Library of Congress's Blog, page 76

“Game of Thrones” and Dragon Warfare

“Game of Thrones” is back for its final season, and the fate of Westeros may well depend on how the ice dragon (Viserion), now the winged weapon of the White Walkers, fares against his still-living counterparts.

If you’re still reading, you know that the HBO series is based on George R.R. Martin’s books, which are, in turn, loosely based on England’s Wars of the Roses, the dynastics battles that raged between 1455-1485. No doubt you are aware that medieval battle was not for the faint of heart. But Martin’s use of dragons in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” epic is not as fanciful as one might think. One of the medieval era’s most influential military war manuals really did sketch out the idea of using a dragon on the battlefield.

Behold, knaves, we give you the dragon war machine of yore:

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Illustration from manuscript of “De re militari,” Roberto Valturio, ca. 1460. The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress.

Try not to tremble from its awesomeness.

This is from “De re miltari” (“On military matters”) an illustrated folio written by Roberto Valturio, an Italian engineer and technical adviser to Sigismondo Malatesta, the Renaissance Lord of Rimini, who commissioned it. The volume no doubt drew upon a famous Roman manuscript of the same name, but the woodcut illustrations, attributed to Matteo de’ Pasti, are truly original. The nearly 400-page volume, written between 1446 and 1456 in manuscript form (of which the Library has two copies in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection), gained wide popularity across Europe. Malatesta — a powerful prince, patron of the arts and military ruler — distributed these to royal houses, such as those of Louis XI. This was not hubris. His family was so famous than a wife-killing ancestor was included in Dante’s “Inferno.”

“The intention was to send it out to kings and important statesmen throughout Europe,” says Stephanie Stillo, a curator in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division. “It’s interesting to think why Malatesta would do it. There are no military secrets. It’s all pretty well-known. But it’s sort of a power play, this commander sending out definitive military manuscripts that are extraordinarily illlustrated.”

When it was printed in Verona in 1472 (after Malatesta’s death), it became the first book printed with technical or scientific illustrations, and was the second book printed in all of Italy. So profound was its impact, so ubiquitous were its standards, that Leonardo da Vinci used it as a reference volume.

For the military man, the volume drew on well-established principles of siege warfare. There are a few technical drawings of cannons (the newest thing at the time), but most are of battering rams, catapults and ladders for scaling castle walls. Some of these are beautifully rendered, with decorative heads of rams or wolves. On the “these projects are in research and development” front, there are sketches of rudimentary flotation devices, one apparently made from pig skin — with the pig’s head still attached. There’s even what could be called an early cherry-picker, in which soldiers could be hoisted above castle walls, so that they could fire down on the enemy. Over time, the book became ingrained in medieval history. It is well known to scholars today.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the people working on ‘Game of Thrones’ consulted this,” Stillo says. 

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Illustration from manuscript of “De re militari,” Roberto Valturio, ca. 1460. The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress.

But in the book, in the midst of so much 15th Century practicality, of such utilitarian means of warfare, there is, at the flip of the page…well, a dragon. In the manuscript copies that are hand-colored, it is of a modest green, with sharp eyes, large wings and three horns. The military idea seems to be a medieval update on the Trojan Horse — a mysterious device that could be rolled up to castle walls. Note the claw-covered wheels and the stomach flap that opens out and up, so concealed troops could leap into battle. In some editions, there are openings for cannons from its haunches. In all of them, though, the dragon is wearing a stately hat and shooting gargantuan arrows from its mouth.

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Detail from “De re militari, “Roberto Valturio, 1472 printed edition. The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress.

“Nobody knows quite what to call it,” Stillo says. “It’s just a floating, rolling…dragon war machine.”

We regret to report that there are no surviving battle reports of this device actually in use, and we are pretty sure people would have remembered if it had. Still, in that era of grim military tactics and brutality, it is hard to blame Valturio or Malatesta for this flight of fancy. The good tactician seeks advantage in surprise, and nothing would have been more surprising in the midst of medieval battle than to see this monstrosity looming in the mist.

