Friends of the Falls of Schuylkill Library Spring 2025 Newsletter
Get caught up on the latest news and learn about spring events at the Falls of Schuylkill Library.
🌷Spring News and Events🌷
“A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.” – Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
Falls of Schuylkill serves the community of East Falls with a variety of programs for all ages. Some select samples of programs offered this Spring includes:
👶 Library Playgroup, Thursdays at 2:30 PM
🐦 Introduction to Birding, Sat, March 1, 2025 11:00 PM
📖 ¡Canticuentos Spanish Storytime!, 5 week program starts March 4, 11:00 AM
📂 Open Office Hours: Office of State Representative Tarik Khan, Mon, March 10, 2025 4:00 to 7:00 PM
🌜 Beneficial Bats, Saturday, March 15 at 2:00 PM
🚑 Stop the Bleed Training, Tue, March 25, 2025 1:00 PM
Join the Friends! If not a member, consider joining. If a member – do you need to renew?
Membership applications can be found at the Library and on the Friends’ website. Already a member, but need to renew? PayPal makes it easy. Our dues are little but the rewards of becoming a member of the Friends of the Falls of Schuylkill Library are great! Funds raised by the Friends cover programs, materials, activities, furnishings building upgrades and much more at our Falls branch.
This winter, we provided an array of programs that engaged Friends in activities such as baking goodies for the Carol Sing in the Park (moved to East Falls Presbyterian Church), crafting fiber arts, playing Májiàng, practicing Qigong, and reading and discussing mysteries and thrillers…
Greetings, Friends! While we are still in the midst of winter and the unexpected weather conditions it brings, there is still a hint of spring in the air (thanks, Sunshine! It’s nice to see you.) and we are already making plans and looking forward to what it might bring to the library! Later this month, we will be launching a new collection at the Falls branch, as part of a partnership with the American Heart Association. Soon, in addition to books, dvds, music, audiobooks, video games, and magazines you will be able to borrow an at home blood pressure monitor… Click here to continue reading From the Desk Of
The popular Spring Book and Bake Sale at the Falls of Schuylkill Library, sponsored by Friends of Falls of Schuylkill Library, will take place once again. This is a great venue for finding popular books for leisure reading as well as unique treasures for gift giving among the thousands of donated books, DVDs, CDs, jigsaw puzzles, and children’s materials. Best of all, there’s a delicious Bake Sale on Saturday. This event is an important library fundraiser.
Intake Days are Saturday, April 19, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM and Monday, April 21 & Tuesday, April 22, 2:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
A “First Look” Preview Sale, for Dealers and Members of the Friends of Falls of Schuylkill Library Thursday, April 24 from 10:00 AM – noon, General public is welcome12:30 PM – 3:00 PM. You may join the Friends Group at the preview ($10 a year) or online.
The Public Sale continues Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. The Bake Sale will be on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The Hospitality Team will be sending out a letter calling for bakers closer to the event. Please consider volunteering!
The intake and the sales will be located at Falls of Schuylkill Library, 3501 Midvale Ave., Midvale Avenue entrance.
📚 Support the Friends of the Falls year-round by purchasing used books!📚
When you enter the Branch through the Warden Drive doors, look to your right for the first set of shelves on that wall. You’ll see the words “For Sale!” at the top of the shelving. You’ll also see a wooden box on the wall where you can put your money (cash) and you’ll find the price list there too.
Volunteers routinely switch out the books and also add “new to us books” from each book sale. There are sections for novels, classic literature, cookbooks, mysteries, crafts and nonfiction.
The money raised from selling these books goes to the Friends of the Falls to support programs for adults and children, purchase new materials, pay for instructors and author honorarium fees, and games for the Board Game Cafe among others.
The Community Outreach and Engagement Committee has started a Saturday Sit and Stitch group that will happen on the 3rd Saturday of each month. The Tuesday afternoon Fiber Arts Group gatherings have been very popular and we think the Saturday one will be too.
Join us for a casual, drop-in meet-up for crafters of all varieties and levels. Bring your own knitting, crochet, embroidery, or other project for socializing and inspiration. We will meet in the adult area of the library on March 15, April 19, and May 17, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM If you have any questions, please email Martha at fallsfriendsfiberartsgroup@gmail.com.
📚Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski📚
Book Review by Patrick Hillanbrand
I’ve been asked about my stance on Bukowski more than once in my time at the library and in my writing circles. I certainly talk about him enough, and it’s not hard to see why. Ham on Rye is not only my favorite work of his, but my favorite book of all time. I find that memoirs, specifically ones about childhood, are the most interesting. Through this type of storytelling, one’s own formative years are shaped by their unique experience and give a perspective on how their psyche compensates with the world as they grow.
In Bukowski’s case, he rejects the world and its teachings entirely. Ham on Rye is a künstlerroman, or the opposite of a bildungsroman—a coming of age story where an individual grows into their place in society through adversity. Bukowski, under his alter ego of Henry Chinaski, grows to doubt and question society as he matures from childhood into early adulthood. Set in the early 1920’s and 30’s around when the Great Depression struck, Hank’s childhood in Los Angeles is plagued by his alcoholic and abusive father, his shell-shocked mother, his apathetic classmates and teachers, and a poverty-stricken public. He experiences a childhood of neglect, dysphoria, and much more that gives him a rather poetic perspective about modern life and its need to integrate him into the “soul-sucking nine-to-five life.”
Despite the rough exterior and shocking content of the memoir, the book contains a real flow between the lines and an unmatched candor that keeps me coming back to it. I’ve heard it said that Hank is not meant to be your friend as he tells his story, but rather that he wants you to try to understand where he’s coming from. Ham on Rye stands as the ultimate lesson in empathy and how a lack of it in childhood can make one bitter and jaded despite the best intentions of a kind soul. This book has become my comfort read when I need a good chuckle, as Bukowski’s famous sarcasm and absurdity makes the book a surprisingly relatable experience. It’s like a long, comedic trip through the things you got away with in childhood. I most strongly recommend the audiobook version narrated by Christian Baskous, who matches Hank’s tone and mannerisms perfectly. While this künstlerroman may not leave you with a song in your heart, Bukowski shares a very relatable mentality through his exclusion and cynicism. To quote the man himself, “I wanted the whole world or nothing.”
📚A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko📚
Book Review by Lisa Meyers
As an outdoor enthusiast, I enjoy long-distance hiking memoirs. As someone interested in geology, there were fantastic diagrams and observations of land features and geologic time. Therefore, this book checked a couple boxes for me. Kevin Fedarko’s narrative of “misadventure” resulted from poor planning and preparation and his honesty about his lack of experience was both alarming and humorous. It took several attempts, the better part of a year, and a support team who worked behind the scenes and in the field so that he and his partner could complete their trek. Their tenacity was admirable. This 800 mile west-bound trek included the entire length of the Grand Canyon beyond what is contained within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park.
Back in 2007, I went on a guided backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon, it was a “Rim to Rim” hike. I remember some of the places mentioned in the book as well as descriptions of the flora and fauna. That experience made this book come alive for me.
For anyone who has seen the Grand Canyon, to say that it inspires awe and fascination is an understatement. But what I learned from this book has another significance. It tells the story of land usurped by the white man, driving indigenous people from their homes and ancestral lands. Sadly, this could be the common backstory for many of our national parks. Fedarko meets with indigenous people, some of whom were “sold out” and some who felt they had to “sell out” for economic reasons. There are places in the Grand Canyon that are not unlike a trip to Disneyland.
Alternately, there are descriptions of his traverse through obscure side canyons and seeing petroglyphs that have rarely been seen by other people. These discoveries have a profound effect on him. While I may never see what he saw, if I ever have the good fortune of hiking in the Grand Canyon again, I hope to feel the same profound effects. Now my planning begins…
🍀Spring 2025 Calendar of Events🍀
The library has multiple free programs this Spring with programs for all ages.
This event will be held in the downstairs Meeting Room (Midvale Avenue entrance).
