Maplewood Library to Host Nikole Hannah-Jones
Maplewood Library is one of 200 libraries nationwide to receive the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries, designed to assist libraries affected by the pandemic.
Maplewood Library will use the $10,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to rejuvenate its post-pandemic programming for the community. The Library has always made a conscious effort to provide programming, services and collections that expand awareness of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility. The grant will allow the Library to host a speaker who exemplifies these core values, and who will engage our diverse community in a celebration of our shared humanity.
Maplewood Library is therefore thrilled to announce it will host an evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. The1619 Project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States by examining slavery's modern legacy and reframing the way we understand this history and the contributions of black Americans to the nation.
The event will be held on September 28, 2022, at 7 pm at Columbia High School and is currently sold out. A moderated discussion will be followed by a Q&A session.
“We’re so proud to be chosen for this amazing opportunity,” says Library Director Sarah Lester. “It allows us to offer a program guided by our mission: to connect people to information, ideas, culture—and each other.”
“Libraries have faced significant hardships throughout the pandemic,” says American Library Association President Patty Wong. “This crucial support will help enable our beloved institutions, and the dedicated people who run them, to emerge stronger than ever.”
American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries is an initiative of the American Library Association, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan of 2021.