Poetry Slam
Creative Writing Bootcamps
Children and school holiday programs
National Simultaneous Storytime
Writing and Sexuality
Bone Library: Next Wave Festival
The Hanging of Mini Thwaites
Rebound Books Winter series
Acoustica
Exhibitions
Archive
Events Calendar
Free Slam Poetry workshops
Our resident Cafe Poet, Alia Gabres, will host a free slam poetry workshop each month at City Library. Budding poets and writers are welcome to attend to share and develop their work, ideas and performance skills with Alia and each other.
This series of sessions will build towards a public performance poetry event in the Gallery at City Library at the end of her residency, where those who have worked with Alia will be able to perform their work in a supportive environment.
Workshop #3
When: Tuesday 12 June, 6pm to 7.30pm
Where: City Library, Seminar Room 1
Bookings essential: 9658 9500 or
online
Max number of participants: 15
Find out more about our Cafe Poet program.
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Creative Writing Bootcamps
The Emerging Writers’ Festival is the perfect time to get inspired to take out your typewriters and get your creative juices flowing again. Drop in to our Creative Writing Bootcamp sessions for ideas, and a space in which to…WRITE.
Write your next masterpiece in the company of other aspiring authors, with guided writing exercises by our Bootcamp Sergeants, Café Poet, Alia Gabres and twice over Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize winner, Maria Zajkowski. No need to book, but get in early to avoid disappointment.
When: Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 May, 6.00pm to 7.00pm
Where: City Library
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Children and Youth Programs
From bookclubs for kids, special storytimes to comic talks with youth, there's still plenty for children and young people at Melbourne Library Service.
Our regular kids programs have begun for the year. Come and join us!
Preschool Storytime
ages 3 to 5 years
Days and times
Stompers
ages 18months to 3 years
Days and times
Songbirds
ages 3 months to 18 months
Days and times
Auslan Storytimes
For deaf kids and kids who use Auslan to communicate and their families.
Days and times
Bookaroos
ages 6 to 10 at North Melbourne Library
Dates
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National Simultaneous Storytime
Read by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle
Melbourne Library Service will join organisations from Broome to Hobart, reading the picture book The Very Cranky Bear to more than 170,000 children across Australia.
This year, East Melbourne Library will be hosting National Simultaneous Storytime with special guest, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, who will be reading in his very fine voice The Very Cranky Bear. Children attending this special storytime are requested to bring their favourite bear and/or wear something ‘bear-y’ special, how about a bear t-shirt? Bear slippers? Would you believe bear pyjamas?
When: Wednesday 23 May, 11am
Where: East Melbourne Library
More information: National Simultaneous Storytime
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Writing and Sexuality
with Kate Holden, Barry Dickins, Valerie Kirwan & Bella Ellwood-Clayton
Reading from their own work in a panel discussion about the role of sexuality in their writing, followed by Q&A and book signings, presented in collaboration with their publishers and the Melbourne Library Service.
Kate Holden is a popular columnist for the Age and the author of bestselling books In My Skin: A Memoir and The Romantic: Italian Nights and Days.
Barry Dickins is an award-winning author, artist and playwright; he also teaches creative writing. His new book is Barry and the Fairies of Miller Street.
Valerie Kirwan is an award-winning playwright and author of six books including The Disease of the Silkworm.
Dr Bella Ellwood-Clayton is a sexual anthropologist and author of Sex Drive: in Pursuit of Female Desire
When: Thursday 24th May, 6:30pm to 8:00 pm
Where: Majorca Seminar Room, City Library
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Bone Library:
Sarah Jane Norman
Next Wave Festival event
A major new work from durational performance artist Sarah-Jane Norman, Bone Library considers the living essence of so-called “dead” Indigenous languages. For five days during the festival, Norman occupies a room of the Melbourne City Library, where she begins the process of engraving a complete dictionary of “exctinct” Indigenous Australian languages onto the prepared bones of sheep and beef cattle. On the final day of the festival, audiences will be invited to take a single bone into their custodianship. A haunting and visceral intervention into the public archive, Bone Library asks the audience to assume personal responsibility for what our culture chooses to remember.
