(UNION, NJ) -- The Union Public Library, recipient of a 2023 Union County HEART grant, announces Celebrating Unity through Community Arts at the Main Union Public Library and the Vauxhall Branch. This event is on Saturday, September 23, 2023, in-person, ASL, and Spanish language inclusive. The event takes place from 9:30am to 12:30pm.

Celebrating Unity through Community Arts is designed as a literary and performing arts workshop to engage the Union Township and County community through poetry and literature and opportunities to engage with the poetry community and others.

Teaching and performing artists will conduct workshops with open mics and Q & A sessions. The artists selected for this exhibit have deep community connections with Union Township and Union County. They include: Ameerah Shabazz-Bilal, Lisa Gil, Mwikali Mundi, Michelle Cruz, and Susan Justiniano | RescuePoetix.

Celebrating Unity through Community Arts is made possible in part, by a 2022 HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant from the Union County Board of County Commissioners.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration will open in September. In the meantime, please email Debbie Walter, Adult Services Librarian, Union Public Library, at dwalter@uplnj.org to get on the mailing list to receive email notifications of open registration and updated information about the event. 

Schedule

9:30am-11:00am session: Ekphrastic Poetry facilitated by Ameerah Shabazz-Bilal

11:00am-12:30pm session: Growing beyond your Comfort Zone facilitated by RescuePoetix | Susan Justiniano, a bilingual poet twice honored as Poet Laureate of Jersey City.

The primary mission of the Union Public Library is to encourage reading and free access to information and to provide for its users' educational, recreational, and cultural needs. The Union Public Library recognizes its value and responsibility to the community as an educational, social, and cultural resource. The Main Library is located at 1060 Stuyvesant Ave. and the Vauxhall Branch is at 123 Hilton Ave.

The Union County Heart Grant program was created in recognition of the importance of culture and the arts to the Union County economy and quality of life. This innovative program supports projects related to history, the arts, and humanities. It demonstrates a commitment to the artists and community organizations of Union County. a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

About the Program Facilitator:

RescuePoetix | Susan Justiniano, Paterson born, found her performance voice in Jersey City. She is a self-taught bilingual poet twice honored as Poet Laureate of Jersey City. Her poems are published in print, audio, video, and digital platforms. In addition, she performs, organizes, and facilitates public cultural arts projects and workshops throughout New Jersey and the world.

They would like to take a moment to recognize that Union Public Library operates out of Union Township, New Jersey, which sits proudly on the traditional and unceded lands of the Lenape people. They offer their respect to the elders, both past, present, and future.

This arts program is made possible by funds from the 2023 HEART (History, Education, Arts Reaching Thousands) Grant from the Union County Board of County Commissioners.