Want to keep up with all the latest Library news and events? 
Lunch With Books: Livestream Editions
When all in-person Library programming was cancelled March 15, 2020 due to concerns over the potential spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, we were crushed. You missed us, and we missed you. So, OCPL started a new online initiative to bring "Lunch With Books" to you virtually every Tuesday. Even though we are back to in-person programming, we have decided to continue broadcasting online, unless a speaker requests we not record their program. So now you can still attend Lunch With Books even if you can't get to the Library! Please enjoy our "Lunch With Books: Livestream Editions."
Subscribe to the Lunch With Books Youtube channel or like us on the Lunch With Books Facebook page or to receive notifications of our upcoming LWB broadcasts. Ask our presenters questions online during a live broadcast and they will answer them at the end of a program. To receive emails about our upcoming programs, visit our News page, click the "Subscribe" button to sign-up for our news blasts or download our free OCPL Connect app from your smartphone's app store.
#LibrariesStrong
LUNCH WITH BOOKS: LIVESTREAM
Tuesday Sept. 19 | 2023 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Architect George Bradley Cunningham with Dr. Chuck Julian
Tuesday Aug. 31 | 2023 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Mike Florio, "Father of Mine"
Tuesday | April 26, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Born of Rebellion: West Virginia and the Civil War with Peter Chacalos
Peter Chacalos will discuss his new book, Born of Rebellion: West Virginia and the Civil War. The book offers a concise journey through the major Civil War military events in what is now West Virginia.
Tuesday | April 19, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Saving Money with Unified and the United Way
Don Feenerty and colleagues will tell us about creative and effective ways to save money. Ohio County Public Library’s Lunch with Books presents Unified, the United Way and You Tuesday, April 19 at noon. April is National Financial Literacy Month. Join us as Unified Bank’s Customer Experience & Sales Executive, Mallory Clegg, discusses the differences between financial wants and needs, how to build and maintain a budget, and best practices for living within your means. Jessica Rine, Executive Director of the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, understands that many people these days are forced to live paycheck to paycheck. Jessica will provide a cooking demonstration showing you how to make budget-friendly meals at home.
Tuesday | April 12, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: A Night to Remember (Film Discussion)
On Mon., April 11 at 6 PM in the auditorium, we will offer a free screening of the 1958 film, “A Night to Remember,” which recounts the sinking of the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic on her maiden voyage from England to New York City when she struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and then sank in the early morning hours of Monday, April 15, 1912. Directed by Roy Ward Baker, the British film stars Kenneth More and portrays the tragedy in a documentary style. Blueprints of the original ship were used to create authentic sets. Unlike the better known 1997 film, “Titanic,” “A Night to Remember” is highly regarded by historians and survivors for its authenticity. On Tuesday, April 12, 110 years to the week after the disaster, Dr. Art Barbeau, emeritus professor of history at West Liberty University, will lead a discussion of the film.
Tuesday | April 5, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Wheeling
Internationally known, in life and afterlife, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as an orator, abolitionist, editor, suffragist and American reformist, the history and placement of Frederick Douglass in the field of Appalachian Studies has not been considered and recognized until now. Following the Civil War, Frederick Douglass made notable visits to Wheeling, West Virginia in 1867 and 1884, speaking first at the original Washington Hall at the bequest of a literary society and nearly two decades later at the Opera House, which still stands today at 12th and Market Street in downtown Wheeling, as part of an Emancipation celebration.
Tuesday | March 29, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: G.B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde with Playwright Kris Hall
Kris Hall is the author of “The Fabian Waltz,” a witty romance in which playwright George Bernard Shaw's life and work are upended by a challenging woman he cannot win. Shaw and his fellow Fabians, including Oscar Wilde, fight for social justice and discover love along the way. Kris Hall earned his playwriting Master’s at Rutgers University, studying under Roger Cornish, an expert on British theatre.
Tuesday | March 22, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Celtic Music for Cello and Violin with Paula Tuttle and Charles May
Charles May has been exploring Folk music all his musical life. He is joined by Paula Tuttle for a concert of Celtic music for Violin and Cello.
Tuesday | March 8, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: If These Walls Could Talk: Revisiting the McLure Hotel
Tuesday | March 15, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Irish Music with Faire May
For St. Patrick’s Day and Irish American Heritage Month, Faire May (featuring Zac Gordon and Jariel Henthorn), a traditional music band specializing in enjoyable folk music from the near and distant past, will play some favorites from the Emerald Isle.
Tuesday | March 8, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: If These Walls Could Talk: Revisiting the McLure Hotel
In keeping with the new ownership and rebirth of the McLure House, this talk and virtual tour, featuring Jeanne Finstein and others TBA, will highlight its history, along with biographies of some of the famous people who had some connection to it. Included will be original owner John McLure, Sr.; bellboy Ellsworth Statler; General William Rosecrans; actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Henrietta Crosman; wild-west showman William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody; notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy.
Tuesday | March 1, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: West Liberty University Steel Band
The West Liberty University Steel Band, directed by Dr. Mitch Greco, presents a multicultural program on the vibrant music-culture of the steel pan orchestra. The program will explore the cultural context of the African diaspora in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as tracing the music to its many modern interpretations. Enjoy hearing some of the many styles and genres of music that are played on these beautifully-crafted instruments.
Tuesday | February 15, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The First African American Graduates of Linsly
Tuesday | February 22, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Ann Thomas Memorial Lecture with William H. Turner
The third annual Ann Thomas Memorial Lecture at Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library will take place on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at noon, and will feature Dr. William H. Turner discussing his new books from WVU Press, The Harlan Renaissance. William H. Turner, PhD, the fifth of ten children, was born in 1946 in the coal town of Lynch, Kentucky, in Harlan County. His grandfathers, father, four uncles and older brother were coal miners. Bill has spent his professional career studying and working on behalf of marginalized communities, helping them create opportunities in the larger world while not abandoning their important cultural ties. He is best-known for his ground-breaking research on African-American communities in Appalachia, but Bill’s work is universal.
Tuesday | February 15, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The First African American Graduates of Linsly
In observation of Black History Month, Rev. Stephen Wright, the first African American to attend and graduate from the Linsly Military Institute, class of 1972, will discuss his experiences as a student. Now a resident of Maryland, Rev. Wright will be joined at the event by other early African American students of Linsly, including, William Gummer, Dorian and Michael Lee, Jeff Potts, Eddie Tyree, and Scott Allyn Thomas. The Rev. Stephen Wright attended Linsly Military Institute from 1968 to 1972 and worked as a steelworker with Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. from 1973 to 1985. In 1969, he was elected the first vice president of the West Virginia Baptist State Youth Convention. He has a B.A. from Washington Baptist Seminary and since December of 1998, has been the pastor at First Baptist Church of College Park, one of the oldest African-American congregations in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Tuesday | February 8, 2022 at Noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling Presents: Lesser Known Legends of Wheeling - Eileen Miller
Miss Eileen Miller (1921-2010), an African American teacher from Wheeling, taught here before, during, and after school desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Kent State University professor Dr. Martha Lash will share Miss Miller’s story which stands as an exemplar of the desegregation experience and as such deserves a place in the history as a talented educator who gracefully and powerfully managed her teaching career through many changes. Dr. Lash shares, "A master’s degree student posed the following question to our Professional Development in Teaching class: 'Did anyone in class have an African American teacher during any of their PK-12 years?' Only two raised their hands: the African American female student posing the question, and I, a middle-aged, female, Caucasian professor. The class discussion revolved around the topic of the relatively few teachers of color who grace our public schools. It also left me with lingering questions of how and why an educated and talented African American teacher had taught me in eighth grade in my predominantly European American community on the northern edge of Appalachia during my school years in the 1960s and 1970s."
Tuesday | February 1, 2022 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: West Virginia Humanities Council's History Alive! presents Bessie Smith
As the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, Bessie Smith was the highest-paid Black performer of her day. She was known as the “Empress of the Blues” by virtue of her forceful vocal delivery and command of the genre. In addition, she was an all-around entertainer who danced, acted and performed comedy routines with her touring company. She was a staple of the “Chitlin’ Circuit” and throughout the Jim Crow South, and many of her tunes have been covered by various artists through the decades. Smith made an infamous visit to Wheeling in 1936. She is portrayed by Doris Fields, aka Lady D, known as “West Virginia’s First Lady of Soul,” an R&B, soul, and blues musician and songwriter living in Beckley. Presented through the West Virginia Humanities Council's History Alive, a program of first-person portrayals of historical figures by presenters who have conducted scholarly research on their character.
Tuesday | January 25, 2022 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: If These Walls Could Talk: Revisiting the McLure Hotel
CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS
In keeping with the new ownership and rebirth of the McLure House, this talk will highlight its history, along with biographies of some of the famous people who had some connection to it. Included will be John McLure, Sr.; Ellsworth Statler; General William Rosecrans; actresses Sarah Bernhardt and Henrietta Crosman; wild-west showman William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody; notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy.
Tuesday | January 18, 2022 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Lost History of Frederick Douglass in Wheeling, WV" with John Muller
RESCHEDULED DUE TO WEATHER — Join us April 5, 2022
Internationally known, in life and afterlife, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as an orator, abolitionist, editor, suffragist and American reformist, the history and placement of Frederick Douglass in the field of Appalachian Studies has not been considered and recognized until now. John Muller, author and co-founder of Lost History Associates in Washington, DC, will tell us about the sojourns of Frederick Douglass in Wheeling, part of a larger portfolio of more than a half-dozen visits he made across West Virginia in the mid- to late-1800s.
Tuesday | January 11, 2022 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Lincoln's Bastille" - Wheeling's Athenaeum with Ed Phillips
Standing on the corner of 16th and Market Street for only fourteen years, The Athenaeum's short existence was a crucial witness to both the cultural and Civil War history of Wheeling in the era. Built in 1854 as a warehouse, the lower levels stored supplies for the Crescent Manufacturing Company while the upper floor housed a theater which first opened January 11, 1855. Called "the best theater between the Allegheny Mountains and Chicago," The Athenaeum, attracted many of the best performers of the antebellum period, including the famous Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth, a brother of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. With the outbreak of the Civil War, the U.S. government took over the building, detaining Confederate sympathizers and prisoners of war until they could be transferred to Camp Chase in Columbus. It became known locally as "Lincoln's Bastille." Local history researcher, Ed Phillips, has arguably done the most comprehensive research about the Athenaeum and will share interesting facts and stories he's found along the way including notable performances, guileful prisoner escapes, and a 1868 fire that was the young building's demise.
Tuesday | January 4, 2022 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: 50 Years of Country Roads, Take Me Home
In part two of “Historic West Virginia Anthems,” we will be joined by WVU English professor, Dr. Sarah Morris, and "The Troubadour," Bob Gaudio for an exploration of that most famous of West Virginia anthems, John Denver's iconic and internationally ubiquitous, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (1971) which turned 50 years of age in 2021. Morris’ forthcoming book, Transformation, Translation, and Complication: Take Me Home Country Roads, explores the significance of the iconic song at West Virginia University, in West Virginia, and beyond.
Tuesday | December 28 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Historic West Virginia Anthems with Eli Lambie
From the "West Virginia Grand March to His Excellency Governor Arthur I. Boreman" (1865), composed by Wheeling's E. A. Weber to “West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home” (1947) by Wheeling's Col. Julian G. Hearne, our humble state can boast of a plethora of unofficial and official state anthems, many of which were composed in Wheeling. In this first of two programs to explore the subject, Eli W. Lambie — singer/songwriter, pianist, educator, leader of “Eli and the Mojo Kings,” Wheeling Symphony player, and composer of his very own West Virginia tribute song — visits Lunch With Books to share some of the lesser known songs of West Virginia.
Tuesday | December 21 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Second Annual Simple Life with Don Feenerty
Back by popular demand is the Lunch With Books second annual Simple Life Christmas Special with Don Feenerty (view last year's online program). Feenerty’s unique view on life, that he calls the Simple Life is an easy to follow and enjoyable philosophy based on contentment and making do with what you have. Feenerty, a life long Ohio Valley resident grew up in South Wheeling and now lives on a farm in rural Belmont County, Ohio where he claims the simple spirit of Appalachia is what rules his daily life. Featured throughout the show are performances by Feenerty’s musical friends, Farie May, who will be playing traditional holiday music in their old-time style.
