Main Library

Readings from the “Hero’s Journey” Writing Group

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January 13, 2021

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Last fall the Library hosted a weekly virtual writing group led by local journalist and writer Tony Tekaroniake Evans. The group explored memoir and autobiographical writing through the lens of mythologist Joseph Campbell’s idea of the “Hero’s Journey.”

The group met weekly to discuss the phases of the Hero’s Journey, Jungian archetypes in life stories, and to share their writing and garner feedback from one another.

Several students from this group will be sharing short segments of their work on Wednesday, January 13 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. (MST).

Join us on Zoom (register at the link above) for these live readings and to hear what local writers are working on and discussing.

Program Schedule:

6:00       Welcome by Martha
6:05       Readings begin!
6:05       Tony Evans
6:15        Duella Hull
6:25        Mary Barros-Bailey
6:35        Peter Pressley
6:45        Amy Lientz
6:55        Jesse Bauder
7:05        Genevieve Johannsen
7:15        Ina Lee
7:25        Nancy Hughes
7:35        Chiyo Parten
7:45        Short Discussion and Close

Image from conorneill.com.

LIVESTREAM – Winter Read: A Conversation on Multicultural Speculative Fiction with Nisi Shawl

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This program is part of our 2021 Winter Read of Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 novel Kindred.

As part of the Winter Read series, join us for a virtual conversation with Nisi Shawl, writer, editor, and educator. Shawl will be in conversation with Martha Williams, the Library’s programs and education manager about their writing, Octavia E. Butler, the importance of diverse character representation in fantasy and science fiction, and inclusivity in literature.

A friend of Octavia’s during her final years, Nisi Shawl is a founder of the Carl Brandon Society and serves on Clarion West’s Board of Directors.  Their collection Filter House co-won the 2009 Tiptree/Otherwise Award; they’re also the recipient of two Locus Awards, a World Fantasy Award, and the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award, among other honors.  Shawl edited Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.  They co-edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler, and they’re also a co-editor of the first volume of Library of America’s Octavia Butler books.  Their first published novel, Everfair, an alternate history of the Congo, is dedicated to Octavia’s memory.

 

Winter Read: “Kindred” the Graphic Novel with Damian Duffy and John Jennings

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This program was part of our 2021 Winter Read of Octavia E. Butler’s 1979 novel Kindred. The event was held virtually on February 10, 2021.

As part of the Winter Read series, join us for a virtual conversation with Damian Duffy and John Jennings, co-creators of the 2018 graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E.  Butler’s Kindred. Duffy and Jennings will be in conversation with our Winter Read high intern Cline Dolson and Martha Williams, the Library’s programs and education manager.

Damian Duffy is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, curator, lecturer, teacher, and a Glyph Comics, Eisner Comics, and Bram Stoker Award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novelist. He holds a MS and PhD in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches courses on computers and culture, and social media and global change. His many publications range from academic essays (in comics form) on new media & learning, to art books about underrepresentation in comics culture, to editorial comics, to a graphic novel adaptation of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, with his J2D2 Arts counterpart John Jennings. Kindred: A graphic novel adaptation (Abrams ComicArts) was awarded the 2017 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel, and the 2018 Eisner Comics Award for Best Adaptation From Another Medium.

John Jennings is an Associate Professor of Art and Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo-State University of New York. His work centers around intersectional narratives regarding identity politics and popular media. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award nominated collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art and co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is co-founder and organizer of the MLK NorCal’s Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also SOL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo at the Ohio State University. Jennings is currently a Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings’ current comics projects include the Hiphop adventure comic Kid Code: Channel Zero, the supernatural crime noir story Blue Hand Mojo, and the graphic novel adaptations of Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Parable of the Sower.

VIRTUAL – Stretching our Imaginations: An Update from The Community Library

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This year has stretched our imaginations. Here at The Community Library, our operations have evolved creatively each day in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: From a curbside service to virtual programs to face masks, we have adapted practices and exercised flexibility to keep our community connected to ideas and to each other, and we have seen how our community has responded to the notion that we must all take care of each other.