Notre Dame Cathedral in the 1860s

The world is mourning the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Built over a 200-year period between 1163 and 1345, the cathedral has periodically lapsed into disrepair over the centuries. Here are photographs taken in the 1860s, when photography was a new medium and the cathedral’s spire had been recently restored.

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Facade of Notre-Dame de Paris. Photograph by Edouard Baldus. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

 

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View from spire of roofs, statuary, and gable. Photo by Charles Marville, ca. 1860. Prints and Photographs Division, LIbrary of Congress.

 

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The spire, with cityscape beyond. Photo by Charles Marville, ca. 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

 

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Panorama de Paris. Photo by Charles Soulier, ca. 1865. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

The Prints and Photographs Division also has one of Viollet le Duc’s books about his restoration of Notre Dame, which included providing the new spire.  The entire book is online.

Tracy K. Smith Bids Farewell as U.S. Poet Laureate

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Tracy Smith shares a laugh with Vogue Robinson, poet laureate of Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas), during Smith’s farewell event as U.S. Poet Laureate. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Tracy K. Smith concluded her remarkable term as U.S. Poet Laureate with a speech and on-stage conversation at the Library of Congress Monday night, capping two years of travel, podcasts and community conversations across the nation.

Smith began her tenure with a packed reading at the Coolidge Auditorium in Sept. 2017, and she ended it on the same stage in much the same fashion, sharing the platform with five poets laureate from Hawaii to New York.

Speaking to an enthusiastic audience, she said she felt “indescribably lucky.” She had taken the post with the belief that poetry had always been good for the individual. Two years later: “More than ever, I believe it’s good for the collective, the community, even to something resembling the nation.”

The poet’s office in the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center, high in the Jefferson Building, features elegant furniture and dramatic, west-facing views of the U.S. Capitol Building and the National Mall, the Washington Monument in the distance. Smith, however, did not use the space as a retreat for ivory-towered contemplation.

Instead, she used the position for active outreach, working to expand poetry’s impact on multiple fronts. She, with a team from the Library, made seven trips across the country in an “American Conversations” tour, traveling from Alaska to Louisiana, holding readings in rural areas that are not on the typical literary circuit. She typically read from a poem, then asked the crowd, “What did you notice?” and let the conversation go where it willed.

While at home in New Jersey, she recorded more than 100 episodes of “The Slowdown,” her five-minute daily poetry podcast. She also edited a volume of poetry, wrote an opera libretto, penned essays for the New York Times and others, all while maintaining her position as the director and professor of creative writing at Princeton University.

It all combined, she said, to make her rethink what poetry might mean for an often bruised country.

“I was…very determined to push back against the pervasive narrative of America as a divided nation,” she told the crowd at the Coolidge. “The narrative that says people in the rural heartland have nothing in common, not even a shared language, with those living in urban centers.”

Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of Academy of American Poets, a non-profit agency dedicated to supporting the art form, moderated the on-stage conversation. She said that Smith’s grassroots approach had expanded the horizons of dozens of national and regional poetry organizations. “Because of you and the work that you’ve done,” Benka said, “we’ve begun a conversation about how we are serving rural communities in our poetry programming and that’s not something we’ve talked about before.”

Smith and Benka were joined on stage by Vogue Robinson, poet laurate of Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas); Tina Chang, poet laureate of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Kealoah, poet laureate of Hawaii; Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, poet laureate of Oklahoma; and Adrian Matejka, poet laureate of Indiana.

Smith arrived in Washington just a few hours before the event, stepping off a train at Union Station and rushing into a whirlwind last day. She settled into her office in the Jefferson Building for the final time, beaming.

“When I’m in this room I feel really grateful to be a part of the history that it represents,” she said. “I think about Gwendolyn Brooks and Elizabeth Bishop and Rita Dove and Natasha Trethewey (all former poets laureate). I think about these people who are so important for me as a reader and as a poet.”

The office, and its civic duties, had compelled her to think about poetry not so much as an introspective art, she said, but more often in its role in the public square. That triggered a change in her own poetry, she said.

Poetry, she came to realize, “is something that could make us better at listening to, and being compassionate toward one another as citizens. I think that just being called upon to talk about the art form in those terms has made me think in ways I wouldn’t normally have done. I’m used to thinking about craft-based questions, as a professor, in terms of my own work. But I’ve been thinking more socially and, you know, conceptually. I think my sense of even how I approach different voices is larger as a result.”

