The American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf grant to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.  Using the grant's books and programming resources, the King Library is offering a series of programs to help public audiences become more familiar with the people and cultures of Muslims around the world and within the U.S.

Each month a different theme will be discussed through films and presentations in the King Library. Books from the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf collection will be featured on the San Jose Public Library's Muslim Journeys blog. 

Theme for April - Art and Architecture

Events

• April 2, 6:30 - 8:30 PM, King Library Room 225/229
  Just a Piece of Cloth: film showing with discussion by producer and director, Rosemary Henze, SJSU Professor of  Linguistics and Language Development
   
• April 4, 7:00 - 9:00 PM, King Library, Room 225/229
  Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers: book signing and reading
   
• April 8, 4:30 - 6:00 PM, King Library, Room 255/257
  Love and Sex in Islamic Poetry: a lecture by Shantanu Phukan, SJSU Professor of Humanities & Religious Studies
   
• April 22, 5:00 - 6:00 PM, King Library, Room 225/229
  Art & Architecture in the Muslim World: a lecture by Johanna Movassat, SJSU Professor of Art History & Visual Culture

Muslim Journeys Bookshelf

• Rumi: Poet and Mystic, edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
• Islamic Arts by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair

Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys is a joint program of San Jose Public Library and San Jose State University Library made possible through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Library Association and George Mason University.

From the Ground Up: Building Silicon Valley
by Goodwin Steinberg
Architect Goodwin Steinberg has been actively involved in changing the Silicon Valley landscape since the 1950's. He has designed many prominent buildings in the San José and Santa Clara County including the Tech Museum, the Children's Shelter and the renovated County Court House across from St. James Park. From the Ground Up is both a memoir and a retrospective survey of his architectural work, containing photos of his many imaginative designs.

Reviewed by Faith Mason

Brunelleschi's Dome
by Ross King
March 2002 marks the 566th year that the largest brick and mortar dome in the world was completed in Florence, Italy by the masterful Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome atop the church of Santa Maria del Fiore remains one of the greatest achievements of structural engineering and architectural acumen, with an engaging history of it's construction related in the pages of this engrossing book. In short, no one could figure out how to vault the massive dome until Brunelleschi proposed a plan that would win him the competition for it's construction in 1418, and has since been recognized as an architectural innovation of major proportions. Within the story of the dome's construction exist the intrigue of Brunelleschi's intense rivalries with other artisans, his staggering personal setbacks and failures, and the realities of completing this massive project in the midst of wars which the Florentines engaged in with rival Italian city-states. A read to make you appreciate the power of beautiful architecture.

Reviewed by East San José Carnegie Library staff member Arturo Villaseñor