Welcome to Kanopy! The Pratt’s new digital streaming service
Kanopy features:
No commercials.. No Fees.
Just recently Kanopy announced it will stream A24 movies including Moonlight, Ladybird, and The Florida Project.
All you need is your Pratt Library card.
Available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Roku.
At the beginning of November John Maple, an educator from Baltimore’s Space Telescope Science Institute, came to the Roland Park Branch to host a Star Party. Mr. Maple talked to an audience of children, teenagers, and adults about STScI’s work with the Hubble Telescope. He used LEDs and special glasses to show everybody how scientists use light and color to explore the universe.
Then, after eating dinner, we all went up to the library’s terrace to look at the sky with a telescope. It was a cloudy night, but everybody was excited to see the top of Roland Park Elementary/Middle School’s bell tower through the telescope.Special Collections has a number of interesting books on Native Americans and the westward expansion of the United States, with particular focus on relations between Native Americans and Europeans moving into the American West. These books often include descriptions of tribal life, 
customs, and language as encountered and recorded by Europeans. One example is Caleb Atwater’s Indians of the Northwest (1831). Atwater was an archaeologist known for work on the mounds and earthworks of the Ohio Valley. In 1831 he published his experiences while he was employed by the United States government to negotiate with the people of the upper Mississippi. In the book he described customs, including games, music, and dancing. Atwater also recorded lists of common words in the Sioux or Dacota language.
Examples from another interesting and important work can be found in the Library’s Hilde P. Holme Print Collection (find scanned images in Digital Maryland). The collection includes a small group of hand colored lithographs originally part of a larger work, McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836-1844). The prints are thought to be some of the most accurate 19th century portraits of Native Americans. Many of the prints are based on the portraits of Charles Bird King who was hired by McKenney, then Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the U.S. War Department, to preserve the likenesses of treaty delegates visiting Washington, D.C. for negotiations. McKenney was rightly concerned about the tribe’s culture under threat of settlers and unsympathetic government officials. Then President Andrew Jackson was critical of McKenney’s sympathies toward Native Americans and in 1830 removed McKenney from office. McKenney then secretly had the original portraits copied for engraving so that the lithographs could be made. They were eventually published in a three volume set that included brief descriptions that accompanied each lithograph. King’s original portraits were moved to the Smithsonian, but most were destroyed by fire in 1865. All that is left are the hand colored lithographs.
Explore more history in Digital Maryland.
The National Day of Mourning is a day of protest started by Native American activists in the 1970s to mourn, recognize, and educate the American people about the erasure of Native American history, culture, and lives that has been ongoing since Europeans settled in North America. It takes place on the same day as Thanksgiving.
To honor this day of mourning, please find resources from the Humanities department below of literature, graphic novels, plays, and poetry by and about Native Americans. Texts written by Native Americans have an asterisk next to the title. Click on the picture to check out the title.
Film
‘Injuns!’: Native Americans In The Movies by Edward Bucombe, Alanis Obomsawin: The Vision Of A Native Filmmaker byRandolph Lewis, Wiping The War Paint Off The Lens: Native American Film And Video by Beverly R. Singer
Graphic Novels
Indeh: A Story Of The Apache Wars by Ethan Hawke
Literature and Culture
*Native American Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Sean Kicummah Teuton (Cherokee), *Voice Of The Turtle: American Indian Literature by Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna Pueblo), Encyclopedia Of American Indian Literature edited by Jennifer McClinton-Temple and Alan Velie, Masterpieces Of American Indian Literature edited by Willis Goth Regier, Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual edited by David Treuer (Ojibwe), Searching For Lost City: On The Trail Of America’s Native Languages by Elizabeth Seay, *Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers On Community edited by Heid E. Erdrich (Ojibwe), Tracks That Speak: The Legacy Of Native American Words In North American Culture by Charles L. Cutler, Feathering Custer by W.S. Penn (Nez Perce), Native American Women’s Writing C.1800-1924: An Anthology by Karen L Kilcup.
Memoir
*Crazy Brave: A Memoir by Joy Harjo (Muscogee), *The Woman Who Watches Over The World: A Native Memoir by Linda Hogan (Chickasaw)
Poetry
*New Poets Of Native Nations edited by Heid E. Erdrich, (Ojibwe), *Combing The Snakes From His Hair: Poems by James Thomas Stevens (Akwesasne Mohawk)
Religion
Dream Catchers: How Mainstream America Discovered Native Spirituality by Philip Jenkins, Gods Of War, Gods Of Peace: How The Meeting Of Native And Colonial Religions Shaped Early America by Russell Bourne
Theater
*American Gypsy : Six Native American Playsby Diane Glancey (Cherokee)
One Book Baltimore is a new citywide initiative and collaboration among multiple local organizations connecting families and members of the community through literature by reading the same book. The One Book Baltimore selection committee chose Dear Martin, by Nic Stone, hoping to inspire meaningful dialogue about experiences and challenges faced in everyday life as well as promoting peace and anti-violence.
In the series of One Book activities, the Waverly Branch held a special showcase joined by partners: WBAL-TV, Ceasefire Baltimore, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, Baltimore City Public Schools, T.Rowe Price Foundation, Maryland Humanities, and Media Rhythm Institute. The evening began with a 
unity meal, followed by a group conversation about ideas presented in the book, moderated by WBAL anchors Andre Hepkins and Ashley Hinson. Some of the ideas and questions discussed were based on race, identity, respect of oneself and others, building up communities, and practicing mindful living, along with discussing how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would feel if he were still alive today.
The Media Rhythm Institute gave a preview of upcoming programs that would be based on Dear Martin through music, film, and dance created by youth. MRI teaches young people how to become future media and entertainment moguls. They learn how to express themselves through writing and producing music, conducting
interviews, making films, and dancing while preserving the Baltimore Club dance scene.
Programs related to restoring peace, anti-violence and the One Book initiative is scheduled at various Pratt locations across the city. The grand finale will be a conversation with author Nic Stone, December 12, 2018, 6 p.m. at the Northwood Branch.