Smith was born in Massachusetts in 1972, raised in California, and educated at Harvard, Columbia and Stanford. Her  third book of poetry, “Life on Mars,” won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, and her memoir, “Ordinary Light,” was a 2015 finalist for the National Book Award.

She was the 22nd Poet Laureate of the U.S., and the first chosen by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. Her most spine-tingling moment at the Library? When, as background research for a video tribute for Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday celebration, she pored over his things in the Library’s holdings.

“There were his eyeglasses, his cane, a bust of his hands, and some notebooks of early versions of “Leaves of Grass,” she laughed, “and that was pretty transcendent.”

Inquiring Minds: Paulette Hasier’s World of Maps

This is another guest post by Giselle Aviles, the 2019 Archaeological Research Associate in the Geography and Map Division.

The Geography and Map Division was created in 1897 and Paulette Hasier is the ninth person and first woman named chief of the division. Dr. Hasier is originally from Chicago. She has a joint Master’s Degree program in Library Science and a Master’s in History from the University of North Texas, and a doctorate in Transatlantic History from the University of Texas in Arlington. She’s worked in libraries for 24 years.

How did you get into the field?

My passion for maps goes back to my Ph.D. studies. When I met with my advisor, we talked about what we would like to do in terms of research, how we felt we could match what I do as a librarian with what I would do as an historian. We decided on a carto-bibliography of the central portion of the United States, specifically on (what was then called) Illinois Country.

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Dr. Paulette Hasier, Chief of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress in front of Waldseemuller’s 1507 World Map.

What intrigues you about maps?

The fact that there is a world of information contained on every map! For many years, maps were not seen as historical documents. I think the strength of a map as a primary source is always that it is a combination of factual and cultural information. I did research on comparative cartography of 16th and 17th century French maps, so as a student I worked with purely analog maps. Now, with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), you can use geospatial data, combined with these historical sources, to analyze boundaries, to spatially construct new histories. Therefore, I see the maps in our collection as the true world of big data.

Tell us about some of the career challenges that you’ve faced.

You give up a lot if you want to go far in academia, if you decide to pursue a Ph.D., and if you want to become an expert in your field. So one of the things I always think about is the challenge of tempering a family life and relationships with studying toward what you believe is a worthy career. It may sound silly, but you give up going to birthday parties, Fourth of July picnics, and of course there were times when I was getting only four or five hours of sleep per night. Like many people, while I was studying, I was working a full-time job, going to night school, coming home, doing readings, and going back to work the next day. I probably looked like a zombie! So I think you have to love what you do, you have to have a passion for what you do. For me, I am incredibly passionate about being a librarian.

That’s what the Library is all about! Can you tell us an anecdote about your work?

I had been working at the Library for about two weeks when I received an email from our communications office, saying that there were reporters coming to do a story for an online magazine. Part of the story required them to film in our vaults…so, on that day, the crew had me  showing and moving globes around, talking about the collection, about having the biggest cartographic collection in the world. The next day, they needed to do some additional filming, but I was not available. My stand in was Mike Buscher, who was the head of the reading room at the time. The crew filmed him opening some of the hundreds of map drawers we have in the division and taking maps and folders out.  In the final cut, they show me talking about the globes and maps — but it’s Mike’s hands taking the objects out of the drawers!

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Part of the Story Map, Maps That Changed Our World. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

What accomplishments have you and your team achieved?

Our Story Maps, I feel, have been an incredible accomplishment. We received so much support from our IT department, helping with the software and back end programming and engineering issues; from our subject-matter experts throughout the library who provided content; and my staff, doing briefings, writing policy, teaching the platform, and creating something that I believe will have some longevity. I feel this has been kind of a high point of my career here. We wanted to do something that was going to go beyond geography and maps in their traditional formats and be something that would become a part of the culture of the library. We are trying to get people to understand how they can take that expertise and put it out there for anyone, not just the folks who happen to be at the library.

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Story Maps page, Library of Congress.

How do you feel about being the first woman named Chief of the Geography and Map Division?

