Coming Up at Bushwick's Dekalb Library: Free Dance and Literature Workshop for Teens

The Dekalb Library in Bushwick. Photo via Wikimedia

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Seven Brooklyn Public Library branches, including Bushwick's DeKalb Library at 790 Bushwick Ave. near the border with Bed-Stuy, will offer a variety of new public programming this spring.

The programs include a podcast workshop, a gardening class, and a course teaching girls how to tell their stories through journalism.

Curricula was crafted by librarians and staffers as part of the Bklyn Incubator, a first-year project run by the library system.

Beginning March 31, the DeKalb Library will offer a program called "Reading the Rhythm," taught in conjunction with the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center.

Open to teens between 13 and 18, the program will explore modern dance and its connections to the young-adult novel Panic by Sharon Draper.

Those interested can sign up to participate here.

More than two dozen program pitches were posted on the BKLYN Incubator’s Facebook page, where they were open to comments from members of the public. The winners were then selected by a group of library staffers.

Funding for the Incubator activities comes in part from a $25,000 Sparks! Ignition grant provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

About $323,000 in additional funding, to be doled out over the next two years, was awarded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation.

In addition to benefiting the community, the library says the Incubator teaches staffers and librarians how to write grants and run programming.

One additional program also funded through the Incubator — an exploration of the history of Flatbush, Brooklyn — is open specifically to students at the High School for Service Learning at Erasmus.

The starting dates for the other programs listed below haven't been set yet, according to Brooklyn Library staffers, but updates will be provided on the library's online events calendar.

The other programs that received funding are:

• Bklyn Mixtape Podcasting Club (Central Library): Collects oral histories and adapts written ones for participants to record, edit, and produce as podcasts. A partnership with BRIC.

• How Does Your Library Garden Grow (Clinton Hill Library): An outdoor gardening program that will build a garden from the ground up: students will design the plot, choose the plants and tend the plots as they sprout. A partnership with PS/MS 492 Academy of Arts & Letters, Library Committee.

• Future Leaders Career Awareness Series (Cypress Hills Library): Will help teens develop research and soft communication skills while accessing free library resources for personal and professional development. A partnership with the City Year afterschool program at JHS 218.

• Digging for Black Pride Urban Excavation Program (Flatbush Library): An in-school urban excavation research curriculum that will help students at the Erasmus School document the history of the community. A partnership with Erasmus School and Weeksville Heritage Center.

• Illuminating Literacy (Flatlands Library): An illuminated book-making program for school-aged students with low literacy levels. A partnership with the Morgan Library.

• Girls Report Now! (Leonard Library): The program will help girls identify things that are important to them and give them the skills to tell those stories to a wider audience, with guidance from journalist mentors. A partnership with Katie McDonough of Fusion News.

• Root Resource (New Lots Library): Will help immigrants become licensed childcare providers while providing librarian-led training for early literacy. A partnership with Daycare Council of NYC.