Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library - Central Library

Events
Blog

Haiku Contest 2023

Celebrate National Poetry Month with DC Public Library

Celebrate National Poetry Month with DC Public Library! Residents ages 6 and up are invited to submit a haiku to the 2023 Haiku Contest from Apr. 1 - 30. Write a haiku about one of the following themes: ✎ a DC moment / observed in DC, ✎ something you're grateful for, ✎ seasons, or ✎ something small and wild.

Where Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction Meet

Five great works of 21st-century literature rooted in the past

Here are five novels published this century that combine exceptional literary merit with an historical setting. The Known World by Edward P. Jones

The 27 Club

A Deeper Dive into a Tragic Phenomenon

**This is a heavy topic, and might be disturbing or upsetting to some readers, particularly because it involves death, addiction, suicide, and grief. The “27 Club” refers to celebrities, mostly musicians, who died at the age of 27. This coincidence adds a layer of intrigue and infamy to already tragic events. Members of the club include: Kurt Cobain, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse, Robert Johnson, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and more.

DC Health Updates COVID-19 Community Programs

DC Health is suspending the COVID-19 Test Yourself DC kiosk program and rapid test distribution at DC Public Library Locations as of Feb. 28. To learn more please visit the DC Health website.

Press Releases

A black woman with a head wrap around her hair wears a pair of red glasses. In the reflection of the glasses we seen a hand holding a knife.

It Must be Exhausting Always Rooting for the Anti-Hero

Books inspired by Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero."

Is it exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero? Sometimes. But you know what? It's a lot of fun. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Spike Mike Slackers and Dykes book cover image

Dancing About Architecture

The famous, but unattributable maxim, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” is something I’ve heard for years and have considering lately. Because… why wouldn’t someone dance about architecture? Taking someone’s craft and engaging with it through another creative practice that fits better with an individual’s skillset seems like it could only add the self-expression that lives in the world and can then go on to be inspiration for someone else.

MLK Library Literary Book Club

A monthly book club in downtown DC

Are you interested in contemporary fiction and nonfiction? Are you looking for a book club that meets in downtown DC? Look no further, and come join us at the MLK Library Literary Book Club.

Cover of America's Great Mountain Trails

Hiking

Inspiration and advice for your trail adventures

Residents of the Washington, DC metro area are very fortunate when it comes to enjoying the outdoors: we have a wide variety of accessible terrain (seaside shoreline, wetlands, forests, mountains) and all four seasons in which to view the changes that come over the landscape. We also have some excellent opportunities to enjoy nature without even leaving the city (or its suburbs) -- Rock Creek Park, the waterfront of both the Anacostia and the Potomac Rivers, Great Falls Park, etc. The books below offer advice and inspiration for those interested in hiking on trails both near and far.

Contemporary Philosophizing

Books that address (some of) the age-old questions

For some, contemporary philosophy is unintelligible or unduly occupied by trolley problems or filled by dry-as-dust statements that adhere to the demands of logic but say nothing about human life.

Michel de Montaigne

Books by and about the French Renaissance essayist

At the age of thirty-eight, after spending the first two-thirds of his life in intense political and civic activity, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) retired to his estate to think, read, and write -- to capture his thoughts. In so doing, he invented the essay (or, as he called it, the essai, meaning an attempt, test, or trial). Montaigne's essays were a departure from established, traditional approaches to composition: they were brief and personal, not comprehensive and institutional; idiosyncratic reflections, not discourses on religious, legal, or philosophical topics.