Hi! I am Maria McCauley, the Director of Libraries. Learn more about upcoming Library programs and events in my weekly message.

For four decades, Johnisha Matthews Levi believed a conventional story about her birth, picturing her happy parents at the hospital together. While sorting through her late mother's belongings, however, she discovered a document indicating that her father was instead serving time in Lorton Correctional Complex. This revelation, along with rumors about an FBI investigation of her deceased parents' "private business," leads Levi to unearth the hidden history of her family. She ties this story to public policy, demonstrating how state lottery legalization and the War on Drugs disrupted the Black institutions and communities in Washington, DC. Registration is required.

To mark the 250th anniversaries of the American Revolution and the founding of the United States, a coalition of local non-profits and government agencies will present Washington in American Memory, a seven-part speaker series. Consider how Americans understand the material culture of Washington and the Revolution, including art and clothing, featuring: Zara Anishanslin, author of The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution and Associate Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware Erica E. Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston