Every year Libraries across the nation celebrate National Library Week in April. This year National Library Week is from April 10 to 16. The Moline Public Library will present a series of very special events that not only celebrate National Library Week, but also celebrate Latino Americans and their impact on history and culture of The United States of America.
Latino Americans: 500 Years of History will present a month filled with interesting events and presentations. In the past the Moline Public Library had offered month long events, but this year the focus is on Latinos.
“We were awarded a $3,000 Latino Americans: 500 Years of Latino History Grant, in recognition of our proposal highlighting the importance and influence of Latino culture and history in our Moline and greater Quad Cities community,” Lisa Powell Williams, Adult/Young Adult Services Coordinator from Moline Public Library, explained.
Williams also said that since the 2016 theme for celebration of National Library Week is Libraries Transform Lives, this particular month long event was very fitting to this theme.
“Our first program will be a screening of Foreigners in Their Own Land (1565-1880), part of Latino American PBS film series. A discussion facilitated by St. Ambrose professor, Dr. Arturo Meijide, will follow,” Williams told us.
The first viewing and discussion is set for April 13 at 5:30 PM. While this is the first event of the series, the Moline Public Library will also have an exhibit called Mi Casa Nueva: QC Mexican Heritage that will be available for everyone to enjoy from April 1 to April 30. The artifacts and photographs displayed at the exhibit were borrowed from the Putnam Museum and they show the richness of the Mexican American history in the Quad Cities area.
On Monday April 25 at 6:30 PM participants can enjoy beautiful sounds of Latino music presented by Calle Sur a Panamanian-Columbian folk duo. Calle Sur will delight listeners with sounds of culturally diverse music from Latin America.
On Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 PM come over to the library and be ready to enjoy a presentation by the Quad Cities Ballet Folklorico.
“Their presentation will beautifully share the culture of Mexico through music and dance,” Lisa Powell Williams said about the presentation.
And since April 30 is Children’s Day expect Saturday, April 30 to be filled with children’s laughter. Participants can bring their children from 10 AM to 3 PM to celebrate El Día de Los Niños/El día de los Libros. There will be a lot of fun activities for children and whole families. This same day at 2 PM the month long series of events Latino Americans: 500 Years of History will end with a performance from Glenview Middle School Mariachi Band. The performance will include narrations in both Spanish and English.
“These talented young musicians are learning to connect music and culture in their performance,” Williams said about Glenview Middle School Mariachi Band.
They say April is a rainy month of the year, so why stay home and watch the rain when you can go to the library and enjoy a variety of interesting events that not only will teach you something interesting about history of your hometown, but also it will simply be a lot of fun.
Latino Americans: 500 Years of History a month long series of events will run from April 1 to April 30 at the Moline Public Library located at 3210 41st Street in Moline, IL. For full schedule of Latino Americans: 500 Years of History please visit molinelibrary.com/latino500 or call library’s information desk at (309) 524-2470.