"Princeton Reads" and Human Rights Film Festival among the major attractions
By: Marjorie Censer
The Princeton Public Library will celebrate spring with a new lineup of offerings, book-ended by two large programs "Princeton Reads" and the Human Rights Film Festival.
The season will kick off with book groups and events on "The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother" as part of "Princeton Reads" from Feb. 27 to March 31. Author James McBride will visit Princeton on March 16.
The Human Rights Film Festival, from May 11-14, will feature noteworthy national and international documentary films, including "The Future of Food," "Señorita Extraviada" and "The Flute Player." Original documentary film submissions on the subjects of peace, justice and human rights will be accepted, in DVD or VHS format, until March 15.
The library’s Writers Talking series will welcome Emily Raboteau, author of "The Professor’s Daughter," on March 30. The novel is a fictionalized account of Ms. Raboteau’s experience growing up in Princeton as the daughter of a black professor and a white mother.
James Floyd, former Princeton Township mayor, will speak on April 27 about "Black in Two Worlds," the recently published memoir of former Princeton University administrator Carl Fields, while Lawrence resident Bonnie Rozanski will appear on May 16 to discuss her novel, "Banana Kiss."
In anticipation of the June 30 release of Superman Returns, directed by Princeton native Bryan Singer, the library will host a "Bryan Singer Retrospective," a film series hosted by former Princeton Borough Mayor Marvin Reed.
From March 31 to June 23, attendees will have the opportunity to screen five films directed by Mr. Singer: "Public Access," "The Usual Suspects," "Apt Pupil," "X-Men" and "X2."
The McCarter Live at the Library program will continue with discussions for "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" with director Tina Landau and producing director Mara Isaacs on March 9 and for "Ridiculous Fraud" with playwright Beth Henley on April 25.
The library will stay open late one Friday each month for Unquiet Fridays. On March 24, the library will host John Burkhalter and Eugene Roan of The Practitioners of Musick to play music from 18th-century Philadelphia to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth. In April, the New Jersey Opera Theater Singer Circle will appear, and the library will invite the entire community to celebrate its second birthday at a May 26 event.
Alex Magoun, executive director of the David Sarnoff Library, will deliver a talk titled "Six Princeton Inventions that Changed the World" on March 7, and there will be five Spring Break Science programs April 10-14 for children ages 5 to 12.
Children are invited to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2, and BRAVO! Percussion, a group of three percussionists, will demonstrate how to make the sounds heard in movies and cartoons on April 22.
For more information about the library’s spring events, visit www.princeton.lib.nj.us.