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Tax Season 2023: Here’s All You Need to Know Before Filing

2022 IRS Tax Return Updates and Paper Form Availability at the Library The IRS tax season has begun. If you are used to picking up paper tax forms at your local library, you will notice a few changes. The Internal Revenue Service is not…

Let's Talk: Philly D.A.

Philadelphians, we need to talk! Join your neighbors at eight Free Library of Philadelphia libraries between May 23 and June 30th, to watch and discuss individual episodes of the award winning PBS documentary series Philly D.A. . We…

Race in the United States: Social Justice Virtual Workshops for Teens

Updated Friday, July 10, 2020 4:59 p.m. "The Social Justice Symposium Teen Planning Committee supports the Concerned Black Workers of the Free Library of Philadelphia ! CBWFLP Response to DEI/Board of Trustees' letter We are…

A History Minute: The Many Firsts of Sadie T. M. Alexander

Women today often talk about the difficulty of "having it all", but Sadie T.M. Alexander was more concerned with "doing it all." She not only raised two children and worked to advance her husband’s political…

Modern Courts, Modern Lives

The workshop in the Free Library’s new Robert and Eileen Kennedy Heim Center for Cultural and Civic Engagement began with a quick quiz. And while I knew I wouldn’t ace it, I thought I would get by. Sliding on my reading…

The Mystery of Missing Persons

Many things go missing – overdue books, keys, socks in the dryer – but none of those can compare with the gravity of when a person simply disappears. Approximately 90,000 people are missing at this very moment in the United…

Expanding Legal Literacy in Neighborhood Libraries

Storm Rhodes is a Library Assistant at the David Cohen Ogontz Library , and a member of Cohort 1 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries training. In this post, she shares what she has learned. The most influential things I have…

In Commemoration of Law Day, the Free Library Offers Legal Advice Live!

On February 3, 1958, Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a proclamation to designate May 1 as Law Day . This year marks its 60th anniversary. Eisenhower declared it to be a day for us to remember and reflect upon the significant role…

State Senator Nikil Saval Mobile Office Hours

Drop in any time from 1:00-4:00pm to meet with staff from State Senator Nikil Saval's office! Get FREE assistance with your needs as a constituent, including: Property Tax/Rent Rebate Applications Utilities Assistance (LIHEAP) SEPTA…

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law

This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world. It includes nearly 2,000 titles, with every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery,…

Gun Regulation and Legislation in America

This new HeinOnline collection brings together more than 550 titles dealing with this difficult and important topic. Included are periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, relevant congressional hearings, CRS Reports,…

Tricia Rose | Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak Acclaimed for her study of the intersections of pop music, contemporary Black U.S. culture, and sex and gender, sociologist Tricia Rose is the author of…

Stacey Abrams | Rogue Justice: A Thriller

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster, Tracey Matisak Introduced by State Rep. Donna Bullock Stacey Abrams is the Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University. After serving…

Hamilton Nolan | The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor

In conversation with Kim Kelly A labor journalist who regularly contributes to In These Times magazine and The Guardian, Hamilton Nolan has written about inequality, politics, and class war for The New York Times, The Washington…

Barbara McQuade | Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America

In conversation with Ali Velshi Barbara McQuade is a legal expert for MSNBC and NBC News , and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw . She teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy at…

Wesley Lowery | American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress

In conversation with award-winning journalist and broadcaster Tracey Matisak In American Whitelash , Wesley Lowery examines the cyclical pattern of violence that marks each watershed moment of racial progress in this country, most…

James Comey | Central Park West: A Crime Novel

In conversation with George Anastasia The director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, James Comey captured international attention for his investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails, Russian interference into the 2016 presidential…

Kristen R. Ghodsee | Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us

In conversation with Arwa Mahdawi Referred to by bestsstelling author Rebecca Traister as “exhilarating, good humored, and forward looking,” Kristen R. Ghodsee ’s Everyday Utopia is a two-millennia examination of diverse…

Mark Bowden | Life Sentence: The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader

In conversation with Bill Marimow Renowned for his “signature blend of deep reportage and character-driven storytelling ( The New York Times Book Review ),” Mark Bowden is a former national correspondent for The Atlantic and a former…

Alex Mar | Seventy Times Seven: A True Story of Murder and Mercy

In conversation with Shane Claiborne Alex Mar is the author of Seventy Times Seven , a chronicle of the brutal 1985 Indiana murder of an elderly white woman by a fifteen-year-old Black girl. “A probing examination of the intersection…

Judith Lewis Herman, M.D. | Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice

In conversation with Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Endowed Lecture A professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School for more than 40 years, Judith Lewis Herman , M.D., is one of the United States’…

Saidiya Hartman and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor| Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America

One of academia’s leading authorities on African American literature, enslavement, gender studies, and the ways in which marginalized people are excluded in historical narratives, Saidiya Hartman is a University Professor at Columbia…

Margaret A. Burnham | By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners

In conversation with Tracey Matisak Margaret A. Burnham is the founding director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, an initiative to document every racially motivated killing in the South between 1930 and 1970. Also a…

Michael Pollan | This is Your Mind on Plants

In conversation with Tamala Edwards, anchor, 6ABC Action News morning edition One of the world’s foremost chroniclers of the intersection of the human and natural worlds, Michael Pollan is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of…

Hugh Ryan | The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison

In conversation with Sayeeda Rashid, Director of the Center for Gender Resources and Sexual Education at Haverford College Hugh Ryan is the author of When Brooklyn Was Queer , a “boisterous, motley … entertaining and insightful” ( The…

Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa | His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

In conversation with Benjamin Todd Jealous A political enterprise and investigations reporter for The Washington Post since 2011, Robert Samuels has chronicled the impact of national policies and controversies from across the United…

Eric Holder | Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote—A History, a Crisis, a Plan

In conversation with Tracey Matisak, award winning broadcaster and journalist The United States attorney general from 2009 to 2015, Eric Holder is the first African American to hold that position. In his 30-year career in government he…

Dorothy Roberts | Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World

In conversation with Marc Lamont Hill Addressing social justice issues of policing, state surveillance of families, and science, Dorothy Roberts ’s books include Killing the Black Body , Shattered Bonds , and Fatal Invention . She has…