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The BPL Podcast features concise, informative discussions with educators, writers, and community figures from Bexley and beyond. Tackling a range of topics from horror films to Ohio's opioid epidemic, we capture conversations that are sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always human.
Episodes
Monday Feb 20, 2023
Monday Feb 20, 2023
A celebration of Toni Morrison with two of Ohio’s most revered poets and authors as Hanif Abdurraqib and Dionne Custer Edwards discuss the influences of Toni Morrison’s work on their own and celebrate the importance of her legacy as writers and Ohioans.
Toni Morrison Day is celebrated on February 18th in Ohio, commemorating the birth of the literary giant and possibly “the greatest Ohioan we’ve ever had,” as Hanif Abdurraqib remembers her. Morrison often used Ohio as a setting for her novels, from examining the influences and disparities of White and Black families living in post-Depression era Lorain in The Bluest Eye to exploring the insidious reach of slavery over the Ohio River in Beloved. Toni Morrison’s writing shed the white gaze and centered stories that explored the terrors, hopes, and dreams of Black lives and communities.
Hanif Abdurraqib - a 2021 MacArthur Genius' Grant Recipient - is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, and various other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is the author of the poetry collections The Crown Ain't Worth Much, a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and A Fortune For Your Disaster, which won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Prize, and the essay collections They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, named a best book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others; Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest, a New York Times Bestseller, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the National Book Award; and A Little Devil In America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, which was shortlisted for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.
Dionne Custer Edwards is a writer, educator, and the Director of Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Her work in the arts and education spans 25 years, including nearly two decades at the Wex where she pioneered several groundbreaking education programs that include Pages, an art and writing program serving hundreds of high school students a year from across central Ohio. Dionne has received acknowledgments and awards that include professional fellowships with Americans for the Arts, the Jefferson Center for the Arts, and a GCAC Arts Educator of the Year. Dionne is co-editor of a forthcoming book series by Ohio State University Press, On Possibility: Social Change and the Arts + Humanities, with the first issue due out in 2023.
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary
Friday Nov 25, 2022
Friday Nov 25, 2022
The best of 2022!
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary
Here is the list of highlighted items from the BPL staff:
Fiction Books
- Olga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl Gonzalez
- Flung Out of Space - Grace Ellis
- The Fervor - Alma Katsu
- You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty - Akwaeke Emezi
- This Time Tomorrow - Emma Straub
Non-Fiction Books
- I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jeanette McCurdy
- Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial - Corban Addison
- Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries - Rick Emerson
Youth
- 0-3 yrs
- The Hair Book - LaTonya Yvette and Amanda Jane Jones
- 3-6 yrs
- My Parents Won’t Stop Talking! - Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden
- Mermaid Kenzie: Protector of the Deeps - Charlotte Sherman and Geneva Bowers
- Sports Heroes: Inspiring Tales of Athletes Who Stood Up and Out - Mia Cassany and Iker Ayestaran
- Middle graders
- A Taste of Magic - J. Elle
- A Duet for Home - Karina Yan Glaser
- Shinji Takahashi and the Mark of the Coatl - Julie Kagawa
- Teen
- Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao
- Honorable Mentions
- We Made It All Up - Margot Harrison
- Once Upon a K-Prom - Kat Cho
- Loveless - Alice Oseman
- Board Games
- Builders & Biomes
- Draftosaurus
Movies
- The Batman
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Top Gun: Maverick
- Nope
Video Games
- Elden Ring
- Raft
- Stray
Music
- Madison Cunningham - Revealer
- Wilco - Cruel Country
- Natalia Lafourcade - De Todas las Flores
- Julian Lage - View with a Room
Friday Oct 21, 2022
Friday Oct 21, 2022
Vampire Week is here! Plucked from our blog, Julianna tells us about her favorite vampire movies and everything the library has to offer this week.
