Qatar National Library will offer a wide variety of events in November as it eliminates booking requirements and welcomes back visitors at full capacity. Members will have the opportunity to explore various subjects, including music, artificial intelligence, art, cuisine, poetry and heritage.
The Qatar National Library Open Initiative Award winners will be named on 3 November during a virtual session, concluding the Open Access Week. The award will be given to the best initiatives that have contributed to the advancement of open scholarship in Qatar in the past year.
On 4 November, the Library will host “Speech Modeling for Your Child” to discuss key factors that can help parents become speech models for their children to support their speech and language development.
On 6 November, renowned photographer Mashael Al-Hejazi will conduct a workshop on “Cyanotype (Blue Print) Photographic Printing Process” to explore the history of this fascinating artistic process. The workshop will take place in the Fire Station Artist in Residence gallery.
The Library will kick off Calligraphy Week on 6 November as well. The weeklong event will introduce attendees to artistic Arabic calligraphy, artificial intelligence for art, culture and heritage and the Library’s resources on Arabic calligraphy. In addition, the Library will also host an Arabic calligraphy competition.
On the same day, the session “The Importance of Volunteering on the Lives of Young People,” presented by young volunteer Jassem Al-Ashar, will explore different volunteer work and some of the most important traits that volunteers need to possess. Attendees will also learn ways to search for institutions looking for volunteers.
On 10 November, music enthusiasts can enjoy the Qatar Philharmonic Live concert in the Library or via Instagram as they take listeners on a journey performed by the Woodwinds Ensemble. The concert will include compositions from around the world, including musical pieces by Jacques Ibert, Darius Milhaud and Malcom Arnold, among others.
On 11 November, Dr. James She from Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Dr. Ahmed Elgammal, Professor at the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University, and Sydney Chiche-Attali, an attorney specializing in art and law, will talk about the challenges posed by artificial intelligence in the field of art and humanities.
As part of the ongoing Qatar-USA Year of Culture, the Library will host a virtual workshop on 16 November featuring Qatari master Sadu weaver Zamla Bakheet Hamad Almarri, in conversation with Dr. Myrah Brown Green, art historian and master quiltmaker from New York. During this conversation, the artists will exchange traditions and acquired techniques about their respective arts, including shadow weaving.
The Library’s first community read event will take place on 21 November, with author Lilas Taha discussing her novel Bitter Almonds, a story of a Palestinian orphan who, due to Israeli occupation, finds himself away from his homeland. The community read activity began in October, with members and patrons encouraged to get a copy of the book from the Library or read the ebook provided on the Library’s website www.qnl.qa.
On 23 November, members will have the opportunity to be inspired by an online talk “Power Lunch: Qatari and Russian Library Roundtable,” in which library directors from Qatar and Russia will share their most influential international collaborations, specialty areas of research and programming, successful shifts in services during COVID, and more.
The month of events will conclude on 29 November with “Sweet Fusion: A Dessert Masterclass with American Chef William S. Dissen.” Chef Dissen, who is known for promoting sustainable cooking and is referred to as the pioneer of the farm-to-table movement, will provide a masterclass demonstration of American desserts fused with traditional Qatari sweets. His restaurant in North Carolina was voted “Best Classic Restaurant” in America by a contemporary magazine for dining and cooking. The event will be hosted by the Library in collaboration with the US Embassy in Doha to celebrate the Qatar-USA Year of Culture 2021.
The Library will also offer other educational and engaging events throughout November 2021. For a complete list of events, please visit the Events page on the Library’s website (www.qnl.qa/en/events).
