by Piyali C.

“Reading is not really my thing. I don’t come to the library.” My customer told me this as he waited for me to find a book that he needed for his school project. He was honest with me about his preferences. He was only at the library because his teacher made him come.

“Do you like music?” I asked him.

“Oh yes. I love music.” He replied enthusiastically.

“Did you know that we are having a class called World Language Karaoke ” I asked him.

“WHAT? You can do karaoke in a library?” He was incredulous.

The idea of library being a quiet place filled with books is a thing of the past. To quote Paula Poundstone, libraries have truly become, “raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy, and community.” And we love to celebrate our diverse community every chance we get. Our community speaks so many different languages. It makes us smile as we walk around our library and hear the plethora of languages being spoken around us. We thought, why not celebrate all these different languages and bring everyone together for an evening of music? After all, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow did say that “music is the universal language of humanity.”

Join us on Thursday, January 26 at 7 pm for World Language Karaoke at Miller Branch to sing songs in the language that you prefer, INCLUDING ENGLISH.

When you register, please tell us the song or songs that you are going to sing in the ‘Special Notes’ field, so we can create a playlist before the class and keep it ready for you to belt it out!

Register for the class here.

Piyali is an instructor and research specialist at HCLS Miller Branch, where she co-facilitates Global Reads and facilitates Light But Not Fluffy (starting in March 2023!) and keeps the hope alive that someday she will reach the bottom of her to-read list.