That’s interesting, because I didn’t see it that way when I first arrived. It was people from the outside who really brought it to my attention. I had to think about it for a second because I thought, that’s a heavy burden to take on. Doing my actual job, however, I see as gender-neutral. The fact that I’m actually being put up as an inspiration, as a change maker…takes me back to knowing your passion. It’s important to do things that will make you happy in your career. Don’t let anyone or any institution tell you that you can’t do it. It is not about being the first woman — it’s about being a woman and being impassioned about what you do and rising to the occasion of being the first.

Pic of the Week: Marty Stuart Edition

 

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Marty Stuart with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden atop the Madison Building. April 4, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

You never know who will turn up at your favorite national library, and the other day it was none other than country music legend Marty Stuart, who dropped by to visit with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. The Mississippi native started performing professionally as a pre-teen, and grew into a singer, songwriter and multi-threat instrumentalist who played with Lester Flatt, Johnny Cash and dozens of others. He’s also a serious preservationist of country music history, with plans to open the Congress of Country Music,  a museum and arts center in his hometown of Philadelphia, Miss.

Tracy K. Smith: One Night Only

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Smith tours the Santa Fe Indian School as part of her project to bring poetry to underserved communities, Jan. 12, 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Tracy K. Smith, the U.S. Poet Laureate, hasn’t kept to an ivory-tower, life-of-contemplation existence during her two years in the post. It seems she’s hardly sat still.

She’s published her fourth book of poetry, “Wade in the Water.” She’s edited an anthology, “Fifty Poems for Our Time.” She’s toured rural areas of the nation in seven states (from Maine to Louisiana to Alaska), and written about those travels in “American Conversations.” Her daily podcast, “The Slowdown,” will shortly hit episode No. 100. She’s also kept her day job at Princeton University, where she is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of the Humanities, as well as the director of the creative writing program.

It’s sad to say goodbye, but her final event at the Library will be Monday, April 15,  in the Coolidge Auditorium. She’ll be in conversation with poets from around the nation: Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (Oklahoma), Kealoha (Hawai`i), Adrian Matejka (Indiana), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY) and Vogue Robinson (Clark County, NV).  Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, will host. And yes, book sales and signing will follow. Tickets are free, but required. If you can’t make it, the conversation will be livestreamed from the Library’s Facebook page and our YouTube site (with captions).

Smith was born in Massachusetts in 1972, raised in California, and educated at Harvard, Columbia and Stanford. Her third book of poetry, “Life on Mars,” won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, and her memoir, “Ordinary Light,” was a 2015 finalist for the National Book Award. This online guide will take you to a reference of her works.

Mystery Photos: Genius Edition of “Who am I?”

This is guest post is by Cary O’Dell, assistant to the National Film Preservation Board and the National Recording Preservation Board.

Hey kids, it’s time for another round of Mystery Photos!

In years past, you’ve helped us identify people in more than 1,000 publicity stills from the music, film, television or other entertainment industries. These were part of a collection of more than 30,000 images that came into the Library from a private collector in New Jersey. Most, thankfully, were already named.

You’ve done stellar work with the unknowns. We greatly appreciate it. But now we’re down to the Stubborn 100, a few of which are below, and we’re stumped.  Can you name these stars of yesteryear?

A few words of caution:

We’ve tried web-based reverse-image searches.
We have no information beyond what is listed below. There are no dates, locations or titles. They may not be from the United States.
Standards of proof: We’d most like to see the same photo, with the person’s name, in a newspaper, magazine or somesuch. Failing that, another image from the same photo shoot, but with the person named.

We are happy to investigate any legitimate guesses, though. We’ll report on any success stories.

Meanwhile, here you go. Good luck!

[image error] #1 This dapper gent might be an actor or a writer/author or none of the above.
[image error] #3 We’d like to ID any member of this trio or this group. Is this a dance troupe? An acting company? A band?
[image error] #5 We wonder if this might be the actor/model Bill Cable, who appeared in the first few moments of “Basic Instinct”?


[image error] #6 Lots of guesses but so far no solutions for this unknown man.
[image error] #9 Might be a character actor or someone from behind the scenes…
[image error] #15 This photo is NOT Karen Valentine, Judy Stangis nor Suzy Mandel.


