BY CORINNE NEARY, SENIOR LIBRARIAN

The Jefferson Market Library is preparing for its first New Year since our reopening in July 2022 and with it comes some exciting news. We have been anxious to get our popular Jefferson Market University series up and running again, now that our physical space is back, and in-person programs are once more in demand. JMU classes are college level courses, led by area professors, and offered to our community for free!

Starting January 10th, and continuing for ten weeks, we are offering Latin is Alive and Well, taught by Anicet Castel, who comes to us all the way from la Sorbonne in Paris, France! Anicet is a linguistic enthusiast, and a specialist of History of language, who also has a Masters degree in classics, specializing in philology, from la Sorbonne. Anicet is also a classically trained singer with a focus in early music repertoire.

In parallel to his career as a performer, Anicet has devoted half of his time over the last decade to teaching languages. In relation to New York City, Castel has been living here for five years where he performs, teaches, and coaches performers on modern and historical French diction. We think he is just the person to bring this not-so-dead language of Latin to life in Greenwich Village! Whether you studied Latin in high school, or have always been curious to explore it, this course is for you. Space is quite limited to facilitate discussion and a small seminar dynamic, so please stop by the library to sign up soon.

In other news, we recently held our inaugural Holiday Art Market Extravaganza, and it was a smash! Over two hundred people came to browse art by John C. Fields, Nick Golebiewski, Jason Clay Lewis, Jennifer Prevatt, Alex J Reyes, Sato Yamamoto, and also to hear live jazz from the Rocco John Trio, and swap books while sipping refreshments. It was so much fun, that we’ve already decided on our next date: Friday, April 21, 2023. This one, we’re calling our Spring Salon. See you there!