We are surrounded by a cultural windfall of so many venues for viewing fine arts in the Bay Area. Last summer I had the serendipitous pleasure of stumbling upon a great exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California entitled All of Us or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area. This collection of unique local history provides an archival trove of beautiful poster art, some of them recognizable images of various eras, for which we have an accompanying catalog for that show in the California Room of the King Library. This show coincided at about the same time the New York Times was writing this piece about the revolutionary & radical roots of Oakland from the Black Panthers to the recent Occupy movement to remind us of a period and a place which is known for its fervent willingness to express social outrage, whether you support those expressions and ideas or not. Now, unfortunately, we have but the one solitary copy of the All of Us or None catalog in a location that is for library use only, but this being the internet/social media era and all (whooo!) I can share this link which will get you to the entire archive of the poster collection for your viewing pleasure.

Now, it would seem that nothing brings out the creative art of the poster quite like global politics and individual propaganda (well, maybe music?), so here are a couple of additional great-looking titles to share that might be worth a look as well: ¡Revolución!: Cuban Poster Art and Art for Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change. In the end though, nothing quite trumps opposition and political outrage as a vehicle for a determined creativity. I’m guessing that Ernesto "Che" Guevara will forever outsell our 44^th President in long-standing sales of pop culture imagery and for that reason I’m thinking that poor Che continues to roll in his dusty grave. ¡Viva el capitalismo!

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.

The library is a great place to learn new crafts. Every month we have craft programs for kids. In March we celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday by creating "Cat in the Hat" and ''Red Fish, Blue Fish" crafts, and on March 23rd we'll be making Play Dough in the library. But you don't have to wait for a craft program to have fun learning new crafts. The library has some great craft books that can teach you how to do new and exciting craft projects. Come by the library and check one of them out!

Emory Douglas was the minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party from 1967 until the Party disbanded in the 1980s. His graphic art was featured in most issues of the newspaper The Black Panther and has become an iconic representation of the struggles of the Party during the 1960s and 1970s.

The current exhibit is running from December to February 27 in the Cultural Heritage Center on the 5th Floor of the King Libary. A lecture and reception with Emory Douglas will take place February 6, 2013, 5:30 PM – 5th Floor

Sponsored by: Africana Advisory Committee; Cultural Heritage Center; SJSU Black Student Union; African American Studies; African American Faculty & Staff Association

Do you have no plan to do with your kids during the holidays?

Go to the museum with our free tickets from Discover & Go.

San Jose Public Library Collections

• Art
• Museum

Art in San Jose Public Library

• RECOLECCIONES: Public Art Collection 
• Local Artists’ Exhibition

Additional Information

• Silicon Valley Events for Arts
• San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art
• San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
• San Jose Art and Entertainment

Currently, at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, there is an exciting exhibit about the extraordinary designer, Jean Paul Gaultier.  The exhibit, entitled "The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier : From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk", covers his beginning career from the 1970s all the way up to 2010. 

While Gaultier is dubbed as fashion's enfant terrible, there is no doubt that he has influenced the fashion world.  He has created iconic looks from the catwalk to the red carpet. 

Interested in more about the fashion world in general?  Check out the library's collection!  We have a wide array of information; from amazing fashion/art coffee table books, fashion photography, how to create your own fashion looks and many more! 

Here are just a few that I find amazing: