April 25, 2012 Terence Simien and his band represented their country as part of "America Days" in Ukraine.

Terrence is demonstrating a lot of charm and sense of humor.

The lady wanted the necklace badly.

April 25, 2012 Terence Simien and his band represented their country as part of "America Days" in Ukraine. Terence Simien is a prominent figure among zydeco style musicians in the world. He obtained the Grammy Award in 2008.
Zydeco is the music of Southwest Louisiana's Black Creoles, a group of people of mixed African, Afro-Caribbean, Native American and European descent. This Black Creole society that beget zydeco is traditionally rural, French-speaking and is somewhat intertwined with the Cajun culture.
All attenders enjoyed the great performance. A lot of people danced on the floor.
We a so grateful US Embassy for bringing excellent American performers to Ukraine to enhance connections and collaboration between U.S. and Ukraine artists and cultural institutions.

Today students of third grade read a large-size book 'What do You See?" as a part of the Earth Day celebration. After that kids played jumbled words to memorize the words from the story. They had have a lot of fun making their friend to guess the world. Our hero of the day was Joana who puzzled the audience with C-H-A-I-R.

On April 20, 2012 at 6:00 PM documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006) has been shown and discussed.
Kaley Hanenkrat, Fulbright Fellow at NaUKMA presented the film and lead the afterfilm discussion.
Presenter told the audience that the climate change is the biggest issue facing the world today. The evidence from the scientific community is now beyond doubt - unless we change our ways, the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have increasing and catastrophic impacts on the world in which we live.
After showing one of our patrons admitted that the documentary An Inconvenient Truth is a remarkable film. It presents the issue in an easily digested form where the scientific data is clear and accurate. Despite the dire predictions, it is also an optimistic film pointing to solutions that people and societies can make to avoid the predictions.
Another visitor told that this film is rather controversial and greenhouse effect is exaggerated. But everyone agreed that we must change your lifestyles. Hopefully it will change planet we live on too. It is not too late!
20 patrons who care about protection of the environment enjoyed the movie. Mostly students of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Taras Shevchenko University and Kyiv National Economic University, eight employees and one retiree.

Today is Cosmonautics Day This holiday celebrates the first manned space flight made on April 12, 1961 by the 27-year-old Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched by the Soviet space program and designed by the rocket scientist Sergey Korolyov. The spaceflight consisted of a single orbit of the Earth (to this date the shortest orbital manned spaceflight). According to official records, the spaceflight took 108 minutes from launch to landing. Gagarin's flight was an instant and surprising success for the Soviet space program. Gagarin became a national hero of the Soviet Union and eastern block and a famous figure around the world. Major newspapers around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. Moscow and other cities in the USSR held parades, the scale of which were second only to WWII Victory Parades. Gagarin was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, he was awarded the highest Soviet honour, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. On April 7, 2011 United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight. It’s necessary to add that several weeks later on May 5 1961 Freedom 7, the first piloted Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr., was launched from Cape Canaveral by MercuryRedstone (MR3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115 nautical miles and a range of 302 miles. It was the first American space flight involving human beings. Shepard demonstrated that individuals can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and his flight lasted 14.8 minutes.

April 2012 American Library Closings Friday April 13 will be closed at 6 pm Happy Easter! On Saturday April 14 through Monday April 16, inclusive the American Library will be closed. The American Library resumes its normal hours on Tuesday April 17 Our website, including catalog and other useful resources, will be open 24x7! We appreciate your kind understanding and wish you safe and restful holidays! The American Library Team

On April 6, 2012 at 6:00 PM crime drama Find Me Guilty (2006) has been shown and discussed. John C. Engstrom Resident Legal Advisor of US Embassy presented the film and lead the afterfilm discussion together with William McGilton. Presenter told the audience that the film was based on real events. It depicts the longest Mafia trial in NYC history, and most of the dialog is taken from the original records of the trial. In 1987-88, some 20 members of the Lucchese crime family, each with his own lawyer, were indicted on some 76 charges ranging from criminal conspiracy to narcotics trafficking. The trial went on for 21 months. After showing one of our patrons admitted that the movie had a really great script; it was funny, dramatic and touching. Viewers were really surprised by Vin Diesel's performance, they weren't expecting him to pull it off. Most people never have any interaction with the criminal justice system so they asked a lot of questions especially about jury selection and it’s work. John Engstrom explained that the jury pool is first selected from among the community using a reasonably random method and employers usually kept their salaries. At the end our presenters received an ovation. 19 patrons enjoyed the movie. Mostly students of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Taras Shevchenko University, three employees and two lecturers.

Today story time with 5th graders was completely "green". Lisa read a book "Fancy Nancy. Every Day is Earth Day" by Jane o'Connor. Children readily discussed what it means to be green and what they can do to be "greener". Most of all they liked three "Re-"s reuse, reduse, recycle.

It’s All about Poetry. National Poetry Month is held in USA every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. I love poetry. It sings to my heart and to my soul. When I was young I thought everyone would love poetry just as much as I do if they only exposed to it correctly. But generally people don’t like and don’t read it. They don’t think that poetry can move them to do passionate things. But poems did. Poets could change cultures. Before there was so much contest for people’s attention, poets were the ones who literally brought the news from one place to another, walking from town to town, which is how we got everything to be iambic and memorable and rhymed and metered, because the tradition was oral before it was literary. Did you ever know that American Library has among its holdings there are The Song of Roland, The Odyssey by Homer, The Poem of the Cid and of cause a lot of American poems. Why not to come to the library and check out some good poetry?