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Bettendorf Public Library's Emily Dickinson garden

Featured Library: Bettendorf Public Library

ALA Public Programs Office | April 28, 2009

In 2008, the Bettendorf Public Library in Bettendorf, Iowa was awarded a $2,500 Grant from the ALA Public Programs Office external link to host the “Let’s Talk About It: Love & Forgiveness” reading and discussion series. Funding for the project was provided by the Fetzer Institute’s Campaign for Love and Forgiveness.

Along with the book discussions, librarian Hedy Hustedde developed ancillary programming, some of which is particularly relevant to National Poetry Month:

If you go to our website www.bettendorflibrary.com, you can click on the icon for “Poem-a-day” under the photograph of the library to the right of “Ask a Librarian” featuring poems from the Love and Forgiveness Poetry Contest our Library Foundation sponsored. We had a youth level and an adult level and contestants had to live within 50 miles, because we wanted to keep it local. The Chicago poet Li-Young Lee was the judge and did a poetry reading here in January.

Our last extra program will be the discussion of Emily Dickinson’s poems of love and forgiveness on May 7th. We planted an Emily Dickinson Garden some years ago and ever since we have discussed her poetry twice a year (December when she was born and May when she died). Our discussion will include a performance of two musical settings of her poem “Heart! We will forget him!”

We’ve been having a wonderful time using the love and forgiveness theme this year.

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The ALA Public Programs Office offers grants that provide the essential resources, funding, visibility, and framework needed for libraries to conduct high-quality cultural programs.

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