arts, books and music

Nix Library to close temporarily for ADA renovations 

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Nix Library will temporarily close to the public for facilities upgrades to bring the building to American Disabilities Act standards, starting Monday (Feb. 22). 

The project includes the installation of an ADA-compliant wheelchair lift and an accessible public bathroom. 

Located on South Carrollton Avenue, Nix Library has been a part of the New Orleans Public Library since 1930. Executive Director and City Librarian Gabriel Morley said the renovations will make Nix better equipped to serve the entire community. 

“The Nix Library renovations will ensure that this community treasure truly is for everyone,” Morley said. “We’re thrilled to be revamping one of our oldest library locations in a way that will allow us to increase access and continue to fulfill our mission to transform lives, enrich neighborhoods and preserve history for years to come.” 

Construction for the project will begin March 1, and Nix Library will be closed for the duration of these renovations and will reopen following their completion. 

Items may not be returned to Nix Library during its closure, but library users can return items checked out from Nix Library to any other library location. 

This project is expected to be completed in Summer 2021. A reopening date will be determined when renovations are complete. 

For the duration of the closure, Nix patrons can use any of the other 14 library locations.

arts, books and music

Prospect artist to discuss ‘Oscar Wao’ novel at Nix library

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Firelei Baez, one of the artists featured in the ongoing citywide Prospect.3 series of exhibits, will host a discussion of Junot Diaz’s novel “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” tonight at the Nix Library in Carrollton. Baez is a visual artist who creates intricate, large-format works, according to her website. The discussion about the novel will be from 6 to 7 p.m. tonight (Thursday, Jan. 15) at the library, 1401 South Carrollton Avenue. “[Prospect.3 Artistic Director Franklin] Sirmans’s thoughtful consideration of the role that books and literature play in our collective understanding of the world is at the heart of P.3,” according to a listing of Prospect events.

events

RTA to hold public hearing, open houses on restored Carrollton bus route

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The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority will discuss increasing service on bus routes throughout the city, including restoring route 90 in Carrollton, at a series of community open houses in Broadmoor and Carrollton starting next week. The first open house is at Rosa Keller Branch Library in Broadmoor is on Tuesday, July 8, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Another “open house” will be held at Broad and Washington on Friday, July 11, from 7 to 9 a.m.

An open house at Nix Library in Carrollton is scheduled for Monday, July 14, from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m.

The strategies for improving transit access and service include restoring lines for the 90 bus route in Carrollton, creating downtown and cross-town connections with new service to neighborhoods not currently served for the 32 bus route on Leonidas-Orleans-Treme, and making schedule adjustments and reroutes for 10 bus route on Tchoupitoulas, the 11 bus route on Magazine, and the 27 bus route on Louisiana. The proposed service changes include an increase in economic opportunity, an increase of neighborhood mobility, and an enhancement of social equity. A final plan will be approved Aug. 26, and the changes are scheduled for implementation starting Sept.

arts, books and music

jewel bush: Save the public libraries

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The New Orleans Public Library System is in trouble. Next year, the city has to find an additional $3 million just to keep the 13 current libraries open. That’s keep-the-lights-on money. Purchasing new books or investing in new library technologies are both out of the question under this scenario. In 2011, the New Orleans Public Library Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the library, hired a consultant to evaluate the system’s performance.

city government

District A candidates to meet twice in Carrollton this week

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With only a few days left before Saturday’s election, the five candidates running for the District A seat will meet twice in the Carrollton neighborhood this week — discussing housing issues on Tuesday and fielding questions from neighborhood leaders Wednesday. Starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (Jan. 28), the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center will conduct its District A “Pop-up City Council Voter Forum” at the Nix public library, 1401 S. Carrollton Ave. Then at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 29), the District A candidates will meet again at St.

arts, books and music

Latter Library to close for 90 days for lead remediation, final renovations

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The Latter Branch library will close Sunday (July 28) for the next three months for a third round of renovations that will include lead-paint remediation, officials said this week. The library has already been through two previous rounds of repairs — first, to replace the roof, and second, to upgrade the heating-and-air systems — and officials originally planned to keep it open during a final six-month phase of renovations, said Vince Smith, the city’s director of capital projects, at a community meeting Monday evening. When it was determined that lead paint remediation would mandate that the library be closed for 30 days, however, officials decided to keep it closed for an additional two months and finish the $1.1 million project in November, rather than February, Smith said. “Of course that lead-abatement process creates a hazardous condition that we don’t want to expose anyone to,” Smith said. “We’re sorry for the inconvenience — this is a special place.

arts, books and music

Swiss harpist performs at Nix library

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Aite Tinga, a harpist from Switzerland, will perform music from her latest release, “Where the Windrose Seeds,” in a free performance at Nix Library at 6 p.m. tonight (Friday, April 26). Tinga’s music can be heard at tingaling.org. Light refreshments will be served.

arts, books and music

Nix Library hosts lecture on 150th anniversary of fall of New Orleans to Union troops

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The Nix Branch of the New Orleans Public Library will host a lecture Friday evening (Oct. 26) entitled “The Fallen Queen: New Orleans in the Civil War” to finish out this year’s bicentennial program of events. For details see the following press release from the New Orleans Public Library:

Our final Bicentennial Program of the year will be on Friday, October 26 at 6pm at the Nix Library. Professor Ron Chapman of Nunez College will give a presentation on the sesquicentennial (150 years) of the fall of New Orleans to Union troops in 1862. The program is titled The Fallen Queen: New Orleans in the Civil War.

events

Library to host bicentennial lecture on “History of Prostitution”

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Pamela Arceneaux of the Historic New Orleans Collection will take the Nix Library’s Louisiana Bicentennial Series into the red light district on Friday evening with a lecture on the “History of Prostitution in New Orleans.” The lecture begins at 6 p.m. Friday (Aug. 24) and is free and open to the public with light refreshments. Nix Library is located at 1401 S. Carrollton Avenue.