Amy Saul-Zerby is the author of Paper Flowers, Imaginary Birds, Deep Camouflage, and Choose Your Own Beginning. Her poems have appeared in The Rumpus, The Chicago Review of Books, American Poetry Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is the Director of Marketing and Development for The Free Books Project and Editor-in-Chief of Voicemail Poems.
“The smart, alluring voice we encounter in Amy Saul-Zerby’s Paper Flowers, Imaginary Birds is by turns zany, dark, casual, lyrical, angry, direct. I say voice, because these poems are constantly addressing us, implicating us as readers, as they map a psychological pathway through love, desire and pain always thrumming just beneath the surface. It’s a sophisticated voice and entirely contemporary, having learned as avidly from Confessionalism and the New York School as from social media. It’s a voice that longs for enlargement and anonymity at the same time; Amy Saul-Zerby’s poems themselves become places for hiding and places for being seen: ‘i am everything that i’m not / when i am a poem in your hands.'” –Richie Hofmann, Second Empire
✍️Author Event
Cathy Goodwin & Alex Hillman
April 5, 3:00 PM
This event will be held in the downstairs Meeting Room (Midvale Avenue entrance).
Cathy Goodwin spent 20+ years as a marketing professor and researcher in university business schools. She has lived all over North America, including Alaska and Canada. Working out, classical and classical C&W music, WNBA (Go Storm!), stand-up comedy (performer), and murder mysteries (reader). She resides in Philadelphia, PA, with two high-maintenance cats who refuse to share their stories. Cathy shows clients how to set up their own online businesses through copywriting and online marketing strategy. In particular, she shows clients how to use storytelling for marketing and career change, through one-to-one consulting, training courses and copywriting. Cathy’s approach differs from most storytelling experts, because she encourages clients to begin with their marketing purpose and use storytelling as a tool to reach their goals.
Alex Hillman has nearly two decades of experience with helping people start and grow independent businesses that give them more freedom and control over their work. As the founder of Indy Hall, he’s seen firsthand how community and collaboration help entrepreneurs succeed. Through Stacking the Bricks and 30×500, he’s taught thousands of solopreneurs how to find customers, build trust, and create businesses that support their lives—not the other way around. His book, The Tiny MBA, distills hard-won lessons about business and independence into mental prompts to help entrepreneurs recenter their focus. And with the 10k Independents project, he’s working to help even more people break free from traditional employment. Alex believes that success isn’t about scale, but about independence, and that the most valuable resource for any business isn’t funding—it’s the relationships you build along the way.
✍️Author Event
Menika B. Dirkson
May 17, 3:00 PM
NOTE: This event will be held in the Main Room of the library.
Menika Dirkson is the author of Hope and Struggle in the Policed City: Black Criminalization and Resistance in Philadelphia. In her 2024 book, Menika explores how concerns about poverty-induced Black crime cultivated by police, journalists, and city officials sparked a rise in tough-on-crime policing in Philadelphia. Dirkson is a Philadelphia native and an Assistant Professor of African American History at Morgan State University. She received her PhD in History from Temple University. Her research focuses on police-black community relations in Philadelphia following the Civil Rights Era. She is currently researching race, policing, and graffiti surrounding the public transportation system in post-1958 Philadelphia. She lives in Germantown and regularly volunteers with the Friends of Joseph E. Coleman Library.
🎲Board Game Café🎲
Meets the second Saturday of the month at 2:00 PM.
(March 8, April 12 & May 10)
This event will be held in the downstairs Meeting Room (Midvale Avenue entrance).
Enjoy board games? Looking to socialize? Meet up with nieghbors?
Play any of the many games on hand at the library (Scrabble, Pictionary, Taboo, Charades, etc), or feel free to bring your own game.
Want to learn Májiàng (Mah Jong), but don’t know how to play? No worries as seasoned Majiangg player and board game café coordinator, La Sripanawongsa can teach the basics of the game, Chinese style.
Light refreshments provided, or feel free to bring your favorite snacks. Come and join the fun. All are welcome!
