News Release

San Francisco – For eight days in March, San Francisco will host a series of events celebrating and reflecting upon five centuries of Irish American history, creativity, and culture. The San Francisco Public Library is pleased to join the Irish Arts Foundation and the Irish Studies Program of New College of California in presenting Crossroads: An Irish American Festival. Some of the celebrations include panel discussions featuring scholars and musicians; films; author talks; story telling and poetry readings that explore the contributions of Irish Americans.

The Crossroads events will open on March 6th at the San Francisco Main Library. Kicking off the celebration is a program entitled, “Irish History Through Music, Poetry and Song,” narrated by Sue Jean Halvorsen, including performances by The Gasmen, a traditional Irish musical ensemble along with Colm O’Rian and Pireeni Sundaraligam. The afternoon will conclude with “Hybrid Irish American Histories,” a panel discussion featuring renowned historians Peter Linebaugh, Kerby Miller, Janet Nolan, and Patrick O'Sullivan, who each give voice to aspects of Irish America.

March 13 will mark the closing day of the Festival and will include events the entire family can enjoy, like Irish children's stories, music and dance, performed by the Kennelly dancers with music by Kieran Marsden and friends. State Librarian Dr. Kevin Starr and San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White will join the Library in the afternoon along with Michael Corrigan, Matthew Jockers and James P. Walsh for an engaging conversation titled “Irish California.” The final event will be “Memory, Imagination & Identity,” which brings together Catherine Brady, Bob Callahan, Charles Fanning, Patricia Monaghan and Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin to reflect on Irish American expression.

In conjunction with Crossroads, the San Francisco Main Library will display Irish and Irish American materials from its collection throughout the month of March. Library staff have also compiled “The Irish and Irish Americans: Selected Resources at the San Francisco Public Library,” a guide to featured books, archives and other materials located throughout the library system. The public will be able to access the information on the Library’s Web site www.sfpl.org.

Crossroads is supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. The festival is also funded by the Cultural Relations Committee of the Irish Government and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

All programs and events at the Library are free and open to the public.
For more information, please call 415-557-4277.