Blyden Celebrates The Holidays

NORFOLK

The Blyden Library held its annual Holiday Celebration on Dec. 15 with a program featuring the Harambe Theatre dancers and African storytelling. It was followed by a full course meal accompanied by the live band entertainment of Shepard Productions.

Dudley Colbert is the librarian at the Blyden which is located on Princess Anne Road. The Blyden Branch opened July 19, 1921 in a single room of the original Booker T. Washington High School on Princess Anne Road.  It provided library service for the city’s approximately 43,000 African-American residents, and was the first library for African-Americans supported by a municipality in Virginia.  Blyden Branch moved to Johnson Avenue and Church Street in 1938 and to its current location at 879 E. Princess Anne Road in 1957.