Tuesday | December 14, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: 230th anniversary of the Bill of Rights
Following the American Revolution, the fate of the nation was still uncertain. Would the 13 colonies coalesce into a single union or remain separate states? The proposed Constitution of 1789 had failed to win consensus and those opposed were demanding more personal rights and liberties than provided for by the document. Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison that a Bill of Rights was “what the people are entitled to against every government on earth.” December 15, 2021 will mark the 230th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. Dr. Anne Marie Lofaso, Professor of Law at West Virginia University, will join us to commemorate the occasion.
Tuesday | December 7, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Pearl Harbor at 80 Years
In our present day, people remember where they were when they heard about the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon. For a previous generation, people never forgot where they were when they heard about the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval station in the U.S. colony of Hawaii. West Virginia University history professor James F. Siekmeier gives us the history of United States-Japanese relations in the lead-up to the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and discusses the reasons behind the attack and the long-term significance.
Tuesday: November 30 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Wheeling in Photos: 1973-1985" with Michael Harvilla
If you’ve visited the Facebook group, "Memories of Wheeling" lately, you’re probably familiar with the amazing Wheeling photographs of Michael Harvilla. Taken between 1973 and 1985 when Harvilla worked as a photographer with the Intelligencer, these amazing black and white photos show changes taking place to the old familiar Wheeling landscape that many of us have never seen before. Havrilla will share a selection of his personal favorites and tell us about the background and context of each image as he remembers it.
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Bestselling Author Silas House
NOTE: This recorded livestream video will only be available through January 23, 2022.
Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of six novels—Clay's Quilt, 2001; A Parchment of Leaves, 2003; The Coal Tattoo, 2005; Eli the Good, 2009; and Same Sun Here (co-authored with Neela Vaswani) 2012, and Southernmost (June 2018)—as well as a book of creative nonfiction—Something's Rising, co-authored with Jason Howard, 2009; and three plays. This program is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Tuesday | November 16, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Wheeling Poetry Series with Joseph Bathanti and Joel Peckham
Former Poet Laureate of North Carolina (2012-14) and recipient of the 2016 North Carolina Award for Literature, Joseph Bathanti, and Associate Professor of Regional Literature and Creative Writing at Marshall University, Joel Peckham, will be our guests for our nineteenth program in the Wheeling Poetry Series, November 16, 2021.
The Wheeling Poetry Series features readings by some of the finest poets from our Appalachian region and beyond. The series is organized and hosted by West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman.
Tuesday | November 9, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Wheeling in Real Photo Postcards with Tony Paree
In 1907 Kodak introduced an inexpensive process enabling people to make a postcard from any photograph. This allowed amateurs photographers to capture a disaster, fire, flood, or other event while it was happening. In his book, Tony Paree presents an array of amazing early views of Wheeling that might never have existed but for this revolutionary process.
Tuesday, November 2, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Writing, Researching and Publishing Wheeling 1850
Wheeling scientist Chuck Wood has published 5 prior books, all about volcanoes, impact craters, and the Moon for professional and lay readers. Now he reports on the far more difficult task of writing a novel, where nominally all content is free to be invented. Writing about antebellum Wheeling led to many delightful hours searching in the Wheeling Room and reading old books about local and national history, and the culture and astronomy of the time. Come learn how Zane College, Wetzel's Cave, the Washington Female Academy, horse prints, riverboat racing and gambling, Rebbeca Harding, 653 Main St, and plaster of Paris fit into perhaps the world's first astronomical murder mystery. It may be the last.
Tuesday: October 26 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: All Zombies are Local: Deconstructing the Pittsburgh Zombie with Allison Pitinii Davis
Did you know that George A. Romero's 1968 cult film Night of the Living Dead (you can watch it for free through Hoopla with your OCPL Library card!) was filmed in Pittsburgh? Get ready for Halloween by learning more about the connections between the Rust Belt, zombies, and labor strikes. This presentation will feature clips from the film, an overview of Hugh S. Manon's article “Living Dead Spaces: The Desire for the Local in the Films of George Romero,” and a contemporary poetic take on the Rust Belt zombie genre.
Watch our zombie short NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD tribute video:
"They're Coming To Get You, Wheeling!"
Tuesday: October 19th at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: 135th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty Dedication
Dedicated October 28, 1886, “Liberty Enlightening the World” is our beloved behemoth of a copper statue designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and gifted to the people of the United States of America by the people of France. She has held her torch high in NY Harbor, through triumph and tragedy, for the last 135 years. In this multi-media program, we will look at the history, assembly and dedication of the statue, its original symbolism, and what it has come to mean from many perspectives over time. The story will be told through music, images, recordings, poetry, and prose. We will end with a group recitation of Emma Lazarus’s sonnet, “The New Colossus.” Music: Aaron Carey; Poems: Dr. Bonnie Thurston; Narration: Sean Duffy
Tuesday: October 12 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: WLU African Drum and Dance Ensemble lead by Professor of Music Mitch Greco
Presented by the West Liberty University African Drum & Dance Ensemble, directed by Dr. Mitch Greco. Play and learn about West African music and dance! We will be exploring the instruments of the Ga ethnic group of southern Ghana, a unique music-culture that fuses idiophone timeline instruments (gankogui double-bell and axatse rattle) with drums played with your hands (jembe and kpanlogo). Experience the participatory, improvisatory, and energetic nature of the music-culture through singing, clapping, drumming, and dancing. Wear comfortable clothing that you can move around in!
Tuesdays at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Cannel Coal Oil Days: A Novel by Theophile Maher with editor great-great-grandson Edward
Watts
In Cannel Coal Oil Days: A Novel (West Virginia University Press, 2021), Theophile Maher uses his own experiences to tell the story of a chemical engineer who arrives in Mill Creek, western Virginia, in 1859 to improve the mining and production of cannel coal oil for a Lexington, Kentucky based company. Cannel coal oil was then one of the competing products contending to replace the depleted whale oil market to illuminate American homes, and cannel coal was abundant in the hills upstream from Charleston, up the Kanawha and Elk valleys. While there, Mr. Mark, Maher’s semi-autobiographical hero, not only reforms the company’s operations in more environmentally friendly ways, but he also engages with the local mountain communities, both Black and white.
Tuesday: September 28 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: We Were Legends in Our Own Minds with Richard Cobb and Carter Taylor Seaton
From Aerosmith to ZZ Top, Richard Cobb saw them all during his twenty-five-year career managing mid-market arenas where they played. He tells stories about eating Fig Newtons with Elvis on his private airplane, about his struggle to get Sly Stone on and off the stage, and about his battles with protesting conservative Christians who hoped to scuttle a scheduled performance by Ozzy Osbourne. We Were Legends in Our Own Minds is a backstage pass to all these musical adventures and more.
Tuesday: September 21 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Briarhill to Brooklyn - An Irish Family's Journey with Jack Bodkin
Tuesday: September 14 at noon
LWB: "Great Law of Peace" featuring Kulture Kids
At the request of our performers, and out of respect for their intellectual property, this program will not be broadcast online. It will only be available to view in person at the library.
Friday | September 10, 2021 at 12:30 pm
LWB LIVESTREAM: Reflections on September 11: Twenty Years of Sorrow
"Reflections on September 11: Twenty Years of Sorrow" will feature the poignant work of visual artist Georgia Tambasis, who created, in real time on September 11, 2001, art as she listened to events unfolding on the radio. The program will open with remarks by Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom. Kelly Close, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Urgent Care of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and an emergency physician will then speak. On September 11, 2001, Dr. Close was the coordinator of the medical response as the National Coordinator of Disaster Volunteers for the American Red Cross at ground zero in NYC. She happened to be in Connecticut at the time and was on site within an hour of the attack.
Tuesday: September 7 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: 57 Servings From The Heinz Table with Emily Ruby
57 Servings is a colorful retelling of early Heinz company history — in 57 short chapters — using the Heinz History Center's vast collection of images and artifacts. Emily Ruby is Curator at the Senator John Heinz History Center, where she oversaw research and interpretation for the new Heinz exhibit. She has authored numerous articles in material culture for the History Center's journal, Western Pennsylvania History, and lectures frequently on the subjects of food and culture.
Tuesday | August 31, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: A Conversation with Denise Giardina
For Reuther-Pollack Labor Heritage Week 2021, we will discuss Storming Heaven (a novel of Blair Mountain) and other works with the legendary West Virginia writer, Denise Giardina. This event features WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman and veteran labor attorney Patrick Cassidy. Giardina's novels have won the American Book Award, the Lillian Smith Award for fiction, and the Boston Book Review fiction prize. Her roots run deep in the coal mines of Appalachia and stories about coal miners, companies and unions are at the center of two of her books. Her words may be fiction, but they describe the true experiences of underground coal mining in West Virginia.
Tuesday | August 24, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Novelist Tony Hylton, "Enough"
In Tony Hylton's new novel Enough, a newspaper publisher learns about small town corruption and abuse of power the hard way. When the publisher takes on two political kingpins, he faces threats to his paper and his life. Set in the fictional Jordan County, West Virginia in 1960, this novel focuses on what a positive impact a strong newspaper can have in a community.
Tuesday | July 17, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: 40 Patchtown: A Novel (Appalachian Writing Series) with Damian Dressick
Pennsylvania coal miners' strike of 1922 was both prolonged and brutal, especially in the coal patch towns surrounding Windber. Inspired by the violence and heroism of the strike, Damian Dressick spent months researching the rhythms of early coal town life. Immersing himself in coal heritage materials and interviewing retired miners and their wives, he brings us the story of Chet Pistakowski, a teen miner forced to provide for his family during one of the most brutal labor struggles in American history.
Tuesday | July 6, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Photographing Wheeling with Andrew Borowiec
Andrew Borowiec first photographed Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1986. He had moved to the Midwest from New York City a couple of years earlier and was still trying to come to terms with the unfamiliar landscape of Middle America. It was clearly a working town: north and south of the business district modest residential neighborhoods clustered around factories that hugged the river banks and lit up the sky at night. "I returned to Wheeling dozens of times over the next three decades and, as I made pictures, I gradually learned about the vital role the town had played in the region’s history."
- A non-circulating copy of Andrew's book, Wheeling, WV, is available to view in the Library's Wheeling Room.
Tuesday | August 3, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Stone Arch Railroad Bridges of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with Daniel Frizzi
Daniel Frizzi, a trustee for the Great Stone Viaduct Society in Bellaire, recently helped put together a festival to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the city's Great Stone Viaduct. At Lunch With Books, Frizzi will reprise the presentation he created for the festival, "Baltimore & Ohio Stone Arch Bridges," which will explore the history of Bellaire's bridge and several others, including the Hempfield Railroad viaduct at Tunnel Green in Wheeling, which was designed by Suspension Bridge engineer Charles Ellet Jr. in 1857. You can find out more on the Great Stone Viaduct Historical Education Society's Facebook Page.
Tuesday | July 27, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Wheeling Poetry Series with Carrie Conners & Jacob Strautmann
West Virginia natives Carrie Conners & Jacob Strautmann are our guests for our eighteenth program in the Wheeling Poetry Series, July 27, 2021. Carrie Conners first poetry collection, Luscious Struggle (BrickHouse Books, 2019), was selected as a 2020 Paterson Poetry Prize Finalist. Her second collection, Species of Least Concern (Main Street Rag, Winter 2021-22), was a finalist of the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. Jacob Strautmann’s debut book of poems The Land of the Dead Is Open for Business is available from Four Way Books.
➤ View full program details
➤ Download a booklet for this program | View all online booklets for Wheeling Poetry Series
Tuesday | July 20, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Surrender of Sitting Bull at 140 Years, with Robert M. Utley
Robert M. Utley, author of The Last Sovereigns: Sitting Bull and the Resistance of the Free Lakotas and Sitting Bull: The Life and Times of an American Patriot, will discuss Sitting Bull’s surrender on July 20, 1881 and the ensuing impact on the Lakota people. Sitting Bull and his people endured hostility, tragedy, heartache, indecision, uncertainty, and starvation and responded with stubborn resistance to the loss of their freedom and way of life. In the end, starvation doomed their sovereignty.
Tuesday | July 13, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Disordered Cosmos with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
In The Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter — all with a new spin informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek.
Tuesday | July 6, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The World of the Mantis & Mantis-Cam!
This is a special edition supplement to our ongoing PU Livestream Bugs & People series, "The World of the MANTIS & Mantis-Cam!" OCPL staff member Nayt Knapp is an insect enthusiast. Specifically, he is a big fan of the order Mantodea, better known as Mantises. The order features more than 2,400 species living all over the globe in temperate zones. Most people are familiar with the triangular heads, alien-like eyes, long slender bodies, long folded arms, and green hue of the ambush predator commonly known as the “praying mantis.” These are typically of the European and Chinese varieties common in the United States, which are actually invasive species. Mantises have been part of human culture, art, and myth since ancient times.
