Events Calendar

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card. Learn more at dreambus.org.

Central Library Madison and the American Red Cross are hosting an upcoming blood drive.

Please join our lifesaving mission and schedule an appointment today!

• Donors needed! Come give blood August 20th for $20 Amazon.com Gift Card by email. See rcblood.org/Help

Drive Details:
Site: Central Library
Address: 201 W. Mifflin St, Madison, WI, 53703
Room Name: Community Room 301
Date: Tues Aug 20th, 2024
Time: 9:30 AM - 1:30 PM

The need for blood is constant and only volunteer donors can fulfill that need for patients in our community. Nationwide, someone needs a unit of blood every 2 to 3 seconds and most of us will need blood in our lifetime.

Thank you for supporting the American Red Cross blood program!

Read aloud to Libby, a certified therapy dog from Alliance Therapy Dogs. Reading to an attentive, non-judgmental audience is a great way for young people to build fluency, and being with a pet has many other proven health benefits.

This program is first-come, first-serve, so drop in at any time. Bring books from home, or pick them out from the library.

This program is recommended for ages 5 and up.

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card. Learn more at dreambus.org.

READ and PLAY together with children ages 5 and under! Engaging with books, songs and playful experiences all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills. It also helps to build a lifelong love of reading. Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

The River Food Pantry's Munch Truck will be stopping outside Goodman South on Tuesday from 11:00AM - 11:45AM.

About River Food Pantry & Munch Truck

Launched in 2016, Munch is our mobile meals program that delivers free healthy meals to children and adults in over a dozen low-income neighborhoods throughout Madison. Each meal contains a sandwich or main menu item, a fruit or vegetable, a grain, a treat, and a drink. Everyone is welcome to take home a free meal. No registration or ID is required.

Neighborhoods served by Munch have large populations of children eligible for free school lunch. To bridge the gap that exists when school lunch is not available, Munch operates up to 6 days per week, Monday–Saturday, any time school cafeterias are closed (including breaks and periods of remote learning).

For any questions or comments, please contact the Munch staff at munch@riverfoodpantry.org or (608) 661-1223.

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card. Learn more at dreambus.org.

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card. Learn more at dreambus.org.

Come on in and share tips or get advice! Please bring your own supplies. All skill levels welcome.

Calling all kids! Read aloud to a furry friend from Alliance for Therapy Dogs. Bring a favorite book or try a new one from our collection!

First come, first served. No registration is necessary.

In partnership with the City of Madison and Madison Public Library, the African Center for Community Development provides in-person assistance* to help offset housing costs by assisting residents with applications for services, jobs, and other financial benefits.

We provide help for people navigating application processes and filling out forms required for housing, immigration, food, health, and other community support services. For questions about the program, please call African Center at 608-957-5623 or 608-294-0066.

*Neither The African Center for Community Development nor Madison Public Library can provide legal assistance or advice.  We are not able to fill out applications on your behalf, or assess program eligibility. 

Visit the Dream Bus to browse books and other library materials, place or pick up holds, and sign up for a library card. Learn more at dreambus.org.

Join The Kids Chef, Lily Kilfoy, for a series of cooking classes for school-age kids, tweens, and their families. Participants will learn about different foods, where they come from, how to follow recipes, and how to use a variety of tools.  Registration is not required, but participation will be limited to the first 25 attendees. 

Food generously provided by Willy St. Co-op North.

Join Pinney Library's 2024 Artist-in-Resident, Phil Hassett for weekly Open Studio letterpress printing!

Most Tuesdays, 4:30-6:30 pm, May-Nov 2024

Title: Call & Response

"Taking inspiration from jazz and improvisational musical practices, this residency will use letterpress printmaking to explore many levels of interplay and collaboration between text & layout, word & image, letter & ornament, color & form, and artist & community. Over the course of the residency we will work with wood & metal type and ornaments to print at a variety of sizes—from buttons to posters, and we’ll explore layering, iterative collaboration, and ways that the rigid grids of letterpress type can be used as a foundation for both carefully planned and improvisational prints. We’ll explore the use of letters to create images and the use of ornaments to create letterforms, how communities shape words and stories and how words and stories shape communities. Along the way we’ll get a little inky, and have a lot of fun."

About Phil: 

He is a letterpress printer living in Madison, WI, where he maintains a small collection of historic printing presses and a growing collection of historic and modern printing type. A lifelong musician, he named his print studio Washboard Press because of the sound one of his presses makes, and because he enjoys doing by hand what is now more usually done in a more automated way. 

Visit his website https://www.washboardpress.com/about/

For school-aged kids who know the basic moves of chess and want to practice their skills. Sessions begin with a 30 minute strategy or tactics lesson, followed by open game time. Come on in to play against other opponents your age!

Sequoya Library chess clubs are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month (except for election days).

Two local bike organizations are coming together to offer minor bike repairs during this 2-hour clinic. Bring your bike, and drop in for this informative session on bike maintenance. Presenters from Dream Bikes and Wisconsin Bike Fed will share insights into the role (and roll) bikes play in local transportation, conservation, and recreation. 

This class is recommended for all ages. This event will take place outside of Lakeview Library, under the library overhang.

This program is part of the Care & Repair program series, which is made possible thanks to support from Beyond the Page, National Endowment for the Humanities and Madison Community Foundation. See all upcoming programs at madpl.org/careandrepair.

Express yourself through a variety of affirming, mixed-media projects for all ages with Meadowood's own Lashay the Artist.

During this program, your librarian will be using an exciting new tool called the Observation Deck, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, to better report on learning outcomes for youth. You can learn more about the project on our website: https://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/engagement/observation-deck 

Come on in for a friendly game of chess with your neighbors. All ages welcome!

Sequoya Library chess clubs are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month (except for election days).