Maplewood Library will host Nikole Hannah-Jones with federal humanities grant

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood Library is one of 200 libraries nationwide to receive the American Library Association’s American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries, designed to assist libraries affected by the pandemic.

Maplewood Library will use the $10,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to rejuvenate its post-pandemic programming for the community. According to a press release from the library, the library has always made a conscious effort to provide programming, services and collections that expand awareness of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. The grant will allow the library to host a speaker who exemplifies these core values, and who will engage the town’s diverse community in a celebration of shared humanity.

Maplewood Library will host an evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and creator of the landmark 1619 Project. The 1619 Project commemorates the 400th anniversary of the beginning of slavery in what would become the United States by examining slavery’s modern legacy and reframing the way we understand this history and the contributions of black Americans to the nation.

The event will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 7 p.m. at The Woodland, 60 Woodland Road in Maplewood. A moderated discussion will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

“We’re so proud to be chosen for this amazing opportunity,” library Director Sarah Lester said. “It allows us to offer a program guided by our mission: to connect people to information, ideas, culture — and each other.”

“Libraries have faced significant hardships throughout the pandemic,” American Library Association President Patty Wong said. “This crucial support will help enable our beloved institutions, and the dedicated people who run them, to emerge stronger than ever.”

American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries is an initiative of the American Library Association, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan of 2021.

  Grants, Maplewood Library, The Woodland