Tuesday | June 29, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling Presents: Lesser Known Legends of Wheeling - Mabel Hull
During the 1940s to 60s, Mabel Hull was a correspondent at both the Wheeling News-Register and The Pittsburgh Courier, one of the most popular Black newspapers of the 20th century. Mabel covered the latest society news from Wheeling's African American community.
Tuesday | June 22, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Sacrifice of Lester Yates (novel) with Robin Yocum
Author Robin Yocum has been compared with E. Annie Proulx for his authenticity of place, and Elmore Leonard for his well-laid plots and perfect pacing. Arcade is thrilled to publish The Sacrifice of Lester Yates, which is Yocum at his best: suspenseful, political, and smart.
Tuesday | June 15, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Frontiers of Knowledge with A. C. Grayling
What do we know about the world, the past, and ourselves? Very recently, just in the course of the last century and a half, there have been spectacular advances in our enquiries into these matters. Using the most general labels for them we call them science, history and psychology respectively. What has been achieved in them, and where is our new knowledge leading us? A. C. Grayling CBE MA DPhil (Oxon) FRSA FRSL is the Founder and Principal of New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, and its Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He is the author of over thirty books of philosophy, biography, history of ideas, and essays. His book, The Frontiers of Knowledge, was published in May 2021.
Tuesday | June 8, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Wheeling Poetry Series - Anna Egan Smucker and Bill King
Anna Egan Smucker is an award-winning author of nine books. Recipient of a WV Arts Commission Artist Fellowship Award, her poems have been published in many anthologies and literary journals. Her first chapbook, titled Rowing Home, was published in 2019 by Finishing Line Press. Bill King is a Pushcart Prize nominee. He holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Georgia and teaches creative writing and literature at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, WV. His first chapbook of poetry, from Finishing Line Press, is The Letting Go (2018).
➤ Download a Wheeling Poetry Series booklet for this program.
➤ View full program details
Tuesday | June 1, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Polamalu with biographer Jim Wexell
Polamalu: The inspirational story of Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety Troy Polamalu was the guiding spirit behind a Pittsburgh Steelers team that won two Super Bowls and led the NFL in total defense five times during his 12-year career. This biography, the first written on the Steelers’ Hall of Famer, has been over a decade in the making and includes interviews with hundreds of Polamalu’s family, friends, coaches, team officials, front office members and teammates.
Tuesday | May 25, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling Presents - Cy Hungerford, with Terri Blanchette
Cy Hungerford is one of the least-known, yet familiar, celebrities in the editorial cartooning world. With a career that spanned more than seven decades and 50,000 cartoons, Cy became a Pittsburgh institution. It’s now time to meet him and better understand the “Gentle Genius” and the Wheeling influence behind the many iconic images he left behind.
Tuesday | May 18, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Novelist Cynthia Hilliard, Rook Makes a Move
Cynthia McKenzie Hilliard was born and raised in Barnesville, Ohio. She attended Marietta College for two years, before transferring to and graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Cynthia spent her 40-year working career in Information Technology sales and management. After retiring, Cynthia spent time volunteering, babysitting, and remodeling a house, until the character of Rook McFadden popped into her mind. She started writing, formed Spindlewood Press L.L.C., and launched the novel, Rook Makes a Move, in 2020.
Tuesday | May 11, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: A Tribute to Nurses with Dr. Christine Hallett
In celebration of National Nurses Week & Month, and in honor of those on the front lines, we will be joined, live from the U.K. by Dr. Christine Hallett, Ph.D., a Registered Nurse and the Director of the Center for the History of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Manchester, U.K. She also holds fellowships with the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal Society for the Arts, U.K. Dr. Hallett is the author of the book, Celebrating Nurses: A Visual History, a refreshing narrative history of nursing featuring dramatic, highly readable illustrated stories of nursing's pioneering, often heroic leaders.
Tuesday | May 4, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "The Untold Story of Isaac Zane" with Alan Fitzpatrick
The Untold Story of Isaac Zane is the third book in a trilogy by Alan Fitzpatrick about the little-known history of white captives taken prisoner by Native Americans during the frontier wars of the latter part of the 18th century.
Tuesday | April 27, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "The Sultana Disaster - 156 Years Later" with Gene Salecker and Louis Intres, PhD, both associated with the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Arkansas.
The Sultana, a Civil War-era sidewheel steamboat, exploded and burned on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. Acknowledged by Congressional Resolution as the greatest maritime disaster in United States history, nearly 1,200 of the more than 2,200 passengers and crew were killed in the explosion and fire which sank the Sultana near Marion, Arkansas. Several men from the Wheeling area were on board.
Wednesday | April 21, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Reconnections" with Zaffiro Trio
Zaffiro Trio returns! Join us for a pleasant afternoon performance of classical music by our good friends from Pittsburgh. The program will feature live performances of Mozart & Beethoven - plus special surprise solos! The Trio is comprised of Tina Faigen (piano), Mary Beth Malek (clarinet), and Paula Tuttle (cello), all Faculty members at the University of Pittsburgh's Music Department.
Tuesday | April 13, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "On the Plains in ’65: The 6th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry in the West" by George H. Holliday, with editor Glenn Longacre.
George H. Holliday was born in the southern Ohio village of Pomeroy in 1847. At age fifteen he enlisted in the 4th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. Afterwards, Holliday served with the 5th West Virginia Volunteer Cavalry. In June 1865 Holliday and his comrades, now consolidated with the Sixth West Virginia Veteran Volunteer Cavalry, were transferred west to guard stations along the celebrated Oregon Trail. After his return to Ohio in 1866, Holliday married, began a family, and settled in Ironton, where he engaged in the stove manufacturing industry. In 1883, he self-published, On the Plains in '65, his memoir of his year on the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Later, Holliday moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. He died in 1919.
Tuesday | April 6, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Ernest Hemingway with Dr. Verna Kale
Ernest Hemingway is one of the most famous and yet misunderstood figures in American literature. His influence on fiction and nonfiction writing was profound, and his own life story is as interesting as that of any fictional character. Indeed, his celebrity has at times overshadowed his work. You may love him or you may hate him—either way, Verna Kale challenges many of the long-standing assumptions Hemingway’s legacy has created. Exploring his struggles with his celebrity and his craft, her concise biography offers a reconsideration of one of the most important figures of American arts and letters.
➤ View full program details
Tuesday | March 30, 2021 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Sword and the Shield with Dr. Peniel Joseph
To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.
Tuesday | March 23, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Women in Chess with Jennifer Shahade
Jennifer Shahade is a chess champion, poker player, commentator, and author. She is a two-time United States Women's Chess Champion and was the first female to win the US Junior Open. A PokerStars Ambassador, she hosts two award-winning podcasts, the Poker GRID and Ladies Knight. Her books include Chess Bitch and Play Like a Girl! Jennifer is the Women's Program Director at US Chess, where she works to bring more women, girls and gender minorities into the game through programs like girls chess clubs, beginner's women classes, and the Madwoman's Book Club.
Tuesday | March 16, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: A History of Ireland in Songs & Poetry
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, Irish American Heritage Month, and Women's History Month, the Ohio County Public Library's Lunch With Books Livestream program presents "A History of Ireland in Songs and Poetry, featuring actor and vocalist Michelle Duffy; with music by Faire May; written and narrated by Sean Duffy.
Tuesday | March 9, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Wheeling Poetry Series featuring Cameron Barnett
Cameron Barnett’s poetry explores the complexity of race and the body for a black man in today’s America. His work has been nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize, the 82nd Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize. He is the recipient of a 2019 Investing in Professional Artists Grant Program, a partnership of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments; he is also the 2019 Emerging Artist Awardee for the Carol R. Brown Creative Achievement Awards, co-sponsored by The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. He is the author of The Drowning Boy's Guide to Water, winner of the Autumn House Press 2017 Rising Writer Contest, and finalist for the 49th NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. The Wheeling Poetry Series is hosted by West Virginia Poet Laureate, Marc Harshman.
➤ Download the Wheeling Poetry Series booklet for this program.
Tuesday | March 2, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Author Billy O'Callaghan LIVE from Ireland!
Billy O’Callaghan was born in Cork in 1974, and is the author of three short story collections: In Exile (2008, Mercier Press), In Too Deep (2009, Mercier Press), and The Things We Lose, The Things We Leave Behind (2013, New Island Books, winner of a 2013 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award and selected as Cork’s One City, One Book for 2017), as well as the bestselling novel The Dead House (2017, Brandon/O’Brien Press and 2018, Arcade/Skyhorse (USA)). His latest novel, My Coney Island Baby, was published by Jonathan Cape (and Harper in the U.S.) in January 2019 to much acclaim. Read more about it on the Books page. Billy’s latest short story collection, The Boatman and Other Stories was released in 2020.
Tuesday | February 23, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Ann Thomas Memorial Lecture with Crystal Wilkinson
Crystal Wilkinson is the award-winning author of The Birds of Opulence (winner of the 2016 Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence), Water Street, and Blackberries, Blackberries. Nominated for both the Orange Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, she has received recognition from The Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Kentucky Arts Council, The Mary Anderson Center for the Arts, The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and is a recipient of the Chaffin Award for Appalachian Literature. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in the Oxford American and Southern Cultures. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Associate Professor of English in the MFA in Creative Writing Program. This program is dedicated to our late friend, Ann Beatrice Prince Thomas. This project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Tuesday | February 16, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Digging Our Own Graves" with author Barbara Ellen Smith
Employment and production in the Appalachian coal industry have plummeted over recent decades. But the lethal black lung disease, once thought to be near-eliminated, affects miners at rates never before recorded. Digging Our Own Graves sets this epidemic in the context of the brutal assault, begun in the 1980s and continued since, on the United Mine Workers of America and the collective power of rank-and-file coal miners in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. This destruction of militancy and working-class power reveals the unacknowledged social and political roots of a health crisis that is still barely acknowledged by the state and coal industry.
Tuesday | February 9, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Oak Leaf on His Shoulder: African American Civil War Surgeons" with Jill L. Newmark
The story of African American medical personnel serving during the Civil War is an often neglected, but important part of Civil War history. This presentation explores the lives and service of three African American physicians who served as surgeons during the Civil War. Historical documents and images help illuminate their story and highlight their contributions to Union's army success.
Tuesday | February 2, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling presents Lesser-Known Legends of Wheeling, Part 3: African American Legends
In this biographical presentation, we will explore the lives, times, and accomplishments of nine leaders of Wheeling's African American community during the era of "Jim Crow" segregation, including: barber Boose Clemens, police officer William Alexander Turner, firefighter Ashby Jackson, attorney Harry H. Jones, medical doctors B.H. Stillyard, J. Katherine Pronty Davis, Robert Hamlin, and Alga Wade Hamlin, and musician Will H. Dixon.
Tuesday | January 26, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling presents Lesser-Known Legends of Wheeling, Part 2: Marion Theresa Moses
Linda Comins will share her research on Wheeling born (Jan. 24, 1936) Dr. Marion Theresa Moses, trusted confidant to farm workers’ union leader Cesar Chavez, who helped organize the national grape boycott of the 1960s. From 1977 to 1980, Dr. Moses was a medical resident at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where her work led her to befriend Catholic activist and philosopher Dorothy Day, feminist Gloria Steinem, and an array of social activists and celebrities.
Tuesday | January 12, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Postcards from the Borderlands" with David Mould
What are borders? Are they simply political and geographical, marked by posts, walls and fences, or should we think of them more broadly? In Postcards from the Borderlands, his third book on travel, history and culture, college professor, historian and journalist David Mould rambles through a dozen countries in Asia and southern Africa by car, bus, train, shared taxi and ferry, exploring what borders mean to their peoples.
Tuesday | January 5, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Railroads in Civil War Strategy" with General Ulysses S. Grant
In this meeting with President Abraham Lincoln’s General In Chief, Grant [portrayed by Ken Serfass] will give some background on the development of railroads in America during his own formative years, and will describe how the nation and its railroads grew up together in those tumultuous years of the American Civil War, including here in the new state of West Virginia and in Wheeling, where railroad security was a key to victory. Through sharing stories and artifacts from the period, Gen. Grant will relate his own experiences with trains and railroading from his youth through the Union's victory during the war.
Tuesday | December 29, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Mountaineers are Always Free with WVU associate professor Rosemary Hathaway
The West Virginia University Mountaineer is not just a mascot: it is a symbol of West Virginia history and identity embraced throughout the state. In this deeply informed but accessible study, folklorist Rosemary Hathaway explores the figure’s early history as a backwoods trickster, its deployment in emerging mass media, and finally its long and sometimes conflicted career—beginning officially in 1937—as the symbol of West Virginia University. Rosemary V. Hathaway is an associate professor of English at West Virginia University, where she teaches folklore, American literature, and young adult literature.
Tuesday | December 22, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Simple Life - a Foxfire Christmas with Don Feenerty & Faire May
Wheeling native, Don Feenerty has been called a Renaissance man by many but considers himself to be extremely simple. So much so that he is starting a YouTube channel called “The Simple Life with Don Feenerty.” Join us on December 22nd at noon for the Ohio County Public Library’s Lunch with Books Series for “The Simple Life, a Foxfire Christmas from the Meeting House in Historic Mt. Pleasant, Ohio.” (Click here to learn more about the Foxfire Series of books.)
Tuesday | December 15, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Beethoven at 250 with Dr. Gerald Lee
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) continues to be celebrated as one of the greatest composers of all time. As an especially rewarding privilege, West Liberty University Professor of Piano, Dr. Gerald Lee, features Beethoven’s final piano sonata in the corpus of his 32 sonatas – the magnificent Opus 111 in C minor. Dr. Lee will talk briefly about this sonata and then perform it in its entirety. As this is 2020 – Beethoven’s 250th birthyear – Dr. Lee wholeheartedly commits to bringing his genius to light.
Tuesday | December 8, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: A Light in the Darkness: Comparative Winter Holiday Symbols with Rabbi Joshua B. Lief
Rabbi Lief of Wheeling’s Temple Shalom will present “A Light in the Darkness: Comparative Winter Holiday Symbols,” telling us about various winter holiday traditions, including Christmas, Kwanzaa, and a description of Hannukah for non-Jews.
Tuesday | December 1, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Appalachian Englishes in the Twenty-First Century with Ed. Dr. Kirk Hazen
Appalachian Englishes in the Twenty-First Century provides a complete exploration of English in Appalachia for a broad audience of scholars and educators. Starting from the premise that just as there is no single Appalachia, there is no single Appalachian dialect, this essay collection brings together wide-ranging perspectives on language variation in the region. Contributors from the fields of linguistics, education, and folklore debunk myths about the dialect’s ancient origins, examine subregional and ethnic differences, and consider the relationships between language and identity—individual and collective—in a variety of settings, including schools. They are attentive to the full range of linguistic expression, from everyday spoken grammar to subversive Dale Earnhardt memes.
Tuesday | November 24, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Archiving Wheeling Presents: Lesser Known Legends of Wheeling - Joseph Ray
The first entry in the new series, "Archiving Wheeling Presents: Lesser Known Legends of Wheeling," will feature Joseph Ray. Dr. Christina Fisanick will discuss the unusual life, times, and family of Valley Grove-born (1807) Joseph Ray, who grew up in a Quaker family on a farm near West Liberty. Always most interested in "ciphering," Ray went on to a brilliant teaching career and the authorship of the most popular series of math texts in the country during the 19th century, Ray's Arithmetic.
Tuesday | November 17, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM:Tecumseh and the Prophet with author Peter Cozzens
Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation by Peter Cozzens is the first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than twenty years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States.
Tuesday | November 10, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Reconstructions - The Irish Troubles in Photographs and Word with Steafán Hanvey
Irish singer-songwriter and poet Steafán Hanvey is the son of world-renowned Northern Irish photographer, Bobbie Hanvey, who captured The Troubles on film and created iconic portraits of figures like Seamus Heaney, Gerry Adams, and Brian Friel. In Reconstructions, these photographs are set in context by Steafán, whose memories of a childhood less ordinary are presented in a lyric poetry filled with startling imagery and insights that capture the wit, cadences, anguish, and dreams of the people of Northern Ireland. Reconstructions acts as a timely reminder of just how futile and unnecessary internecine conflict really is.
Saturday | November 5, 2020 at noon
2020 UPPER OHIO VALLEY FESTIVAL OF BOOKS LIVESTREAM: A Celebration of Memoir Writing
In partnership with the Ohio County Public Library, the Wheeling Arts & Cultural Commission presents the 2020 Upper Ohio Valley Festival of Books (UOVFB) Livestream. The 2020 UOVFB will showcase memoir-writing, with keynote speakers Cassie Chambers (Hill Women) and Bobi Conn (In the Shadow of the Valley). Ms. Conn will also lead a Zoom memoir writing workshop limited to 15 people (full). The festival will conclude with a finale for the Wheeling Reads program featuring Tara Westover's bestselling memoir, Educated (get your Zoom link by emailing [email protected]).
Tuesday | November 3, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Wheeling Poetry Series ~ Erin Murphy
Erin Murphy is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Human Resources (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in 2021) and Too Much of This World (Mammoth Books, 2008), winner of the Anthony Piccione Poetry Prize, and Science of Desire (Word Poetry, 2004), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize for the best poetry book of 2004. Her awards include the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize and the Foley Poetry Award, among others.
Tuesday | October 27, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Faces of Civil War Nurses with Ron Coddington
During the American Civil War, women on both sides of the conflict, radiating patriotic fervor equal to their male counterparts, contributed to the war effort in countless ways: forming charitable societies, becoming nurses, or even marching off to war as vivandières, unofficial attachés to the regiments. In Faces of Civil War Nurses, Ronald S. Coddington turns his attention to the experiences of 77 women of all ages and walks of life who provided care during the war as nurses, aid workers, and vivandières.
Tuesday | October 20, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Madam Must Die
"On orders from the Wheeling, W. Va. mob, two men murdered a woman in Canton in 1974. It took 16 years for the truth to come out." Tim Botos and Shane Hoover, reporters at the Canton (Ohio) Repository, will discuss their five-part print and video series about how Carla Dellerba, a madam from Wheeling, was murdered in Canton. One of the sources used in the production was the Ohio County Public Library Archives. Watch the full The Madam Must Die series on the Canton Repository's YouTube channel, then join Tim and Shane at LWB on Oct. 20th.
Tuesday | October 13, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Wheeling Poetry Series ~ Allison Pitinii Davis
WHEELING POETRY SERIES RETURNS! After a series of postponements, we’re happy to announce that the series recommences virtually with Allison Pitinii Davis. A superb younger American poet, she is the author Line Study of a Motel Clerk (Baobab Press, 2017), a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award and the Ohioana Book Award, and Poppy Seeds (Kent State UP, 2013), winner of the Wick Poetry Chapbook Prize. Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The New Republic, The Academy of American Poets website, and elsewhere. She holds fellowships from Stanford University's Wallace Stegner program and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
Tuesday | October 6, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: East Wheeling Clayworks Studio Tour
Join Adam and Beth Bedway for a tour of their East Wheeling Clayworks studio (including an explanation of why it's located in North Wheeling) and a preview of what’s coming up over the next few months. Adam will do a pottery throwing demonstration and talk about the materials they use in their process of making pots — like the beautiful Lunch With Books soup mugs they created for, well, for us! Learn more at eastwheelingclayworks.com
Tuesday | September 29, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman Unplugged
As an “occasional” feature of the Wheeling Poetry Series, our host for the series, Marc Harshman, will join us for a reading from recent work including work reflecting life during the pandemic. He’ll also read select poems from his new book forthcoming from Salmon Press in the Republic of Ireland. Following the reading, he will be interviewed by Sean Duffy and Erin Rothenbuehler regarding less literary topics such as his favorite color, favorite food, earliest memory, favorite rock band, favorite beer, biggest fears, favorite Seinfeld episode, least favorite film, guilty pleasure books, etc.!
Tuesday | September 22, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: From the Studio with Artist Cheryl Ryan Harshman
Cheryl will take us on a tour of her studio, where she paints, quilts, and prints—sometimes all at the same time. The prints she makes are called "clay monoprints," and use a different method. Unlike stamping (think rubber stamps) she uses a transfer method with colored clay on paper or a fabric called Reemay. No paint or ink is used. Because this art is created with clay, it is a muddy, watery process, so Cheryl warns us not to expect a tidy studio! Join us for a hands-on, messy, and fun demonstration of a unique art form.
Tuesday | September 15, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Piano for the Spirit: Tina Faigen plays Classics at Home"
Live from her home studio, pianist Tina Faigen, will present a program of beloved works & transcriptions for solo piano: Clair de lune, Ave Maria, Puccini arias, and more. Visit her new website at https://tinafaigen.com.
Tuesday | September 8, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Phillip S. Greenwalt, co-founder of Emerging Revolutionary War and a historian with Emerging Civil War, will discuss his book, co-authored with Rob Orrison, A Single Blow: The Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Beginning of the American Revolution.
Tuesday | September 1, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Remembering Wheeling native and national labor leader Walter Reuther on his birthday (born September 1, 1907, Wheeling, West Virginia—died May 9, 1970, Pellston, Michigan), Nelson Lichtenstein will discuss his book, Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit And The Fate Of American Labor.
Tuesday | August 25, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Faire May, a Wheeling-based folk music duo founded by friends Jariel Henthorn and Zac Gordon, will take you back to Colonial America by performing prevalent music from the period. These young musicians use a variety of well-known acoustic instruments to keep the traditions of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and the Americas alive and growing.
Tuesday | August 18, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: This presentation will explore the gift made by the Choctaw Nation in 1847, and how it has been remembered in Ireland and by the Choctaw Nation. Presenter Christine Kinealy is author of Charity and the Great Hunger: The Kindness of Strangers.
Tuesday | August 11, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Author Larry Tye will discuss his book Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy. The definitive biography of the most dangerous demagogue in American history contains the first-ever review of McCarthy's personal and professional papers, medical and military records, and recently unsealed transcripts of his closed-door Congressional hearings.
Tuesday | August 4, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Editor Janet Croon will discuss The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865 which captures the spirit and the character of a young privileged white teenager witnessing the demise of his world even as his own body slowly failed him.
Tuesday | July 28, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Fun In The Workshop!" Sarel Venter and Bekah Karelis explore some of the tools and techniques used in their workshop. As owners of a restoration contracting company, Adventures in Elegance, they are completing a big project - the Fort Henry Club Porch restoration. We joined them as they talked about their work and demonstrate how they make rubber molds of architectural details, cast concrete replications, and cut and dress sandstone.
Tuesday | July 21, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Melissa E. Marinaro, Director of the Italian American Program at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, will discuss the new book, Highlights from the Italian American Collection.
Tuesday | July 14, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Dr. Gregory Wilson, professor of history at the University of Akron, and his coauthor, Craig S. Simpson, Lilly Library Manuscripts Archivist at Indiana University, will join us online to discuss their book, Above the Shots: An Oral History of the Kent State Shootings.
Tuesday | July 7, 2020 at noon
LWB LIVESTREAM: Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia with authors Eric J. Wittenberg, and Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr.
Tuesday | June 30, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: Music Inspires Poetry with Zaffiro Trio, Composer Robert Schultz, and Pitt Poetry Students!
Tuesday | June 23, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: A History of Paper Making with Scott Mingus
Tuesday | June 16, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Furnishing Eternity - A Father, a Son, a Coffin, and a Measure of Life" with Author David Giffels
Tuesday | June 9, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: The Origins of "Mill Rat" with Artist Bob Villamagna
(Rescheduled from Tuesday) Wednesday | June 3, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: Lighthearted Literary Levity with Christina Fisanick & Laura Jackson Roberts
Tuesday | May 26, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: Battle of Fredericksburg with Kristopher White, Education Manager at the American Battlefield Trust
Tuesday | May 19, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: Kennywood, Lincoln Highway, Isaly's, & More with Brian Butko of the Heinz History Center
Tuesday | May 12, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Considering Hope" with Dr. Bonnie Thurston
Tuesday | May 5, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: Historic Portrayal - Confederate Spy Ellie Poole with Jeanne Finstein
Tuesday | April 28, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Wheeling's Polonia" with presenter Dr. William Hal Gorby.
Tuesday | April 21, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Ohio County Sanitariums" with presenter Ryan Stanton.
Tuesday | April 14, 2020
LWB LIVESTREAM: "Life Among the Indians: Captivity and Adoption on the Frontier" with presenter Travis Henline.
Still hungry for more Lunch With Books?
➤ Check out Lunch With Books "From the Vault" - online videos of past Lunch With Books presentation.
Make sure to follow Lunch With Books at the Ohio County Public Library on Facebook or subscribe to our LWB YouTube Channel for additional video programs and news updates.
#LibrariesStrong
-
