Earlier today, I was on a (rare) excursion out of the office with a single goal in mind: start stocking up on holiday reading now, so I can start fictionfest 2015 as soon as 9 a.m. on Christmas Eve rolls around and I have a few days off from work. I headed down Chapel Street to one of my favorite places, New Haven’s Institute Library, a literary treasure trove that has not let me down yet. And once I was there, hearing about the organization’s next round of free and low-cost activities, it hit me that a lot of New Haveners don’t know about it.
Founded in 1826, the IL is one of the country’s only remaining private, lending libraries. But if it sounds stodgy, it’s not. Director Natalie Elicker has made sure of that. Not only does the institution open its doors as a safe space to The Word, LGBT Youth Kickback and other organizations, but it has cool events. Lots of them.
Like Wednesday evening’s bluegrass performance, which I got so wrapped up in I almost forgot to take photographs:
