Thursday April 25, 2024 
11/27/2019 – 01/09/2020
Invisible Cities Mixed Media Workshop
Join us at the Troy Public Library where artist and instructor Sarah Nenno Bowen will be hosting a two-part workshop in two-hour sessions at the Troy Public Library on
Mondays, January 6 & 13, at 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Each session will be led by an excerpt from the book “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, and each session will have its own excerpt. Read and respond to this piece of literature with the use of materials such as paint, paper, graphite, markers, and more to create a mixed media masterpiece. Register in person, online, or by phone.
This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Arts Center of the Capital Region.
This program is free and open to the public. Advanced registration is required. For more information and to register, call the library at 518-274-7071 or online at www.thetroylibrary.org. The Troy Public Library is located at 100 2nd Street, Troy, NY.
12/19/19 – 1/16/2020
French Film
“Sans Famille”-Saturday, January 18, 2020, 1pm, Troy Public Library, 100 Second Street, Troy, NY, free, presented by La Fédération Franco-Américaine du New York. Young Rémi, a foundling, lives on the farm run by his impoverished foster parents. When their money runs out, unbeknown to his foster-mother, Rémi is sold by his hard-hearted foster father to an old street performer named Vitalis. Vitalis was once a famous opera singer, but became destitute after a tragic love affair. Ever since that time he has been a traveling showman, touring the country with three dogs and a monkey. Rémi is given a warm welcome by the strange troupe, and actually learns how to read and write. (Source-IMDb) For additional information, call the Troy Public Library at 518-274-7071. Follow La Fédération Franco-Américaine du New York at www.albanyareafrenchclub.com and Facebook.
01/09/2020 – 01/16/2020
One Website for Troy’s Language Landscape
In downtown Troy, you can find them on most busy streets, standing by Bible literature displays in two or three languages—with translation into 1,000 languages just a click away. In 2019, that, ‘click’ led internet surfers to the world’s most widely translated website: jw.org, the official website of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
In Troy, Jehovah’s Witnesses are conducting educational meetings on Biblical topics in the Russian language. In the Capital Region, meetings are being held in languages including Tagalog, French, Karen (S’gaw), Vietnamese, Bengali, Chinese (Mandarin) and American Sign Language according to jw.org.
“On a large level, jw.org is ahead of the curve,” states John Yunker, author of The Web Globalization Report Card. “Even Facebook, with support for more than 100 languages, has a long way to go.”
While it’s no surprise that high traffic sites like Facebook and Google are the front-runners in number of languages translated, The Web Globalization Report Card states that jw.org, with content available in 1,000 languages, was the global leader in 2019. In contrast, the educational website jw.org has reached 1,000 languages in downloadable content, an unprecedented translation milestone.
The website provides free, practical information on subjects such as handling peer pressure at school, strengthening marriage bonds and coping with the aftermath of natural disasters. Profit has never been the motive behind jw.org. “We want to help people, “explains Nicholas Ahladis, who works in Translation Services at the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Our goal is to translate the Bible’s message so that it is accurate, clear, and easy for readers to benefit from.”