What's New at PPLD!

Briargate Branch staff and spouses modified a bookcart for the 2008 Unshelved.com Pimp My Bookcart contest. In honor of the All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 selections The Grapes of Wrath and The Worst Hard Time, they chose to recreate the Joads’ jalopy.

The cart is on display at the Briargate Branch (9475 Briar Village Pt.). Please stop by and take a look.

You can see all the 2008 entries at www.unshelved.com/PimpMyBookcart.

Although All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 is over, that doesn’t mean lessons learned from the Dust Bowl should not be implemented in today’s world. The Colorado Conservation District’s annual conference will shed light on efforts to maintain sustainable ranching and farming. These challenges are now more daunting under the strain of climate change and water availability. The conference will feature a presentation by the National Drought Mitigation Center. For more information about the conference, including the cost of registration, visit www.cacd.us.

• When: November 17 – 20, 2008
• Where: Rocky Mountain Conference Center in Estes Park

Rick Wartzman, author of All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 selection Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, will be making a free public appearance on November 1. After a one-hour reception, he will speak about his recently-published book, which details the outcry from certain interests over The Grapes of Wrath, another APPR 2008 title.

As Wartzman’s subtitle states, Steinbeck’s book was burned and banned in 1939, even though it was an instant bestseller. Obscene in the Extreme focuses on a Kern County, California, librarian who fought the censorship of The Grapes of Wrath, taking on politicians and big agribusiness who argued that authors like Steinbeck were causing instability nationwide.

Wartzman is director of Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker Institute, an Irvine Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and a columnist for BusinessWeek Magazine.

• When: Saturday, November 1, reception at 6 p.m, presentation at 7 p.m.
• Where: Carnegie Reading Room, Penrose Library, 20 N. Cascade Ave.

Connie Dudgeon, Colorado College’s community relations manager, has posted a blog about All Pikes Peak Reads 2008. To read her kind words, click here.

CC is a presenting community partner of APPR 2008.

To help conclude All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 , come to the Teen Dance Marathon. Show up in costume from the 1930s (overalls to fatigues, dresses to dungarees) and enjoy films of the Dust Bowl era, period food and drink, dance lessons, and more. The dance is being held in partnership with the Colorado Springs Conservatory and Colorado Springs School District 11.

• When: Thursday, October 30 at 6 p.m.
• Where: Galileo School of Math & Science, 1600 N. Union Blvd.

Drama students from the Colorado Springs Conservatory will perform a play based on the book Out of the Dust, an All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 teen fiction selection. Call 577-4556 for additional information.

• When: Tuesday, October 14 at 10 and 11:30 a.m.
• Where: Galileo School of Math & Science,
  1600 N. Union Blvd.

Mitchell High School’s Advanced Drama Department will twice present Life in the Dust Bowl: History through the Eyes of a Child as part of All Pikes Peak Reads 2008. The narrator, Dusty, will share stories of her childhood through puppetry, storytelling, and audience participation. This program will teach about the strength of families who lived through the Great Depression. It is recommended for children ages 6 and older.

• Thursday, October 16 at 4 p.m. – Ruth Holley Branch, 685 N. Murray Blvd.
• Saturday, October 18 at 2 p.m. – East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

Return to the fascinating period in American history that is the focus of All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 – the Great Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal funded a variety of art programs that not only provided jobs for artists, musicians, writers, and actors, but left a rich artistic heritage still with us today.

FDR, portrayed by Richard Marold, examines the New Deal art legacy and will answer questions. This free event precedes the Colorado Springs Philharmonic performance of A Sentimental Journey, which costs $13-50. For information, call 531-6333, x1212.

• When: Saturday, October 11 at 7 p.m.
• Where: Pikes Peak Center, Studio Bee,
  190 S. Cascade Ave.

Children are invited to explore hobo life during the Great Depression through Riding the Rails, an All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 event. Kids can learn hobo language, create a hobo bag, and make an edible campfire. Those attending should dress like a hobo and bring a canned food item to donate to Care and Share.

• Sunday, October 12 at 2 p.m. – East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.
• Saturday, October 18 at 1:30 p.m. – Cheyenne Mountain Branch, 1785 S. 8th St.

In her presentation Depression Days in Colorado, local historian and author Kathy Sturdevant will discuss the effects of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl on Colorado and the Pikes Peak Region. Focusing on the impacts of economic hard times, New Deal policies, and the Dust Bowl, Sturdevant will reveal what the national tumult of the 1930s meant to everyday Coloradians. For more information about this All Pikes Peak Reads 2008 event, call 531-6333, x2253.

• When: Sunday, October 12 from 2 – 4 p.m.
• Where: Penrose Library, 20 N. Cascade Ave.