking for a new opportunity, we’d love to hear from you!

The Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System invite you to join them in celebrating 76 years of human rights! Panelists, leaders in local, national, and international human rights spaces, will discuss the human rights progress that’s been made and the work still left to do. This event honors December 10th’s 76th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948. Panelists include: Judge Sean D. Wallace is President of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal. He was elected to the Dispute Tribunal by the UN General Assembly in 2022 Jennifer Li Dotson currently serves with the US Commission for Civil Rights, Committee on the Status of Women and the Committee on Refugee and Immigrant Affairs. Cleveland L. Horton II was appointed as the Executive Director of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights in September 2024 after serving in a variety of capacities with the Maryland Commission for over fifteen years, including as deputy director for eleven. Karen Cook Bell is Professor of History at Bowie State University and is the University System of Maryland Wilson H. Elkins Endowed Professor. Her areas of specialization include slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women’s history.

PGCMLS This Week! ✨ PGCMLS and the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights invite you to celebrate 76 years of human rights! Visit the Beltsville Branch Library for the “Needlework Social.” Celebrate one million books making their way to children in Prince George’s County through our Books From Birth Program. Practice your French at the virtual “French Conversation Club.” Beech Tree Puppets will be presenting a performance of “The Hollow Stump.” Dress in your favorite Taylor Swift era for a Family Dance Party. Learn and enroll in health insurance. Drop into the Baden Branch Library for a life-sized experience of Candyland! All events this week: https://lnkd.in/eRD_wbFF 

Today is Giving Tuesday and you have the power to put free books in the hands of young children! “The Books from Birth program helped us to grow our home library to include a wonderfully diverse collection of books that my children go back to again and again and again! Several of our longtime favorites have come from this program, and I love to share the books with others now that my children have grown into more advanced readers. Their LOVE of reading makes me so proud, and I credit that to having a vast range of books and topics to choose from at a young age.” – Kelly S., Bowie Branch Library Customer Swipe to see how Kelly’s daughters, Grace and Maya, have grown into avid, excited readers! With a one-time or recurring #GivingTuesday donation, you can help make sure that a child, ages 0 to 5, receives a free book in the mail each month for their home library. Click the link to make a contribution today! https://lnkd.in/eA4kq5XU

First off, like and share this post! Secondly, it is #GivingTuesday, and this year, the PGCMLS Foundation's goal of $20,000 will ensure that 125 children in Prince George's County are able to enjoy the gift of #BooksFromBirth for the next 5 years! Your contribution today can truly make a real impact on budding young minds in your community. Click here to donate!: https://lnkd.in/eA4kq5XU With a one-time or recurring donation, you can help make sure that a child, ages 0 to 5, receives a free book in the mail each month for their home library. Your gift will help foster a child's love for reading and empower families to build strong learning foundations for their children.

PGCMLS This Week! Build your child’s confidence in reading aloud at “Tail Waggin’ Tutors.” Discover the art and science of caring for curly hair. Get a comprehensive introduction to the IT industry. Explore the Tugwell collection at the Greenbelt Branch Library. Enjoy a family game night with WETA PBS Kids. Crest your own candy cane structures! Celebrate Prince George’s County’s vibrant writers community at the “Local Author Expo.” Full week’s schedule: https://lnkd.in/edeGD38k

This spring, grab your favorite lunch at noon and tune in to virtual conversations with the Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System on topics from repairing the effects of racial injustice to fighting for equitable access to recovering from exile and loss. Let’s learn together! Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Kathleen DuVal, author of "Native Nations: A Millennium in North America" in conversation with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System. About the book: In this magisterial history, Kathleen DuVal traces the power of Native nations from ancient cities to the present. She reframes North American history, noting that Indigenous civilizations did not halt with European arrival. A millennium ago, North American cities rivaled global urban centers. Following climate change, numerous nations emerged from centralized civilizations. From this urban past, egalitarian governments, complex economies, and diplomacy spread. When Europeans arrived in the 16th century, they encountered powerful societies they misunderstood. For centuries, Indigenous people maintained an upper hand and used Europeans for their own interests. Mohawks controlled trade with the Dutch, and Quapaws manipulated French colonists. After the American Revolution, power dynamics shifted, but Indigenous people still controlled most of the continent. The Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa built alliances to resist U.S. expansion. The Cherokees asserted sovereignty, and the Kiowas regulated white settler passage. While definitions of power shifted, the sovereignty and influence of Indigenous nations remained constant. About the author: Kathleen DuVal is a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, which was shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. Her other books include Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent, and the U.S. history textbook Give Me Liberty! She has published in the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Early Republic, The Atlantic, Time magazine, and the New York Times, and she is a regular book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.

The Prince George’s County Office of Human Rights and Prince George’s County Memorial Library System presents a conversation with author and illustrator David Lester and author Marcus Rediker to discuss their new graphic novel, "Revolution by Fire: New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, a Graphic Novel." Based on the little known real life “Slave Insurrection” of 1741, this book imagines outlaw fugitive John Gwin and an eclectic crew of renegades as they attempt to disrupt and overthrow the colonial social order. Rebel fugitive John Gwin was previously introduced in "Under the Banner of King Death" and this graphic novel continues his adventures. "Revolution by Fire" is a hypothetical look at the inner workings of the so-called “New York Conspiracy” or “Slave Rebellion” of 1741, following the figures who were considered the real-life masterminds of the plot. Featuring an eclectic crew of African-American, Irish, and mixed-race Hispanic sailors, soldiers, and renegades, Gwin and his band are determined to capture New York City in their own names and fight the higher class “wigs and ruffles” wearing white people. Unfortunately for the conspirators, suspicions about an uprising were already in the minds of the Governor and his fellow elites, and the events that followed change the course of everyone’s lives forever. Based on the chapter titled “Outcasts of the Nations of the Earth” in Rediker’s and Peter Linebaugh’s "The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic," the book provides a fly-on-the-wall view of a historical event reimagined, highlighting cooperation among races and classes that transcends the social order of its time—and inspire us today. About the authors: David Lester illustrated the award-winning "1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike." He illustrated "Prophet against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel, (Beacon, 2021)" and "Villains of All Nations into Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, a Graphic Novel (Beacon 2023)." He is the guitarist in the rock duo Mecca Normal. Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of several books including "The Amistad Rebellion (Viking 2012)" and "The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Beacon 2000)." He worked with David Lester and Paul Buhle to adapt his book "The Fearless Benjamin Lay (2017)" into "Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel (Beacon, 2021)" and "Villains of All Nations into Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, a Graphic Novel (Beacon 2023)."