When: Wednesday 23 May to Sunday 27 May
Closing event: Sunday 27 May, 1pm
Where: The Degraves Room @ City Library
Also on display in the Niches and Projections at City Library.
More info: Next Wave Festival listing
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The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites
with Judith Rodriguez
Join us when leading Australian poet Judith Rodriguez OAM discusses her book, The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites.
As the Brunswick baby farmer, Minnie Thwaites eked out a precarious existence by taking in the unwanted babies of other women. But there is something shocking about her business that has ramifications long after her death.
A fascinating piece of true crime, Rodriguez recounts in vivid verse and lyrics the bleak tragedy of a woman trying to make good during the 1890s Depression.
When: Wednesday 27 June, 6pm
Where: North Melbourne Library
Bookings: Call 9658 9700 or online
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Rebound Books Winter Series
Make your own recycled book letter writing set with local recycled stationery business, Rebound Books.The workshops will be held across all of our branches and form part of our 2012 National Year of Reading program. 100% of entry fees will be donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
When: Tuesday 19 June, 6pm to 7pm
Where: East Melbourne Library
When: Thursday 26 July, 1pm to 2pm
Where: North Melbourne Library
When: Tuesday 14 August, 6pm to 7pm
Where: Southbank Library at Boyd
When: Tuesday 21 August, 6pm to 7pm
Where: City Library
Bookings: Call 9658 9600
Places are strictly limited; bookings are essential. Each workshop runs for 60 minutes. Participants must be at least 15 years of age.
$20 per person
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Acoustica
Kate Mulqueen @ City
Equal parts cabaret, folk, and heartbreak, Kate Mulqueen is a local Melbourne singer/songwriter who has taken the northern suburbs by polite yet quirky storm. Although new to the indie music circuit, she has banded together a loyal audience and created a community of merry music makers and appreciators. Influenced by Amanda Palmer, Regina Spektor, and Jon Brion, her weapons of choice are ebony, ivory, irony and melody. She will cut through your skin and curl herself around your still-beating heart. Be prepared to be nuzzled to a delightfully harmonic death.
When: Thursday 24 May, 6pm to 7pm
Where: City Library
More info: www.youtube.com/user/katemulqueen
Second Hand Heart @ East
Secondhand Heart is a Melbourne based band whose members hail from the coastal wonderland of Lorne and the regional music Mecca of Ballarat. Described as “bittersweet balladry [which] ignites beautifully, erupting to convey a fiery anguish” by Faster Louder, Secondhand Heart offer “undeniably charming” music reflecting on universal questions of love, life and loss. These topics are unpacked and explored by thoughtful, tender lyrics and realised through powerful vocal harmonies between Jess and Lily. Secondhand Heart release their next single ‘Trouble’ in March from their debut album which is due for release in early 2013.
When: Saturday 2 June, 12pm to 1pm
Where: East Melbourne Library
More info: Second Hand Heart
Meter Maid @ City
Flautist Belinda Woods and Guitarist Mark Finsterer have been working together for the last 6 years, creating innovative compositions for intimate settings. With influences ranging from the music of jazz and blues to electronica and folk musics, acoustic duo Meter Maid seek to create motifs and textures through improvisation and arising from original compositions, delving into the depths of sound and space to create an aurora of intricate designs and colours. Underlining the beauty and subtlety of the sounds they create lies an undulating river, an untameable force of motion that will take you along for the ride.
When: Thursday 14 June, 6pm to 7pm
Where: City Library
More info: Belinda Woods
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Jules Hutchinson @ City
Jules Hutcheson is an independent solo artist based in Melbourne. She has been captivating audiences with her groovy guitar riffs and diverse collection of acoustic tunes which draw on a blend of Jazz/ Bossa Nova/Blues/Funk. This amazing songstress has a charm that is uniquely her own An artist not to be missed!
When: Thursday 28 June, 6pm to 7pm
Where: City Library
More info: Jules Hutchinson
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Acoustica CD
If you need an acoustica fix why not purchase one of our Acoustica: music in a quiet place CDs? $15 at any one of our branches.
Would you like to play as part of our Acoustica series?
Melbourne Library Services offers local (and some not so local) musicians a chance to play some music in a quiet place and reach a slightly different audience.
Email libraryevents@melbourne.vic.gov.au for more details.
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Exhibitions
Gallery @ City Library
Drawings from the Silk Road
John Nicholson
A journey through China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Iran, across the Strait of Hormuz to the United Arab Emirates and thence around the ancient ports of Mediterranean Europe inspired the drawings in this exhibition.
John Nicholson is a lapsed architect, author and illustrator with a fascination for the world's traditional vernacular architecture. This is his fourth solo exhibition.
Where: The Gallery @City Library
When: Wednesday May 2 to Tuesday May 29
Opening: Thursday May 3, 6 pm
Projections @ City Library
Signature Styles
Photo Media Students from Australian Academy of Design
These images reflect the individual artists’ signature style in photography. Themes explored include self-portraiture, light, art, food, architecture, fashion, landscape, documentary, texture and abstraction. The artists are currently completing their final year of study in the Bachelor of Design Arts majoring in Photomedia at the Australian Academy of Design, located in Port Melbourne.
When: Tuesday May 1 to Tuesday May 15
Where: City Library
Bone Library
Sarah Jane Norman
Held in conjunction with the Next Wave performance event in the Degraves Room @ City Library
When: Wednesday 16 May to Thursday 31 May
Where: The foyer @ City Library
More info: Bone Library
First Floor @ City Library
The Future Library Project
Sonja Hornung
The Future Library Project is a collection of books written in the last century about the future (our present). Books from the collection are available for loan. The Future Library Project is an artwork. You may choose to unfold all possibilities.
When: Monday 7th May to Saturday 2nd June
Where: The 1st Floor @ City Library
More info: Future Library Project
Niches @ City Library
Closed Niches on the ground floor and mezzanine
Bone Library
Sarah Jane Norman
Held in conjunction with the Next Wave performance event in the Degraves Room @ City Library
When: Wednesday 16 May to Thursday 31 May
Where: The foyer @ City Library
More info: Bone Library
Open niches on the ground floor (purple staircase)
and outside the computer lab
TIME PRESSURES - PRECIOUS TIME
Wendy O'Connor
Our lives are busy.
Our families spread far apart.
We are so distracted with stress and commitments that aspects of our childrens' lives can pass by unnoticed. Through my lens, I am sharing the little milestones and quirks of our girls with the most important people in their lives.
Wendy O'Connor is a mad keen wife of one and mother of three...and Photographer...of her four.
When: April 2 to June 2
Where: City Library
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Archive of past events
2012 Oi! iPad competition
This competition is closed (Competition ended 11:59pm 15th April 2012). Congratulations to the winner. For those who want to see how well they fared, here are the answers and some of the resources that may have been used to find them.
Lord Mayor's Creative Writing Awards 2011
This competition is closed. We have received over 600 entries. The judging panel will now evaluate submissions.
Winners were announced in November 2011.
The competition commenced on Thursday 26 May 2011 and finished on Wednesday 31 August 2011.
Find out more information about the awards,
Snapped: Melbourne past and present
Photography competition run July to September 2010. Participants were invited to find an old Melbourne photograph and to take a new photograph of the same place.
View the shortlisted entrants.
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Events Calendar
We are adding new events all the time. To see what is coming up and book, you simply need to choose an event, register with a valid email and away you go!
Check it out...
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