Julianna mentions some of her favorite vampire movies. Here’s a list of them:
- Interview with the Vampire
- Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
- The Lost Boys
- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
- Nosferatu
- Only Lovers Left Alive
- Let the Right One In
- Hotel Transylvania
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
- Let the Right One In
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Thursday Oct 13, 2022
Owen dives into the history of banning books, reasons books are challenged, and he even recommends his favorite challenged title. Here is a list of all the books Owen mentions:
- Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at BexleyLibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Saturday Oct 01, 2022
Pamela Espinosa de los Monteros, Assistant Professor and the Latin American, Iberian, and Latino/a Studies Librarian at The OSU University Libraries, and Patti Vocal, The OSU Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) Outreach Coordinator, discuss the importance of bringing authentic Latinx and Latin American stories into K-12 classrooms through children's literature. Pamela and Patti talk to us about the CLAS BookBox project and share tips on how we can all celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month which is celebrated annually from September 15 - October 15.
Discover more Hispanic Heritage Month resources here.
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across social media platforms @bexleylibrary
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Saturday Jun 18, 2022
Jack Marchbanks sits down with Dionne Custer Edwards, Scott Woods, and Is Said for a discussion about Black poetry using James Weldon Johnson's groundbreaking anthology The Book of American Negro Poetry as a springboard.
Dionne Custer Edwards is a writer, educator, and the Director of Learning & Public Practice at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Scott Woods is a poet, writer, and the founder and director of the performing arts organization Streetlight Guild, and Columbus poetry legend Is Said, has received the King Arts Complex Legends & Legacies Award and was inducted into the Lincoln Theater Hall of Fame.
This program is generously funded by Jack Marchbanks and The Kridler Family Fund at The Columbus Foundation.
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary
Saturday Mar 05, 2022
Saturday Mar 05, 2022
Ohio State University Eastern European experts, Theodora Dragostinova, Marianna Klochko, and Mykyta Tyshchenko, to try and make sense of the evolving crisis in Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
The panel discussed the history and progression of the conflict, the ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the international repercussions of the events.
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary
Friday Nov 26, 2021
Friday Nov 26, 2021
The best of 2021!
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary
Here is the list of highlighted items from the BPL staff:
Books
- American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears by Farah Stockman
- Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
- Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
- The Guncle by Stephen Rowley
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois By Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Youth/Teen Books
- Woodland Dance by Sandra Boynton
- B is for Bison! by Greg Paprocki
- Aaron Slater, Illustrator by Andrea Beaty
- Every Little Kindness by Marta Bartolj
- Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham
- Dog Man: Mothering Heights by Dav Pilkey
- Max and the Midnights by Lincoln Peirce
- Super Sidekicks by Gavin Than
- Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters, by Chris and Laura Samnee
- Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti
- Pahua and the Soul Stealer by Lori Lee
- Tristan Strong Keeps Punching by Kwame Mbalia
- Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds
- The Infinite by Patience Agbabi
- Don’t Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor
- The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzie Lee
- Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer
Movies
- Loki
- Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Wandavision
- Black Widow
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Eternals
- Jungle Cruise
- Cruella
- Suicide Squad
- Godzilla vs Kong
- Army of the Dead
- Red Notice
- The Harder They Fall
- Malignant
- Quiet Place Part Two
- Candyman
- Halloween Kills
- Luca
- Mitchells vs The Machines
- Space Jam: A New Legacy
- No Time To Die
- Roadrunner
- Judas and the Black Messiah
- Minari
- Cry Macho
- Dune
- Green Knight
Music
- Moontype - Bodies of Water
- Sarah Jaroz - Blue Heron Suite
- Genesis Owusu - Smiling with No Teeth
- Aaron Frazer - Introducing…
Friday Nov 05, 2021
Friday Nov 05, 2021
New York Times best seller, Natalie D Richards, sat down with Josh to talk about Five Total Strangers becoming a Big Library Read, her book Seven Dirty Secrets coming out this month, and the inspiration for her writing. Visit her website, instagram, and twitter for up-to-date information about her work.
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Kristopher and Gretchen Armstrong sit down with Josh to talk about their literary journal Tomorrow and Tomorrow, how it highlights artists from Bexley, the importance of mixtapes, and ghost stories that are too unsettling for the campfire.
Join writers and artists highlighted in Tomorrow and Tomorrow's "Ghosts" issue at Austen & Company (or virtually!) on November 4th for an evening of readings and conversation!
Special thanks to fo/mo/deep for lending us their song, "Bourbon Neat" for the podcast!
Find out about upcoming Bexley Public Library events at https://www.bexleylibrary.org
Follow Bexley Public Library across platforms @bexleylibrary