This year Cinco de Mayo might not be celebrated with the parades and parties but we still wanted to highlight the special holiday.
Cinco de Mayo is an annual celebration of the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. Here’s a few e-materials for you to check out to learn more about Mexican heritage, as well as read and watch the works of Mexican writers and filmmakers.
By Shaileen Beyer, Librarian, Fiction Department
Here’s a few great nonfiction and classic books to enjoy.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
A brand-new vet has hilarious adventures while helping local animals and their owners. Not only grown-ups but also teens and tweens will lap up this big-hearted memoir set in rural Yorkshire.
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth made advances in motion study in the early twentieth century but are more famous for their twelve children. This classic memoir will entertain teens and tweens as well as adults.
Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
When London dilettante Bertie Wooster tries to help his friends and relations, one dilemma leads to another. Thank goodness for Jeeves, the valet and day-saver in this classic comedy.
Jane and Prudence (the third book in The Barbara Pym Collection Volume 1) by Barbara Pym.
Jane, a socially clumsy 41-year-old, tries to meet villagers’ expectations of a clergyman’s wife while playing matchmaker for her 29-year-old friend Prudence. The novel subtly skewers post-World War II social ideas, especially of gender.
by Hannah Lane, Librarian, African American Department
One of the most successful Jazz singers in the history of the genre, and America’s “First Lady of Song,” was a Black woman: the unforgettable Ella Fitzgerald. You can find lots of material on Fitzgerald at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25th, 1917. Ella was an infant when her parents, Temperance Howard and William Fitgerald, separated. While Virginia was her birthplace, it was in New York City where Ella grew up and explored interests in singing and dancing. In the 1920s while Ella was still small, she and her mother moved to New York City. Their home was in Yonkers, Westchester County– not terribly far from Harlem. Ella had an active and social early childhood in New York, but she experienced the impacts of racialized, economic vulnerability and hardship. Her mother, a laundress and caterer, worked often, and from time to time Ella contributed financially to the family by working as well. In 1932 at the age of 15, Ella lost her mother. Temperance had been in a car accident, and the injuries she sustained took her life. Ella’s mental health suffered– her performance and attendance in school diminished, and it has been speculated that she suffered abuse from her late mother’s partner, Joseph De Silva. During this difficult year of her life, Ella was also incarcerated in a reform school, a violent place from which she eventually escaped.
Ella held onto her passions and desire to express herself. In 1935, the then-18-year-old entered a talent show at Harlems’ recently reopened Apollo Theatre. Though she lost her nerve to dance in front of the large crowd, Ella sang and won the night. Ella’s success in Harlem opened the way for many opportunities. She sang with Tiny Bradshaw’s band, and later became a full-time singer with the formidable Jazz drummer (and Baltimore native) Chick Webb’s orchestra. Ella’s success catapulted at this time, the height of the Swing era, and by the end of the 1930s she was one of the most recognizable voices in Jazz, America’s popular music
In 1939 Ella became a bandleader after Chick Webb, her colleague and dear friend, had passed away. The band continued under the name, “Ella Fitzgerald’s Famous Orchestra.” It was an immense undertaking that she carried until 1942 when the orchestra disbanded. But Ella’s career lasted decades beyond the Swing Era. The 1940s and 1950s were a period of collaboration, growth, and International success for the artist. Fitzgerald worked with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, and countless other masters of the genre; her unique voice and beautiful musicality deeply impacted the sound, style, and feel of American popular music.
By the end of her career in the 1990s, Ella recorded over 200 albums, won 13 Grammy awards, a Grammy for Lifetime Achievement, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of
Fame, and received numerous other national recognitions. Ella Fitzgerald was one of the most, if not the most, popular, successful, and influential Jazz singers in the history of American popular music.
For more information on Ella Fitzgerald check out these other sources:
https://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/ella-fitzgerald/
http://www.ellafitzgerald.com/about/biography
By Shaileen Beyer, Librarian, Fiction Department
When times are tough, humor helps. Escape into the happy space of one of these eBooks, available to you free with a Pratt library card or eCard.
Straight Man
By Richard Russo
English Department head and wise guy Hank Devereaux is having a bad week, and his threat to kill a duck a day until his department is funded may not have helped. The more his problems multiply, the more amusingly he responds, making this academic romp a delight.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette By Maria Semple
When an architect, wife, and mom disappears from her dysfunctional Seattle community, her 15-year-old daughter tries to figure out why. This delicious satire mixes traditional narrative with emails, letters, and other documents.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Caveat for tragedy-avoiders: 29-year-old social misfit Eleanor Oliphant is not fine at all—she has a tragic past. Still, Eleanor’s social missteps guarantee guffaws, in this beautifully crafted, ultimately joyful novel.
