November is Native American Heritage Month

From the series, "Indian Photographing Tourist Photographing Indian," Zig Jackson

November is Native American Heritage Month. The Library of Congress (in concert with the National Archives, the NEH, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and other partners) has a comprehensive website devoted to the observance. Here is the main link, Native American Heritage Month 2011, with links to a number of other sites, as well as to historic newspapers,documents, and other ephemera.

Indian Chieftain, September 29, 1882

One of the newspapers, The Indian Chieftain, published in Vinita, Indian Territory (which later became the state of Oklahoma) was in circulation from 1882-1902 (for some of those years as a daily), billing itself as "Devoted to the interests of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Creeks, and all other Indians of the Indian Territory." The other paper, The Indian Advocate, published by the Benedictine Fathers of Sacred Heart Mission in Oklahoma from ca. early 1890s through 1910, was a Catholic missionary paper. Editions of the papers are available for viewing online through links on the main site.

I encourage you to visit the site/s and to think about Native American history, art, culture, politics, and economic and social progress.

All best,

Rebecca

Celebrate National Coming Out Day!

Today is National Coming Out Day, an international observance held annually on October 11. As an advisor to the Gay/Straight Alliance at the college where I teach, I will be celebrating with my LGBT students, colleagues, and friends. 

Click on this link for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Day page, and show your support and pride! 

All best,

Rebecca

Banned Books Week, Sept 24-Oct 1: Read a Banned Book Today

Dear friends, fellow writers, and upholders of intellectual freedom,

Did you know that in some schools and libraries, books such as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have been challenged or banned?  

This week marks Banned Books Week, sponsored annually by the American Library Association. Several years ago, when I served on the Plainfield Cultural and Heritage Commission, we held a couple of community "read-ins" at the Plainfield Public Library to observe this important week of intellectual freedom by having Plainfield residents (adults and children) read passages from books that, for numerous reasons, had been banned in schools and libraries around the country. 

Our special guest in 2005 was renowned poet and scholar Cheryl Clarke, (link) who read aloud the love scene between Celie and Shug in Alice Walker's Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning yet much-banned The Color Purple, along with selections from one of her own highly-regarded books of poetry. The following year, we focused on Latin American authors as part of Hispanic Heritage Week, as they overlapped. Others who read at these events were Plainfield residents Herb Green (reading from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Alice Logie (reading from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax), Julie Jerome (reading from Heather Has Two Mommies) and a couple dozen other folks. 

It was gratifying to know that all the books we used for the read-in were provided to us from our own library. Below are challenged classics, some of which I teach in my literature classes:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Ulysses, by James Joyce
Beloved, by Toni Morrison

1984, by George Orwell
 Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Native Son, by Richard Wright


Click on this link to see the Top Ten books that were banned in 2010:

Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2010

The dangers of book-banning are well-known in our country--below is a link to the ALA site, where you can find a comprehensive list of the most-banned books, along with more information about the events for the week:

American Library Association: Banned Books Week

All best,


Rebecca

September 15, 1963

 

Ballad of Birmingham

(On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)

Clockwise from top left: Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, 

Denise McNair, and Addie Mae Collins

Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?"

"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren't good for a little child."

"But, mother, I won't be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free."

"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children's choir."

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?"

                           --Dudley Randall, 1969 

This link will take you to a site which provides more information about the historical events which inspired the poem: The Ballad of Birmingham
 
                           

Fall Library Grounds Community Clean Up!

Saturday, September 17, 2011, 9:30 am 

Volunteers Meet on Library Steps

Gloves, rakes, bags, and water will be provided

Councilman Adrian Mapp with Vivi and Gigi at past community cleanup!

Hi, all--it's that time again! The Plainfield Public Library, our community treasure, is due for another community clean up of its exterior grounds. Those of you who could only access Internet service or use the free WIFI at the library during the past week because of the hurricane can certainly speak to how critical the library is to our city and its residents. 

As I have mentioned in the past, we, as a community, need to add to our priorities the protection and enhancement of the cultural institutions that are the life-blood of any city. Last year, one of the community service projects of the New Democrats for Plainfield Club was to assist in cleaning up the exterior grounds of the library for our children and all other library patrons. To that end, I hope you will join me, club members and all other community volunteers as we get out our brooms and bags to make the library look fabulous in anticipation of the exciting opening of the renovated Children's Library.

The Children's Library is set to open on Saturday, September 24 at 9:30 am, so it behooves us to ensure that every one of our little visitors is able to see our library at its finest--meaning spruced up, cleaned up, and dressed up!

We will gather on the library steps at 9:15 am to begin our work. If you have hedge trimmers, please bring them! We would also like to clean the weeds out of the sidewalk cracks, especially on the Park Avenue side of the library, so if this is your area of expertise, please assist us!

We will provide rakes, gloves, bags, water, and camaraderie. Hope to see you there! 

All best,

Rebecca

Haiku for Gabby: On the Closing of Muhlenberg

What hope is there if/

Apathy is the new black/

Who will speak for her?

Gabby protested while politicians stayed home. (Photo credit: Dan Damon)

When I was a kid, I remember learning to write haiku at school as a way of learning to be concise in my thoughts. More recently, the work of my friend Stafford (who writes brilliant haiku) has inspired me to express myself in this poetic form. 

All best,


Rebecca




 



 

Phrenology: The Law of the Land in Plainfield

While checking out the Plainfield Municipal Code—Chapter 10, Morals and Conduct—I was surprised to discover that Plainfield had a law on the books concerning  phrenology.*

Sec. 10:7-12.  Fortunetellers, soothsayers, palmists and phrenology.¹³

 ¹³State law reference: As to fortunetellers, See N.J.S.A. 2A:170-7.

     (a)     No person shall advertise himself or herself as a clairvoyant, soothsayer, seer, physiognomist, palmist, fortuneteller, spiritualist, spirit medium, or phrenologist or charge or receive any fee, reward, gratuity or anything of value from any person as such clairvoyant, soothsayer, seer, physiognomist, palmist, fortuneteller, spiritualist, spirit medium or phrenologist.

    (b)     Such a person shall be considered a disorderly person under the statutes of the State of New Jersey.

(R.O. 1957, 10:4-4(b))

Phrenology dealt with skull measurements and involved feeling the skull to help determine one’s character traits and tendencies. Phrenology, now regarded as a pseudo-science, was very popular in the 19th century, and especially so during the antebellum era in America. It also captured the literary imagination of many Victorian-era British authors as well as 19th Century American writers such as Melville, