Science & Sonnets Reading Challenge: April 1-30

What do you do when Community Science and Poetry are celebrated during the same month? You put together a reading challenge that honors them both! Starting April 1, we invite you to sign up for our Science & Sonnets Reading Challenge. Read on to learn more!

This month, we’re encouraging you to explore science and poetry at the library. Complete a variety of related activities and track your progress on your Science & Sonnets log. Give our Poetry Line a call to listen to a staff-read poem (804-501-1946), check out a nature or birding backpack for an adventure at a local park, use one of our stargazing kits to explore the night sky, and much more. Earn a small prize when you finish five activities! For full challenge details, head to Beanstack, where you can register and participate entirely online, or visit your library to pick up your paper log.

In addition to reading challenge activities, be sure to check out these upcoming science and poetry-themed programs happening at the library:

SCIENCE

• NASA Science Live!
  • Thursday, April 2, 1:45-4PM at Fairfield, Twin Hickory, Varina, and Tuckahoe
  • For teens. Earn volunteer hours while helping NASA scientists spot clouds in Mars' atmosphere. This Community Science Monthevent will include a livestreamed presentation by SciStarterand the opportunity to participate in their effort to complete 2.50 million acts of science in honor of America's 250th birthday. Registration is required for students who need access to a library computer. Students who bring their own laptops do not need to register. Tablets and phones are not encouraged.

• Land Lovers Series: Community Science in Your Backyard
  • Wednesday, April 15, 3-4:30PM at Gayton
  • Master Naturalist Jim Easton from the Riverine Chapter guides us in the use of smart phones, tablets, and the appropriate apps to identify local wildlife and participate in community science projects. Feel free to bring your own electronic devices to follow along. We will have a few tablets available for demonstration purposes. This program is held in partnership with Keep Henrico Beautiful.

• Earth Day Animal Identification Project
  • Wednesday, April 22, 6-8PM at Tuckahoe
  • For teens. Earn volunteer hours while helping scientists identify as many animals as possible in camera trap images. This Community Science Month event will include a livestreamed presentation by SciStarter and the opportunity to participate in their effort to complete 2.50 million acts of science in honor of America's 250th birthday. Registration is required for students who need access to a library computer. Students who bring their own laptops do not need to register. Tablets and phones are not encouraged.

• Better Birding with eBird
  • Saturday, April 25, 11AM-12PM at Tuckahoe
  • eBird is a powerful online tool that can help you keep track of the birds you have seen and find the birds you want to see. Developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, eBird is used worldwide and considered one of the premier community science success stories. Following an introduction to eBird, we will take a short walk around the library's green space to look for birds. All ages are welcome. Participants are encouraged to download eBirdto their portable Android or iOS device prior to the program. A limited number of binoculars will be available for use.

POETRY

• Richmond Poetry Festival 2026: Poems from the Page, Room Swept Home
  • Wednesday, April 1, 6-8PM at Libbie Mill
  • In this generative writing workshop, Rosa Castellano, Poet and Visual Arts Center Writing Community Engagement Coordinator, will mine Remica Bingham-Risher's book Room Swept Home for prompts and inspiration encouraging participants to start their own poems examining memory, lineage, and notions of home. In 2025, Room Swept Home was named the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and an Honor Book for Best Poetry (2025) in the Black Caucus of the American Library Association/BCALA Literary Awards. This program is part of the 2026 Richmond Poetry Festival hosted by The Visual Arts Center, Richmond.

• Zine Making Workshops
  • Wednesday, April 1, 6:30-7:30PM at Libbie Mill
  • Thursday, April 2, 6:30-7:30PM at Tuckahoe
  • For teens. Come make a zine to celebrate spring break from school! Zines are handmade small magazines, that can be about anything you want them to be—comics, recipes, fanfiction, and more. We will also be kicking off National Poetry Month if you want to make a poetry-inspired zine.

• Blackout Poetry and Open Mic
  • Tuesday, April 7, 6-7:30PM at Tuckahoe
  • Celebrate National Poetry Month! Drop in to learn more about blackout poetry and create your own poem. Stay throughout the evening for an Open Mic and share your blackout poetry creation or any of your own spoken word! Light refreshments will be provided. Can't make it? Fret not! Blackout poetry prompts will be available and on display all month in the Adult section! Submissions are subject to approval by library staff.

• In the Footsteps of the Bards: A Journey Through Song, Poetry, and Story
  • Thursday, April 16, 2-3PM at Gayton
  • In honor of National Poetry Month, this interactive workshop presented by Storyteller Liza Newell explores the enduring bardic tradition of music and poetry from its ancient Celtic, Norse, and medieval roots to its echoes in contemporary poetic and musical forms. Through live performances of classic ballads and poetry, participants will uncover the structure, themes, and style that define bardic arts.

• Book Show & Tell
  • Wednesday, April 22, 6:30-7:30PM at Varina
  • Tell the group about a book you read, loved, and would recommend that others read! Stay after to enjoy light refreshments and chat with the group. In honor of Poetry Month, we will be sharing collections of poetry or books told in verse. Bringing in a copy of the book is optional. Please ensure that your selection is in the library’s collection so that others can check it out if they are interested.

• Poetry in Conversation: Rosa Castellano and Steven Leyva
  • Saturday, April 25, 12-1PM at Libbie Mill
  • This featured National Poetry Month event connects Rosa Castellano and fellow poet Steven Leyva for a conversational-style reading designed to put poems and poets in conversation with one another. Castellano is based in Richmond, VA, where she writes, teaches, and is the co-founder of the RVA Poetry Festival. Her debut poetry collection, All is the Telling, has recently been published by Diode Editions. Leyva is an Associate Professor at the University of Baltimore and author of two poetry collections: The Understudy's Handbook (2020) and The Opposite of Cruelty (2025). He is a Cave Canem Fellow and has served as the Head Editor of the Little Patuxent Review and as a Writer-in-Residence for Howard County's Poetry and Literature Society. Published collections by both poets will be available for signing and purchase. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.