[image error] #16 We know this is NOT Phylicia Rashad or Anna Maria Horsford.
[image error] #18 The letters “TC” are printed at the bottom of this image which usually means it is the initials of the person in the photo or the initials of the film (or other production) this image is from.
[image error] #43 This gentleman is thought to be an actor–he certainly looks like he might have played some judges in his time—but, again, we have no idea as to his identity.

Inquiring Minds: Aaron Diehl. Jazz Scholar, Keyboard Professor

Aaron Diehl is the most recent virtuoso to play the Coolidge Auditorium as one of the Library’s 2018-2019 Jazz Scholars, taking the stage March 23. He also spent some time researching the archives.

The 32-year-old has put together a stellar career, leaping into the spotlight by making the finals of the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition when he was 17. His rolling, New Orleans-inflected chops, mixed with classical scholarship, caught the attention of Wynton Marsalis. Diehl, born in Columbus, Ohio, was the grandson of a pianist and started studying classical piano when he was seven. After Marsalis took note of him, he studied at The Julliard School, learning under heavyweights such as Kenny Barron and Eric Reed. In 2011, he won the American Pianists Association Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship — $50,000 and a recording contract.

He’s recorded four albums, the most recent of which is  “Space Time Continuum” (2015), and his career continues to blossom.

We caught up with him as his research at the Library was wrapping up, a few days after his concert.

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Photo credit: John Abbott

The term “jazz scholar” almost sounds like a professorial term, which I suppose is fine if we’re talking about Professor Longhair. How did you decide to use your time at the Library, what to look up, and what to dive into?

I had visited the Library of Congress for the first time at the end of 2016, when I was preparing for a touring program called “Jelly and George,” featuring the music of George Gershwin and Jelly Roll Morton. Larry Appelbaum was gracious in giving an introduction to the collection of both composers, but with my schedule in D.C. being limited to a few hours, I could barely scratch the surface. Fast-forward to my formal visit as a “jazz scholar” and it was even more overwhelming because I had two days of tours by various curators. Some of the highlights:

A 16th century book on Euclid (housed in the rare book collection)
A sketch and final manuscript of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major (Opus 109)
George Gershwin’s manuscript of Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue
A viola made by Antonio Stradivari

This was a general overview of the entire library, which gave me the chance to understand more about the scope of the collections so I can return for specific research.

Mozart and Beethoven: In looking at their scores, as a working musician now, what strikes you as most different (if anything) about how they worked and composed then?

I’ve seen facsimiles of Mozart’s scores. Very clear and neat. Same with Gershwin—you could basically hand those manuscripts to a musician and they could read it right off the page. Beethoven is another story. The sketch of Op. 109 was barely legible, and in final version I could maybe read the first 4 bars. Genius comes in all forms. He was the greatest of them, no doubt.

What were the surprises? What touched you the most?

The Guttenberg Bible. That changed the game for the dissemination of written text, sacred and otherwise.

Early jazz is mythologized so much. It’s easy to do, because the music is so fresh, so original. What parts of that music, those traditions, do you pull on in your own playing?

What first drew me to the music of early stride pianists like James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, et al, is the feeling of their left hands against a syncopated right hand. I somehow try to incorporate an underlying sense of momentum and groove in my own playing, even if it isn’t directly tied in to the stylistic language of early American piano.

Quick, without thinking: Five favorite New Orleans’ songs. 

“Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”
“New Orleans”
“Big Chief”
“Whistle Stop”
“The Pearls”

You actually got to play the Gershwin piano in the Gershwin Room. Wow.

“Wow” is right! And it’s in good condition!

You’ve played with a lot of great musicians, including Benny Golson. How does playing with a legend like that affect your performance when you’re on stage with him, if at all?

I really feel a connection to the ancestors playing with someone like Mr. Golson. I have only played with him a handful of times, but hearing that signature tone coupled with his illustrative stories about writing tunes like “Stablemates” and “Along Came Betty” is a priceless experience. That’s becoming more rare as great masters are leaving. On stage, I just try to take in the moment and learn as much as I can on the bandstand.

Lastly: It’s a Sunday afternoon. You’re by yourself, the piano is just over there. What would you be most likely to sit down and play?

Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes that’s just free improvisation. Exploration is the first step in creating structure for my practice routine.

“Queer Eye” for the Library!

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The cast of “Queer Eye” greets the crowd at the Coolidge Auditorium for a conversation about LGBTQ+ youth issues.  April 3, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

First, there was the show-delaying traffic jam. Then, there was the GenOUT acapella choir, with gorgeous vocals. And finally, there was the boisterous entrance to a packed Coolidge Auditorium. The cast of the Netflix hit reality series, “Queer Eye,” had arrived — and instantly had an adoring crowd in the palm of their hand.

The show’s cast delighted the audience with plenty of their trademark quips and tips (“moisturize daily;” “walk away from the hair color aisle”), but also settled in for a discussion of LGBTQ+ rights and empowerment in a society that isn’t always accepting. When a 12-year-old audience member submitted a query asking how kids could be more confident in school, the cast took it to heart.

“The most sure thing that you will ever have is your relationship with yourself,” said Jonathan Van Ness, the show’s grooming expert. “As you proceed in your education and your life, the more you can love and accept yourself, the more other people’s opinions and the goings-on of the world won’t rock your opinion of yourself so much. And then, honey, you’re confident.”

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Jonathan Van Ness takes center stage for a laugh. Hosting is Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart (center). Photo by Shawn Miller.

The hour-long conversation, hosted by Jonathan Capehart, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and MSNBC commentator, was billed as “Fab Five Serve Self-Love to LGBTQ+ Youth.” Four of the show’s five stars were on hand: Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Bobby Berk. It was an evening of giddy laughs, thoughts on confronting prejudice, advice on lifestyle choices and no small amount of the banter that’s made the show a pop culture favorite since Netflix launched it in 2018.

It’s a reboot of the Bravo series, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” that ran from 2003 to 2007. This version is an upbeat, tears-and-cheers series of makeovers and self-development, with episodes like “You Can’t Fix Ugly,” “Camp Rules” and “To Gay or Not Too Gay.”  Each cast member has a different area of expertise for a full lifestyle makeover. Berk, for example, oversees home design, while France sees to fashion. It follows the reality-show template of the cast helping someone who’s in a tough spot with an energizing reimagining of themselves. The first two seasons were shot in Atlanta; this year, the cast moved to Kansas City.

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Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Van Ness (l-r). Photo by Shawn Miller.

It was striking, how similar the cast was on stage to the spirit of the show. There was the cross-talk, the energy, the emphasis on self-acceptance. France talked about how giving positive affirmations to himself — each morning as he’s brushing his teeth, looking in the mirror — at first felt goofy. Then, he said, it became a productive habit.

“It can really make you feel better,” he said. “I say this a lot, but I don’t want to be the reason I’m unhappy. So I allow myself to compliment myself at the start of the day.”

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The audience was packed with the show’s fans. Photo by Shawn Miller.

And Porowski provided perhaps the most touching moment. While a teen, he said, he had fallen into a dark bout of depression and wasn’t sure what to do next.

“I needed help and my parents weren’t available for that help, so I went to a teacher,” he said. “I did a lot of things wrong, but one thing that I did right is that I didn’t keep it to myself too long…when you have that conversation in your own head it starts to become a problem. And by actually reaching out to somebody and getting some professional help in the end was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. And it’s something that I continue to do to this day.”

By the time the conversation came to a close, the audience was once again on their feet. At least for one evening, feeling good proved to be contagious.

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The cast with Roswell Encina, the Library’s chief communications officer, at the reception. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Pic of the Week: “Queer Eye” Cast Lights Up the Library

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“Queer Eye” cast members Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness (l-r) share a laugh while discussing LGBTQ+ youth issues wtih moderator Jonathan Capehart, April 3, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The cast of “Queer Eye,” the Netflix reality series, came to the Library to talk with Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart about LGBTQ+ issues that affect teens, and the packed house in Coolidge Auditorium loved it. The hour-long conversation, with cast members Bobby Breck, Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness, kept the spirited crowd laughing and cheering.