Join The Community Library’s staff and board as we share what we’ve done this year to stay open and operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each department will share details about what has changed–from how to check out and return books, to our virtual programs, to spaces dedicated to solitude and studying–and how we foresee our operations evolving as we move into the winter months. We’ll also take you into the Library’s spaces, so if you haven’t been able to visit the Library, Gold Mine stores, or Regional History Museum this year, you’ll have a chance to see our completed renovation and adjusted operations that are meant to serve you.

We are grateful to you for your support, and we look forward to a healthy and hopeful 2021. In a time when we are often limited, let’s celebrate what we can do–READ! Exercise our imaginations resiliently!

 

 

LIVESTREAM – “A Visit to Papa’s Places” with writer-in-residence Nancy Sindelar

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Photo credit: The Community Library Jeanne Roger Lane Center for Regional History David Meeker Collection on Ernest Hemingway.

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This virtual presentation, by the Library’s January writer-in-residence at the historic Hemingway House, Nancy Sindelar, will tour the places Ernest Hemingway lived and worked: Oak Park, Illinois; Paris, France; Chamby, Switzerland; Toronto, Canada; Key West, Florida; San Francisco de Paula, Cuba; and Ketchum, Idaho. We will view photos of his houses and consider the impact these places had on the life and work of the legendary author. 

Nancy W. Sindelar, Ph.D. has spent over 30 years in education as a teacher, administrator, university professor and consultant and has published numerous articles and three books on educational topics. She is also the author of Influencing Hemingway, a biography of Ernest Hemingway inspired by her time teaching in Oak Park, Illinois, and written to document how Hemingway’s early years and the people and places he was drawn to in his adult life contributed to his thoughts, actions, and writing.

Watch on Livestream. The presentation will be recorded for later viewing.

“Skiing Sun Valley: A History from Union Pacific to the Holdings” with John Lundin

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December 15, 2020

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Union Pacific Railroad’s Averell Harriman had a bold vision to restore rail passenger traffic decimated by the Great Depression: create ski tourism in Idaho’s remote Wood River Valley. A $1.5 million investment opened Sun Valley in December 1936 with a lavish lodge, luxury shopping, Austrian ski instructors and extensive backcountry skiing. Prestigious tournaments featured the world’s best skiers. Chairlifts invented by Union Pacific engineers serviced skiers quickly and comfortably. Ski instructor and filmmaker Otto Lang recalled that seemingly overnight, it became “a magnet for the ‘beautiful people,’ a meeting place for movie stars and moguls, chairmen and captains of industry, Greek shipping tycoons, and peripatetic playboys–and playgirls–of the international social set.” After World War II and Harriman’s departure, Union Pacific’s willingness to pay the $500,000 yearly subsidy waned. Bill Janss purchased it in 1964 and reimagined it as a year-round resort but lacked the capital for growth. Sinclair Oil owners Earl and Carol Holding acquired it in 1977, revitalizing it into a premier resort with international status.

In his new book, Skiing Sun Valley: A History from Union Pacific to the Holdings, award-winning ski historian John W. Lundin celebrates America’s first destination ski resort using unpublished Union Pacific documents, oral histories, contemporaneous accounts and more than 150 historic images.

Books are available for sale at the Library’s Regional History Museum, and at local bookstores and retailers. All proceeds benefit the Library’s Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History.

The great-grandson of early Wood River Valley pioneers, John W. Lundin is an attorney, historian and author. He has written extensively on the histories of Washington and the Wood River Valley. In 2018, his book Early Skiing on Snoqualmie Pass received an award as outstanding regional ski history book from the International Ski History Association. John is a founder of the Washington State Ski & Snowboard Museum and serves on its board. His website is www.johnwlundin.com.

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