Nashville Public Library
Library Info
Nashville Public Library’s mission statement: extending the benefits and joys of reading, lifelong learning, and discovery to all people through collections and services; promoting the value and power of knowledge, essential in an informed democracy; providing technologies and instruction as a gateway to information resources within and beyond our walls; serving the community with integrity and skill; providing an environment welcoming to all people which serves as a gathering place within the community; preserving and sharing across generations the wisdom, culture, and history of our community.
Nashville’s public library system consists of the downtown Main Library and 20 branch libraries with a collection of 2 million items including books, periodicals, DVDs, CDs and downloadable audiobooks. The library also offers more than 600 public-use computers, free art exhibits, cultural and educational programs and events for all ages such as original marionette shows by Wishing Chair Productions enjoyed by nearly 6000 children each month. NPL also offers 24/7 Ask a Librarian service, online databases including genealogical resources and interlibrary book loan. Special collections include the Metropolitan Archives, The Civil Rights Room and the Nashville Room featuring local historical documents, maps and ephemera. Equal access is offered through the Talking Library audio reading service for the print disabled, and Library Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
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Program Scholar
Kathy Gaca, Associate Professor of Classics
Vanderbilt University
Kathy L. Gaca is Associate Professor of Classics at Vanderbilt University and she was the Hannah Seeger Davis Post-doctoral Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University (1996-97). Her major research interests include Greek and Roman philosophy, mainly Platonic, Stoic, and Pythagorean ethics; Greek, Roman, and biblical history and social values; socially normative ideas in the Greek biblical traditions (Septuagint and New Testament); Philonic and patristic ethics; and social justice topics ancient and modern, especially pertaining to the effects of warfare on women and children. Her current book project is prospectively titled Armed and Sexual: Warfare against Women and Girls in Antiquity and the Modern Day. Her teaching and secondary research interests include Greek tragedy; Greek and Roman myth, epic, and lyric; women in antiquity; and the interrelations between material culture and the above interests. Prof. Gaca’s publications include The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Reform in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity (Univ. of California Press, 2003) and numerous journal articles, including, most recently, ‘Reinterpreting the Homeric Simile of Iliad 16.7-11: The Girl and Her Mother in Ancient Greek Warfare,’ American Journal of Philology 129 (2008), as well as ‘Paul’s Uncommon Declaration in Romans 1:18-32 and its Problematic Legacy for Pagan and Christian Relations,’ Harvard Theological Review 92, ‘Procreationism: The Reproductive Technology of the Pythagoreans,’ Classical Philology 95, ‘Early Stoic Eros: The Sexual Ethics of Zeno and Chrysippus and their Evaluation of the Popular Greek Erotic Tradition,’ Apeiron 33, and ‘Driving Aphrodite from the World: Tatian’s Encratite Principles of Sexual Renunciation,’ Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 53.
Previous Events
Iliad Performance
Join the Nashville Public Library for a performance of Homer's Iliad
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
May 02 2009 at 02:30 PM
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Acting Workshop
Join us for an Acting Workshop at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
May 02 2009 at 01:00 PM
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Public Lecture
"Warfare and Sexual Enslavement in Antiquity and the Modern Day"
Join Program Scholar, Professor Kathy Gaca for a public lecture at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information
Click here for directions
May 01 2009 at 01:00 PM
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Reading Group
Trojan Women directed by Mihalis Kakogiannis
Join Program Scholar, Professor Kathy Gaca for a reading group at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
April 30 2009 at 05:00 PM
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Reading Group
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? directed by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Join Program Scholar, Professor Kathy Gaca for a reading group at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
April 29 2009 at 05:00 PM
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Reading Group
Homer's Iliad, Translated by Stanley Lombardo
Join Program Scholar, Professor Kathy Gaca for a reading group at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
April 29 2009 at 12:00 PM
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Reading Group
A Woman in Berlin
Join Program Scholar, Professor Kathy Gaca for a reading group at the Nashville Public Library
615 Church Street, Nashville, TN 37219
Contact Elyse Adler at 615-862-5776 to RSVP or to gain more information Click here for directions
April 22 2009 at 12:00 PM
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This library is focusing on the thematic unit “Know Thyself: Issues of Identity”
