By Mark Bialczak

LPL Communications Specialist

The CNY Reads One Book event for this year features “The Double Bind,” by Chris Bohjalian. It’s a novel with the pursuit of photography at its root.

Bohjalian describes the plot like this on his own site:

“When college sophomore Laurel Estabrook is attacked while riding her bike through Vermont’s back roads, her life is changed forever. Formerly outgoing, Laurel withdraws into her photography and begins working at a homeless shelter. There she meets Bobbie Crocker, a man with a history of mental illness and a box full of photos he wont let anyone see. When Bobbie dies suddenly, Laurel discovers that he was telling the truth; before he was homeless, Bobbie Crocker was a successful photographer who worked with such legends as Chuck Berry and Eartha Kitt.”

Libraries throughout Onondaga County have been participating in CNY Reads One Book since January by hosting various sessions. The LPL will be the site for the capstone event at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 23, concluding the series with a panel discussion in the Carman Community Room titled “The Healing Power of Art.”

Four community professionals will take the lead in a discussion that can help patrons discover how to best allow their stake in art lead to a better emotional state.

Panelists will include:

Diane Lansing, a retired art teacher for the Liverpool Central School District who has a master’s in expressive therapies, which uses art, music, dance, psychodrama, poetry and ritual as psychotherapy. Landing’s creative expression is photography.

Sandra Fioramonti-Sabene, a specialist in meditative painting and spiritual healing at the Liverpool Art Center. She uses art, music and the rhythm of the natural world to deal with emotional blocks, creative blocks and clarity for life direction.

Claire Arezina and Maria Fazzini, music and art therapists at Golisano Children’s Hospital. They work to bring music and art to reduce pain and stress for the young patients at the Syracuse hospital.

The session also will serve as the pivot point for an LPL donation drive for new art supplies for the Golisano Children’s Hospital. The Golisano Wish List includes colored pencils, acrylic paints, art pads and canvases, crayons, paint brushes and pastels. Crayola is the preferred brand of crayons because they are non-toxic.

The donation barrel is located in the entrance to the LPL main room.