Beyond Books, Brooklyn Library Hosts Impressive Cultural Lineup

It was with more than a trace of horror and guilt that I recently landed on the cultural programs page of the Brooklyn Public Library’s website and realized, to my shame, just how many stellar events I’d been missing.

The Dweck Center on the lower level hosts marquee authors galore, from Michael Cunningham to Francine Prose. It screens classic and hard-to-find films in foreign series or according to themes such as “No Kidding,” movies with children at the center. There are jazz bands, opera singers, string quartets, intellectual lectures and culinary talks. And all that just within the next month.

Expecting the trade for free entertainment of the first order would be dank surroundings in the musty bowels of the building, I was further surprised to discover the Dweck Center gleams: a comfortable auditorium with more legroom than a cinema and a sweeping entrance lined with artwork and a high-definition television screen to accommodate overflow.

Admittedly, the auditorium’s screen and sound capabilities aren’t up to cinema quality, but there are compensations. Film scholar Elizabeth Alsop introduced “Bashu” on Tuesday evening, part of the “No Kidding” series, setting in context the Iranian movie about a boy caught amid Iran-Iraq fighting in the 1980s. Introductions and post-screening question-and-answer sessions bookend each film, giving a little more substance than a typical trip to the movies.

“The series has found an enthusiastic audience interested both in the films and in the possibilities for dialogue and understanding,” said Jay Kaplan, director of the library’s Programs and Exhibitions Department. “Despite the widespread availability of digital media, contemporary audiences are not necessarily familiar with the rich history of film as an art form, nor with some of its most iconic examples.”

Some of those examples, drawn from world cinema’s best movies revolving around children, include anime film “Spirited Away” on April 26 and “Treeless Mountain” May 3, a South Korean movie about two young sisters sent to live with their alcoholic aunt.

The series, and others, are conceived “to bring the pleasures of the world's great movies to Brooklyn audiences, to broaden their knowledge of other cultures and times, and to afford them an opportunity to share this experience with fellow Brooklynites,” Kaplan said.

Literature lovers will find plenty to broaden their horizons, also. During National Poetry Month (also known as April), members of poetry collectives and publishers such as Hanging Loose Poets (April 14) and Graywolf Poets (April 21) will read their verses. Michael Cunninhgam, author of novels “A Home at the End of the World” and Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Hours,” will read from his latest work, “By Nightfall,” on April 16.  Rula Jebreal, the Palestinian writer whose book “Miral” has just been made into a film by Julian Schnabel, will appear alongside other Arabic women authors on April 28 as part of the PEN World Voices Festival.

Meredith Walters, manager of adult programs at the library, seeks out authors based on whose books are in greatest demand at the library, looking at patrons’ reading habits and the length of waiting lists for titles. She considers world events and invites scholars and journalists to shed light on current topics.

Ultimately, though, she finds greatest guidance closer to home.

“Brooklyn audiences are very vocal,” Walters said.