Bites of American culture in the public libraries of Madrid: American Cultural Bites

The International Institute has always been open to collaborating with similar institutions and from the library we have done the same on different occasions. Having the magnificent space of Miguel Angel 8, this cooperation usually involves using our facilities, but with American Cultural Bites This idea has been turned on its head. The main objective has been to carry out cultural activities similar to those that we develop in the library, leaving our natural environment to expand the dissemination of what we do and try to reach people who have not had the opportunity to meet us yet.

During the 2016-2017 academic year we started this new free activity thanks to the support of American Space Madrid counting on the teachers of the ACS courses (American Cultural Studies) of the English Department of the Institute. In essence, these are colloquiums in English aimed at adults to get closer to American culture through an artistic work. The level of English that we recommend so that the participants can fully enjoy these meetings is upper-intermediate (B2) or advanced (C1-C2), although sometimes people with less level of knowledge have been encouraged to participate.

Andrew Bennett, director of the ACS courses, has been the main ambassador of the initiative; together with him we began by focusing on American poetry with a participatory dynamic from the Group Discussion for Teens. It has recently been changed to an American short story, reproducing the format of our popular English Reading Circle.

Our external ally to date has been the Network of Public Libraries of the Madrid City Council, where from the beginning they enthusiastically welcomed the proposal and whose public (due to its similarity to the students of the English courses at the International Institute) we believe is ideal for receiving “snacks of American culture”. During the 2016-2017 academic year, it was decided to create a circuit of ten libraries from different neighborhoods, through which the same activity was happening monthly. In all these different venues the reception was excellent and we had good participation figures. For this 2017-2018 academic year, with a new impetus from the ASM management, the activity has been divided into two ages:

American Cultural Bites - Makers Unite! "Maker" children's activity for children from 9 to 12 years old where they experiment with LittleBits, a modular system with small pieces magnetized together and without welding to build electronic structures, robots and mini-machines. As in the first course, it will circulate monthly among ten libraries in different neighbourhoods.

American Cultural Bites –Short Story Circuit is a shorter circuit of encounters in English to bring us closer to contemporary North American literature in a playful and informal way through short stories. After an individualized reading of the story, the participants meet to discuss it as a group, using different text analysis roles to encourage the debate. The selected stories have been read for free on the internet to facilitate the participation of those interested. It has been preferred to focus the circuit of monthly sessions in libraries close to the International Institute with which to link up and create a denser nucleus of cultural relationship.

The result of all these actions is proving very positive and we plan to expand the collaboration network to other cultural institutions with which to continue opening the IIE and the ASM beyond their physical borders.