NYPL Grab & Go + New Online Series

On Monday, August 3, the Riverside branch of the New York Public Library (127 Amsterdam Avenue) reopened for grab & go service! This service allows patrons to access a limited area of the branch to return materials and pick up holds. Reserve your items online or by phone and select the open branch you would like for pickup. You’ll receive an email when your items are ready, and then you can head to your selected branch for contactless pickup. Don’t forget your mask! Learn more about the NYPL grab & go service here.

And, while the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts branch (LPA) remains closed for now, they are still providing great virtual content, including their newest online series, “The Creative Process: Interviews from TOFT.” For nearly 50 years, LPA has revolutionized theatre research and access by recording and collecting live theatre performances. The brainchild of visionary former theatre professional Betty L. Corwin in the late 1960s, the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) is the single largest, most comprehensive collection of live theatre anywhere in the world. This November marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark archive and to celebrate, LPA will stream their new online series, which will feature interviews with some of the most revered actors and theatre professionals which will then culminate (once the Library reopens to the public) with an exhibition celebrating the TOFT Archive's important history. 

To kick off the series, LPA is featuring interviews with Baayork Lee, Chita Rivera, and Angela Lansbury, which are captured in the TOFT Archive and which have never been seen outside LPA's walls.  These interviews were filmed by TOFT in collaboration with the League of Professional Theatre Women's Oral History Project, which chronicles and documents the contributions of significant women in theatre. Click here to check out the interviews and learn more about “The Creative Process: Interviews from TOFT.”

Photo credit: New York Public Library