Adults
Programming
Mondays
• ESL Conversation Group
• Common Threads Quilters/Knitters
• Computer classes (Alternating Mondays)
• Book Group (4th Monday of the month)
Wednesdays
• Movies/Creative Writing (Alternating Wednesdays)
Thursdays
•Book Group (4th Monday of the month)
Fridays
•Lecture Series
Suggested Books About Race
So You Want to Talk About Race
SOPL Lecture Series
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"Writing Innovative Biography: The Life & Art of Niki De Saint Phalle," Nicole Rudick July 28, 2022
This week, we welcomed local author Nicole Rudick, who has written a biography of renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle, "What Is Now Known Was Once Only Imagined."
Nicole and Laura talk about the unorthodox, innovative way of chronicling the legendary sculptor and why her art continues to resonate.
Nicole's book is available for checkout at SOPL. -
"All The Best Liars: Female Friendships & More," Amelia Kahaney July 18, 2022
Amelia Kahaney is the author of All the Best Liars and the Brokenhearted series. Her short fiction has appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, One Story, and Crazyhorse, among other publications. She teaches writing in New York City. -
Classic: Joel Jacobson, September 22, 1988
Joel Jacobson, a longtime South Orange resident, was New Jersey’s first energy commissioner, who also served on the state Board of Public Utilities and the Casino Control Commission and who was the first court-appointed trustee of scandal-ridden Teamsters Local 560.
Mr. Jacobson led a very distinguished career. Mr. Jacobson’s harsh criticism of oil companies while an energy regulator led Mobil Corp. to take out a newspaper advertisement calling him, “an undetermined form of socialist.”
As a casino regulator he once called Frank Sinatra “An obnoxious bully.” The comment came after Mr. Sinatra and fellow entertainer Dean Martin forced at the former Golden Nugget casino to deal from her hand instead of a plastic ‘shoe’ that holds the cards. The dealer, who was born in Korea initially refused, but she gave in after Sinatra apparently told her to “go back to China”. Jacobson was serving as a Casino Control Commissioner at the time. Sinatra refused to perform in Atlantic City for several years after that.
His career began working as a reporter and in 1947 his first assignment was to kill a proposed bus fare increase from 5 cents to 7 cents that Gov. Walter Edge was opposing.
Jacobson’s final labor battle came in 1986 when U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ackerman appointed him to serve as trustee of Teamsters Local 560 after finding the union was run by gangsters. Jacobson was fired one year later. Jacobson said he was trying to build an efficient union operation. He was an individual of strong and firmly held positions and possessed a willingness to express them forcefully. He fought for his beliefs, both as a public servant and as a private citizen.
Jacobson died in 1989 at the age of 71.