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.

Join Making & Learning Intern Yaritza at Dream Bus and Parks Alive stops this summer for a fun, maker activity! While you're there, explore Madison Public Library's summer reading program WE READ: 

• Pick up your WE READ Card Game
• Fill your WE READ tote bag with books from the library collection
• Answer the Share Your Voice question of the week to earn a prize

Yaritza is bilingual in English and Spanish and will offer art and making programs throughout the summer. Learn more about Yaritza. 

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.

READ and PLAY with your favorite baby or toddler! Engaging with books, songs and playful experiences all help children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and pre-reading skills and helps to build a lifelong love of reading.

Library programs are always free. Siblings and childcare groups are welcome.

Storytime for the Very Young is intended for children ages 0 to 3 years old.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to feel more wellbeing this summer?  Feel more connected to those little (or not so little) people in your life?  This summer, let’s explore positive psychology (happiness) hacks you can use with your family.  Led by Debi Kennedy, each workshop will include open-ended crafts and activities for families to explore together, as well as a take home worksheet with additional information for the adults.  If you joined us last summer, make sure to come this year for NEW topics!

Valentine's Day in July! (Love)

February shouldn’t get all the fun, let’s celebrate Valentine’s Day in July!  Let’s explore ways to reconnect with our love for one another. 

Enjoy messy, exploratory art projects with Bubbler artist Renee outside on the Pinney patio! Fun for all ages.

Growing Voices Music Class is an interactive class for caregivers and their children, birth-4, to play, learn, and bond with music. In our classes we sing, play instruments, dance, and have fun together! 

Funding is provided by the Monroe Street Library League

Container gardening has become a hot topic in recent years as more of us are living in condos and apartments and would like to garden. Also, as we age, gardening with containers allows us to garden with less bending and kneeling. To be a successful container gardener, you need to know not only about the plants that grow in containers but also how growing in containers affect plants. A Dane County Extension Horticulture Volunteer will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of different container types, container soils and their characteristics, watering and fertilizing schedules, plants that are well suited for containers and container design.

Space is limited for this event; registration is required. Please use the sign up link below or call (608) 824-1780 to register. Registration opens two weeks prior to program date.

About the presenter

Speakers for this program are Dane County Extension Horticulture Volunteers who serve their community through activities and educational presentations on a broad range of horticultural subjects.

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 Making & Learning Intern Yaritza at Dream Bus and Parks Alive stops this summer for a fun, maker activity! While you're there, explore Madison Public Library's summer reading program WE READ: 

• Pick up your WE READ Card Game
• Fill your WE READ tote bag with books from the library collection
• Answer the Share Your Voice question of the week to earn a prize

Yaritza is bilingual in English and Spanish and will offer art and making programs throughout the summer. Learn more about Yaritza. 

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.

Join Making & Learning Intern Yaritza at Dream Bus and Parks Alive stops this summer for a fun, maker activity! While you're there, explore Madison Public Library's summer reading program WE READ: 

• Pick up your WE READ Card Game
• Fill your WE READ tote bag with books from the library collection
• Answer the Share Your Voice question of the week to earn a prize

Yaritza is bilingual in English and Spanish and will offer art and making programs throughout the summer. Learn more about Yaritza. 

Free hour-long one-on-one computer and tech assistance.

Marcus can help you with:

• Becoming comfortable with your laptop, cellphone or tablet 
• computer basics 
• Safely browsing the internet
• Creating and using an email address
• Basic understanding of apps and their usage
• help filling out online applications 
• help with creating resumes and cover letters

...and many other computer- and technology-related topics.

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 Making & Learning Intern Yaritza at Dream Bus and Parks Alive stops this summer for a fun, maker activity! While you're there, explore Madison Public Library's summer reading program WE READ: 

• Pick up your WE READ Card Game
• Fill your WE READ tote bag with books from the library collection
• Answer the Share Your Voice question of the week to earn a prize

Yaritza is bilingual in English and Spanish and will offer art and making programs throughout the summer. Learn more about Yaritza. 

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

Free hour-long one-on-one computer and tech assistance.

Marcus can help you with:

• Becoming comfortable with your laptop, cellphone or tablet 
• computer basics 
• Safely browsing the internet
• Creating and using an email address
• Basic understanding of apps and their usage
• help filling out online applications 
• help with creating resumes and cover letters

...and many other computer- and technology-related topics.

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.

An open art studio experience for ALL ages and abilities.  Messy clothes recommended!

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 

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. 

Free hour-long one-on-one computer and tech assistance.

Marcus can help you with:

• Becoming comfortable with your laptop, cellphone or tablet 
• computer basics 
• Safely browsing the internet
• Creating and using an email address
• Basic understanding of apps and their usage
• help filling out online applications 
• help with creating resumes and cover letters

...and many other computer- and technology-related topics.

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 Making & Learning Intern Yaritza at Dream Bus and Parks Alive stops this summer for a fun, maker activity! While you're there, explore Madison Public Library's summer reading program WE READ: 

• Pick up your WE READ Card Game
• Fill your WE READ tote bag with books from the library collection
• Answer the Share Your Voice question of the week to earn a prize

Yaritza is bilingual in English and Spanish and will offer art and making programs throughout the summer. Learn more about Yaritza. 

Bring your instrument from home and jam with other kids at the library! Local musician, Julia, will have her violin, guitar, and some unique instruments handy to help guide and encourage the group. We'll also have some egg shakers and other instruments for those without an instrument to use. Kids of all ages welcome. Come jam with us! 

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).

Connect with Madison Public Library at Parks Alive. Stop by to get a library card, learn about library resources, and pick up a WE READ Library bag and a card game that inspires youth to read over the summer!  Parks Alive builds stronger neighborhoods and connects neighbors to their parks through fun, family-friendly activities, music and free food. Events are held in parks across the city and throughout the summer. Connect with your neighbors and engage with your community at a Parks Alive event near you!  Learn more at Parks Alive https://www.cityofmadison.com/parksalive.

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).

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

Central Cinema Cinesthesia presents Shaft (1971).

"While the Black Power movement was reshaping America, trailblazing director Gordon Parks made this groundbreaking blockbuster, which helped launch the blaxploitation era and introduced a new kind of badder-than-bad action hero in John Shaft (Richard Roundtree, in a career-defining role), a streetwise New York City private eye who is as tough with criminals as he is tender with his lovers. After Shaft is recruited to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Harlem mob boss from Italian gangsters, he finds himself in the middle of a rapidly escalating uptown vs. downtown turf war. A vivid time capsule of gritty seventies Manhattan that has inspired sequels and multimedia reboots galore, the original Shaft is studded with indelible elements—from Roundtree’s sleek leather fashions to the iconic funk and soul score by Isaac Hayes." (Criterion Collection)

Hosted by Jason Fuhrman, Cinesthesia is an adventurous, eclectic series of classic and contemporary films that focuses on the complex relationship between literature and cinema. Cinesthesia strives to foster constructive dialogue, while breathing new life into controversial works, neglected masterpieces, and titles in the margins of film history.  

...the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

Take this opportunity, readers, to leave your own “sensory bubble” and read about the unique ways that dolphins, frogs, mice and bats experience their world. Enthralling and illuminating. Join us for discussion and perhaps dessert. Newcomers warmly welcomed.