Events

Ripley County Reads is excited to be taking part in this year’s One State / One Story community read! Indiana Humanities’ One State / One Story program invites Hoosiers to engage deeply with a book as part of a statewide conversation tied to our current theme. BOOK: All That She Carried by Tiya Miles Underground Railroad FREE Bus Tour: The Underground Railroad is part of the Southeast Indiana Trails to Freedom. This Bus Tour will highlight 5 trails in Ripley county. This FREE guided 2 hour tour will start in Versailles at the Ripley County Tourism Office and feature places & activities of the Underground Railroad. Registration Required. Snacks will be provided. Must be 13+ or older. There are 2 dates to choose from: Thursday, September 5 or Saturday, September 7. You MUST register for this tour from the link below. This is open to 25 people per tour. Must be 13+ or older. Register for the BUS TOUR here at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/ Location: Ripley County Tourism Office Time: 10:00pm - 12:00pm   This program has been made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Brought to you by Ripley County Reads.   Complete information can be found at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/ Book Discussions, Speaker Series and Bus Tour dates and times.

🎵 1950's Style Honky Tonk - Rockabilly - Rock & Roll - Concert Alert! 🎵  BRING YOUR LAWN CHAIRS! Get ready to groove under the summer sky with our LAST SUMMER Concert!  Join us for an unforgettable good time. A phrase that's been used to describe the wild piano pounding Rock-N-Roll talent of this young man from Cincinnati Ohio. Take the 1957 hands of Jerry Lee Lewis and the 1957 look of Elvis Presley and the raw energy of those two artists and what do you get? A piano pumpin', thumpin rockabilly kid named Blair Carman. From the honky tonkin' songs of Hank Williams, to the rock-n-rollin' hits of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. A Blair Carman show is guaranteed to leave you wanting more. BMPL's Parking Lot is DORA approved. Walk to your favorite bar in town to grab a drink and head over to listen to our Honky Tonk Concert. 🔊  LISTEN here https://www.blaircarman.com/videos 📅 Date: Saturday, September 7, 2024     🕒 Time: 6PM – 8PM   📍 Location: Batesville Memorial Public Library (around the Pergola) Bring your friends, family, and lawn chairs for an evening of fun! Admission is FREE! See you there!

Black Quilters: Hard Topics, Soft Blows September 9 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm at Batesville Library This program coordinated with the 2024 One State/ One Story All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles sponsored by the Indiana Humanities. Though often dismissed as “women’s work” and regulated to the realm of handicrafts, the art of quilting holds a prominent place in many cultures. It brings together communities and allows creators to chronicle their struggles and triumphs. Join Dr. Tony Jean Dickerson as she discusses the artistry of African American quilters and the stories they tell in their works. While she will blend her presentation to coordinate with the book, knowledge/reading of the book is not required to attend.  Dr. Dickerson is the lead faculty for Martin University’s School of Education’s Teacher Preparation Program as of June 2022. Besides teaching, Dr. Dickerson is a nationally recognized quilter and is a member of 8 local and national quilt guilds including the founding president of the Akoma Ntoso Modern Quilt Guild of Central Indiana. As part of this program she will share multiple quilts that she has made. There will be programs throughout Ripley County that coordinate with this book. Find information about all the programs being offered at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/ Ripley County Reads is a partnership between the three public library systems in Ripley County, Indiana (the Batesville Memorial Public Library, Osgood Public Library, and the Tyson Library) and Ripley County Tourism. The goal is to promote literacy, community, and education throughout the County.  This program has been made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for Humanities. Free presentation - Open to the community - No registration.

Do you have a project that you need a little motivation to finish? Do you get lonely working on your projects at home? Just want a little company? Join your fellow crafters at the Library for an afternoon of crafting and chatting. Bring your craft project(s) from home and join us for a crafty social hour!

Ripley County Reads is excited to be taking part in this year’s One State / One Story community read! Indiana Humanities’ One State / One Story program invites Hoosiers to engage deeply with a book as part of a statewide conversation tied to our current theme. BOOK: All That She Carried by Tiya Miles Book discussion facilitated by Nancy Durham at Tyson Library at 5:00pm. This is a FREE open to the community book discussion and books can be checked out for reading at: Tyson, Osgood or Batesville Libraries before the discussion to read. Location: Tyson Library Time: 5:00pm   This program has been made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Winner of the 2021 National Book Award in nonfiction, Miles’ work dives deeply into the history of a single object: a cotton sack embroidered with a few deceptively simple lines: My great grandmother Rose mother of Ashley gave her this sack when she was sold at age 9 in South Carolina it held a tattered dress 3 handfulls of pecans a braid of Roses hair. Told her It be filled with my Love always she never saw her again Ashley is my grandmother Ruth Middleton  1921 From the sparse information contained in these carefully embroidered lines, Miles opens up the potential worlds of Ashley, Ruth, and Rose. Her analysis of the sack reveals what we can and can’t know about the past, particularly of Black individuals who were brought here by force and enslaved. BOOK: All That She Carried by Tiya Miles BOOK SUMMARY: In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.   Complete information can be found at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/

This book sale will be held in the Library Annex from 9:00 am - 5:00pm on September 13 & 14. Location: New Annex Building - 108 N Elm St., Batesville, IN 47006 The MISSION of the Friends is to bring people together who are willing to work and to provide supplemental financial assistance to the library in order to support the various educational, social and cultural programs for the community. What WE SPONSOR: After Hours Concerts, Children's & Adult Programming, Summer Reading Program, Newborn Bags @ MMCH, Furnishings for the Library. ALL BOOKS are $1. We also have Books on CD, Music CD, DVDs and Craft & Cooking Magazines. Interested in becoming a member? We would love to have you join the team. Contact:  friends@ebatesville.com. OR visit https://ebatesville.com/friends-of-the-library/

Underground Railroad in Southern Indiana September 14 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm at Tyson Library Presenter: Debbie McIntyre Free presentation - Open to the community - No registration.

Join us for a surprise craft afternoon full of creativity and fun with a surprise project with Rachael! Come and enjoy a relaxed, social atmosphere while making a tasteful craft. No experience needed—just bring your enthusiasm and curiosity! REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Sign up below.

Do you have a project that you need a little motivation to finish? Do you get lonely working on your projects at home? Just want a little company? Join your fellow crafters at the Library for an afternoon of crafting and chatting. Bring your craft project(s) from home and join us for a crafty social hour!

A Novel Idea is BMPL's book club. Join us each month to explore and discuss the month's book. A Novel Idea Book Club meets in the library on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 1:30 pm. In September, we will read along with Ripley County Reads in the One State/ One Story program from the Indiana Humanities. All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles is the winner of the 2021 National Book Award in nonfiction. The book tells the story of Ashley’s sack, which Ashley’s great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Miles, found in her parents’ attic. The sack is made of flour and sugar sacks and holds scraps of fabric, buttons, beads, and other items that Ashley probably carried with her as a slave. Nancy Durham will lead the discussion. There will be programs throughout Ripley County that coordinate with this book. Find information about all the programs being offered at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/ Ripley County Reads is a partnership between the three public library systems in Ripley County, Indiana (the Batesville Memorial Public Library, Osgood Public Library, and the Tyson Library) and Ripley County Tourism. The goal is to promote literacy, community, and education throughout the County.  Find the display or ask for a copy of the book at the front desk. This program has been made possible through a grant from Indiana Humanities in cooperation with the National Endowment for Humanities.   Complete information can be found at https://ripleycountyreads.org/osos/

This FREE workshop series is designed for patrons aged 55+.  Priority will be given to those who can attend ALL 5 classes. If you can attend a FEW email rachael@ebatesville.com for consideration. Dates: Sept.19, Sept. 26, Oct. 3, Oct. 17, Oct. 24 Time: 10am - 12pm Life drawing is accessible to all, fun and rewarding. It helps participants see the world with an artist’s eye. It teaches hand-eye coordination, hones observational skills, and does wonders for relaxation through releasing attachment to perfection and finding a new connection within our brain. During a life drawing session, a clothed model is surrounded by participants and the instructor. The model poses for different durations. Some popular mediums used during life drawings are charcoal, graphite, pen, ink and/or pastels. We will start with the basics and work our way through a variety of mediums. The great thing about Life Drawing is that in just one class, you can see a marked change - if not in your drawings, in your perspective. In five classes, improvements will be very obvious. To highlight this progress and to treat the participants as real artists, the final class will be a gallery-style show. Families and community members will be invited to see the work displayed. The work will also be on public display for a few weeks after the gallery’s opening night.    You do not have to be able to “draw” to sign up. You only have to have an interest in drawing. This class is for beginners up to advanced ability.  If you are thinking, “I can’t draw anything” this is the PERFECT class for you. If you are already skilled in drawing, come and refine your skills with assistance from a professional artist. The artist: Rebecca Davies is an accomplished artist and teacher. BFA in Art Education from the University of Cincinnati. She continued with graduate studies in Fine Arts at IU, UC, VCU. She was a beloved art teacher at area schools (East Central, Batesville Intermediate) to grades 3-12 for 25 years. Even when teaching, she always maintained an active studio life. For a while, she saw herself as a painter who teaches, and then she fell in love with teaching, and everything was Art. Now she’s back full-time in the studio. Drawing and painting with a live model is one of her favorite things, and she has much to share about the process! This activity is made possible in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administrations Division of Aging.