🙆Chair Exercise🙆
Fridays at 12:00 PM (March 7, 14, & 21)
This event will be held in the downstairs Meeting Room (Midvale Avenue entrance).
Chair exercise allows you to work out while seated or using a chair for balance which offers the same benefits like boosting strength, flexibility and mental well-being. We will also work on stretching, balance and relaxation. Enjoy the calm, peace, and self-acceptance that exercise brings no matter what shape you are in.
This class is taught by Megan DoNascimento, who has taught
extensively in the area including at other branch library locations as well as at te Mt.Airy Learning Tree (MALT).
For adults of all ability and skill levels. Please dress comfortably (and bring water to hydrate).
This group will be held in the Main Room of the library.
Connect with other writers for motivation, accountability, and inspiration via free writing, prompts and writing games, group sharing, feedback sessions and more. This free event will be a positive and non-judgmental community open to writers of all genres and skill levels. The group is facilitated by library staff member, Patrick Hillanbrand.
✂️Fiber Arts Groups✂️
Saturday “Sit & Stitch” too!
Meets every Tuesday, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM,
and the third Saturday, 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM *NEW*
This group will be held in the Main Room of the library.
Craving for a crafts group to meet up with? Want to connect, socially, with other creatives working on portable crafts projects? Looking to share your crafts project or project ideas with other creatives? Stop by the Library – bring a portable craft project (knitting, crocheting, hand-sewing, embroidery, jewelry, etc) that you are working on. Don’t know how, but want to learn to hand-craft from others who are passionate about their projects? Stop in and watch and learn some basics. It’s free to attend.
✨New! Caring for our Hands:
Special Topics Workshop
Meets Saturday, March 29 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
This event will be held in the downstairs Meeting Room (Midvale Avenue entrance).
As makers, we put our hands through a lot. This class is designed to give our hands a little extra care and attention so we can continue with our making. You will be guided by a licensed physical therapist through techniques and exercises that will help to stretch and strengthen your hands. These exercises will include self massage, gentle stretching and strengthening using objects already found in the home.
Taught by Mariah Stanford, an experienced knitter for 16 years, certified knit instructor and a licensed physical therapist. She finds joy in helping others with their craft. You can find out more about her at her website Mariahknits.com.
🌟New!The Growing Circle:
Home Gardener’s Meet Up
Meets the first Fridays of the month at 2:00 PM (March 7, April 4 & May 2)
This event will be held in the upstairs in the Main Room of the Library.
Join The Growing Circle! Are you a home gardener looking to connect with others who share your passion? Whether you’re a seasoned expert or just getting started, The Growing Circle is the perfect place to swap tips, tricks, and seeds with fellow garden enthusiasts! It’s a great way to learn, share, and grow together!
This meet up group is facilitated by local resident and green enthusiast, Ashley Wanner, The group is free, and all are welcome.
🕵️Mystery, Murder and Mayhem!🕵️
A Monthly Mystery Book Club
Meets on the second Tuesdays of the month at 4:00 PM.
(March 11, April 8 and May 13)
This group will be held in the Main Room of the library.
.
As a genre, mysteries span countries, cultures, and historic periods, varying in tone, pace, and characterization. From the hardboiled to the cozy, from the plodding of a procedural to the twisty legal thriller, there are as many types of mysteries as there are reasons to read them. Let’s explore it all, led by our own curiosity and interests! This book club is facilitated by library staff member, Roslyn Thomas.
Piyanut “La” Sripanawongsa – Social Media (FB, IG) and co-host Board Game Café (Májiàng)
Julia Taus – Author Events
Contributors to this issue of The Catfish Chronicle:
Jenn Ainslie; Mary Jean Cunningham & Marie Filipponi; Jenn Estepp; Martha Fuller; Patrick Hillanbrand; Beth Hymel & Ann Wiley; Jenna Musket; Lisa Myers; Julia Taus; Roslyn Thomas
Friends of the Falls of Schuylkill Library, 3501 Midvale Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA
