Tuesday Night Was Phat At Ives

Of course, right off the library shelves, Sam-I-Am was there in his tall floppy hat, along with Uncle Sam in his.

They were accompanied by a variety of cats and flappers. Standing tall and sleek above them Kiki Lucia was in a slinky silver dress promoting trans rights and the fundamental importance of the franchise.

“My mother always said, ​‘If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch,’” she reported.

That was the fun, literate, and visually loony Fat Tuesday scene in the bead and drape-festooned lobby of the Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library Tuesday night, as more than 200 people gathered for a costume ball to celebrate Mardi Gras and the indispensable role the library plays in the lives of New Haveners.

Elsie Chapman, president of the New Haven Free Library Foundation, the organizer of the party, said the goal of the event was to raise $60,000 to support library programs.

The library also announced, via the Mardi Gras program, that it is only $52,473 shy of the $250,000 community fundraising goal — part of the $2 million total required — to help move the Stetson Branch Library into the revived Q House complex on Dixwell Avenue.

Costumed cats such as Wojtek Borowski and Ray Baldelli, from Pearce Real Estate (another sponsor), moved around the the tables in the library lobby. Normally piled high with books, this night the tables featured smoked gouda, parmesan, and a half dozen other cheeses.

Over at the main circulation desk, books had been replaced by bottles. The library’s Sharon Lovett-Graff filled guests’ glasses. ​“We are circulating good cheer,” she quipped.

Borowski, tongue and whiskers in cheek, confessed to a reporter that he often wears his cat mask not only at Mardi Gras, but on the job as well. ​“When I sell property, I meow,” he purred.

Emphasizing one of the dangers of the practice, Baldelli chimed in that when he shows a property, ​“We ask you to please put the dogs outside.”

Longtime NHFPL Foundation member Michael Morand, wearing a kaleidoscope jacket and bow tie, explained to a reporter why the library’s fundraising gala and Mardi Gras were conjoined.

It seems that back in 1997, the library realized it was 110 years old, and hadn’t done a proper centennial, Morand said. Better late than never. The approximate date of the library’s founding was in mid-February which, in 1997, coincided with Mardi Gras, so an occasion and a theme presented themselves.

For years afterwards, added Elsie Chapman, the library marked the occasion with a party at the Lawn Club. Around 2005 the library moved the event to the Ives Main Branch when organizers realized that so many supporters who came to the Lawn Club had really not set foot in the library itself.

At the time, booze was forbidden to be served in city buildings. ​“Full aldermanic approval” was required in order to make the party possible, Chapman recalled.

So here they were now, hoofing their foots, feet, to the music of the band Thabisa, with its headliner Thabisa Rich, and succumbing to Kiki Lucia’s call to raise thousands of dollars now. Now!

In the adjoining room library staffer Gina Bingham and New Haven Museum’s Jason Bischoff-Wurtzel were introducing the New Haven Story Project, an interactive digital platform collecting tales unique to the history and richness of New Haven life.

Come this summer, when the site will be available on your phone or computer, and formally debut as part of the Arts & Ideas Festival, you’ll be able to upload your tale in a community gathering, Bingham said.

“When people come to New Haven, I want them to say how wonderful the [cultural] facilities are and especially their library experience,” said City Librarian John Jessen.