Party at the Library! Shhh? Hooray!

Barbara Michaels is a wonderful community partner! She really helped to capture the excitement and passion that we wanted the community to feel as they celebrated the renovation and improvement of their beloved branch library.

- Mary Abler, Friends of the SF Public Library

A New Author

photos by Liam Breck

Making History About History

Each year, BarbaraInCharacter gifts original characters to selected community events. The San Francisco Public Library Eureka Branch renovation closing party catches my eye -- my mother is a librarian! In a costume reminiscent of Mother Goose, I join guests in celebrating their love for the Library by making a book together. Folks from ages 6 to about 75 finish the sentence, "Once Upon a Time in the Castro..." They pen lovely neighborhood memories and fantastical visions! The book can be on display when the Library reopens.

Remembering a Raincoat

Grandpas write for their toddler Grandkids. Others linger in thought, remembering... adopting a child, losing an expensive raincoat, falling in love. One fellow even runs to the dictionary to be correct for posterity! A five year old insists that a frog is pretending to be superman. I realized recently that all the amazing tall tales I was told as a child have stayed with me. I still believe that I should be capable of magical things, like changing the color of a car just by looking at it! Perhaps performing in character and transporting guests to another time and place is a bit of modern magic itself? Abracadabra!

Once Upon a Time in the Castro... Barbara was In Character!