Where To Weather A Storm? The Library

At a desk inside the Ives Main Library, Emani Adams unzipped a bag of neon nail polish. She was trying to decide on a color.

Adams and her seven-month-old baby, who soaked in the room with gleaming eyes, had arrived at the New Haven Free Public Library’s main branch downtown at noon on Thursday, as snow mellowed into light rain.

According to library aide Kayla Cruz, the branch was quieter than usual. The building was mostly filled with regulars; the snow, which closed public schools that day, seemed to deter newer faces from dropping in. 

For those who did come to the library on Thursday, they found more than just a place to take refuge from the cold slush outside. They waited downstairs for free tax assistance through VITA; settled into chairs for a much-needed nap; checked out books, researched used cars, scribbled in notebooks; and found ways to pay forward acts of kindness, large and small.

For Adams, the library is a quiet place to surround her baby with books and creativity. It also serves as her artist’s studio. 

She likes to make use of the ​“Ives Squared Tinker Lab,” a room full of hands-on tools ranging from a laser cutter to a 3‑D printer, to produce mixed-media art. 

Adams, 27, is currently taking a break from automotive school to raise her baby, she said. Someday, she also hopes to sell her art in local shops. 

Right now, she’s working on a three-dimensional portrait made of cardboard and papier-mâché. She’s currently building out the arm. Soon, she plans on adding fabric hair. ​“It’s gonna be kind of creepy,” she said.

On Thursday, though, she’d left her art at home. ​“I was just gonna do nails today,” she said.

Downstairs, a man who goes by J. Dennis was looking at online auction sites for used cars. 

At age 60, J. is currently living with a roommate he doesn’t quite trust. He said that earlier that morning, he and the roommate had gotten into an argument. He came to the library — where he said he spends at least three days a week — to look for a pathway out of an uncomfortable housing situation. 

The staff members, who know J. by name, have become a source of both logistical and emotional support. ​“They take the difficulty out of your mind,” he said, ​“and show you that you can achieve what you want to.”

While he’s currently unemployed, J. said he used to work as a television camera operator, and his stories about the library have a cinematic flair. J. said that several months ago, he was mysteriously unable to access his Social Security payments and worked with library staff members to navigate the agency’s bureaucracy. The process of recovering his funds took some time, he said. ​“I was over at Hillhouse High School. I was doing bottles,” he described, when he ran into a familiar face: librarian Seth Godfrey, walking his dog. Godfrey offered him words of encouragement, told him to remain patient. And soon enough, J. recalled, he checked his bank account at an ATM inside the Ferry Street McDonald’s and found that his funds had been recovered.

“The spirit of the library? They work to provide you with an understanding that you are capable,” J. declared.

In the last several months, J. said he’s come to the library to obtain a license from a pop-up Department of Motor Vehicles event, conduct research on the topics that interest him, and learn about housing resources from Liberty Community Services. He’s developed new technological skills: ​“There was some things I had to do on the computer. There were icons you had to click on, and I didn’t know how to do that.” 

He said he hopes one day to help the librarians and technicians who have assisted him. He said that, when he can, he lends advice and, when he can, small amounts of cash to the people he meets in the library. He believes that the generosity always makes its way back to him. 

“When you come to the library, you can be a resource, as well as the library can be a resource,” he said.