Mark Bowden Talks Drones & Torture With Ret. Gen. Stanley McChrystal
Black Hawk Down and The Finish author Mark Bowden interviewed retired General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan, at the Free Library of Philadelphia to a packed basement crowd last Thursday, coinciding with the release of McCrystal’s new memoir, My Share of the Task. Bowden and McChrystal talked about the efforts against...
Continue Reading
Free Library Foundation Exceeds Fundraising Goals
The Free Library has been feeling some pain lately. Their funding is down 19 percent over five years and in the days and weeks leading up to the end of this fiscal year, the Free Library Foundation headed up a massive email campaign asking for donations, warning without help, programs like One Book, One Philadelphia and LEAP After-school programs could get cut. Now,...
Continue Reading
Christopher Hedges Offers Gloomy Outlook at Free Library Event
Christopher Hedges was at the Free Library last night to speak about—though he did not read from—his new book with journalist Joe Sacco: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. The book, as detailed in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly, deconstructs American “sacrifice zones,” as he calls them—areas of the United States in which the people and resources...
Continue Reading
Report: Free Library Created More Than $30 Million In 2010
The first ever economic impact study of Philadelphia’s libraries, The Economic Value of the Free Library of Philadelphia, found the free libraries created over $30 million worth of economic value to the city. Expect it to be cited during the next quote-unquote, city budget crisis. The study, conducted by the UPenn’s Fels Institute of Government, looked...
Continue Reading