My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley
David is a gay San Franciscan who does SAT prep for the rich. Decades ago, he was married to Julie, who runs an Airbnb on the New England seaside with her teen daughter. When David visits, everyone changes in this sweet, funny story about friends.
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simsion
In this gently witty story, a retired major and a Pakistani shopkeeper create a stir in their English village when they fall in love.
The Republic of Love by Carol Shields
When Fay, an unmarried folklorist, and Tom, a thrice-married talk-show host, meet at a child’s birthday party, they seem destined for happiness. But the larger community interferes in this novel that emphasizes gorgeous language.
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
A middle-aged, self-doubting novelist distracts himself from heartbreak by accepting literary invitations to Mexico, Paris, Berlin, Japan, Morocco, Italy, and India. This poignant comedy won the Pulitzer Prize.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
This witty, philosophical novel follows a Turkish-American girl to Harvard, where she takes a deep dive into language, learning, and love.
The Family Man by Elinor Lipman
When a wealthy gay man reconnects with his daughter, an aspiring actress, his life turns topsy-turvy and he finds romance. This novel has quirky, charming characters
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
On the run from a career-ruining error, workaholic London attorney Samantha finds herself hired as the housekeeper in a rural mansion. Helped by Nat, the gardener, she embarks on a hilarious education in the home and the heart.
by Hannah Lane, Librarian, African American Department
April is Jazz Appreciation Month! Every year librarians, museums, dancers, musicians, and jazz lovers across the United States celebrate the rich histories and joyful rhythms of jazz music, and the roles that jazz continues to play in our lives and communities. Here in the African American Department, we are celebrating, too!
This year’s theme for Jazz Appreciation Month is Women in Jazz. You may already be familiar with such Black Jazz greats as Duke Ellington and Wynton Marselis, but how much have you heard about the Black women who also shaped the genre, such as Mary Lou Williams, Tiny Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Blanche Calloway, Billie Holliday, and Clora Bryant? Our doors at the Pratt may be closed, but we’re taking this opportunity to celebrate powerful Black women in Jazz by connecting you with some of our wonderful, digital resources.
A brief history of Jazz
When some imagine Jazz, they locate it, first, in places like New York. They imagine Jazz in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance; in a cafe with Zora and Langston, or bursting from the windows of the Savoy Ballroom, Carnegie Hall, or the Birdland.
And they wouldn’t be incorrect. During the 1930’s in cities like New York, St. Louis, Chicago, and Kansas City, important developments in the genre emerged and numerous legendary Black Jazz artists rose to fame. Countless standards from “Take the A Train,” “East St. Louis Toodle-oo,” and Lucky Millinder’s “Savoy” honor the musical legacies of Black communities in these vibrant settings.
And just as many Jazz standards recall the place where the deeply diverse, Afro-diasporic music was born–near the mouth of the Mississippi river, in the cosmopolitan port city of New Orleans, Louisiana. There, in the first decades of the twentieth century, Black musicians (many, people who survived slavery and their descendants) brought the music to be. At the same time, millions of Black families, workers, musicians, and artists were leaving the South for economic opportunities in northern and midwestern cities, as well as to escape the terror that was ripping throughout the south with the rise of racist violence and organized, white supremacist groups. Jazz moved throughout the United States with these hopeful Black travelers, and set down new roots in the burgeoning, new centers of Black arts and culture that they created.
Jazz Appreciation Month,” Smithsonian Museum of American History website.
Artist such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington rightfully live on in our historical memory of Jazz music, but they weren’t alone. Since the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century, Black women have been key innovators in Jazz and Blues music. Think, iconic vocalists like Gertude “Ma” Rainey, born in Columbus, Georgia in 1886, or Bessie Smith, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1894. Ma Rainey, “Mother of the Blues” and Smith, “The Empress of Blues” are regarded as two of the most influential vocalists in American popular music.
Throughout the month of April, the African American Department will introduce amazing Black, women Jazz vocalists, composers, and bandleaders who, likewise, left immortal legacies in American popular music and culture. In the meantime, enjoy these digital resources about Jazz and the Blues in African American history!
For more Jazz Documentaries click the links below:
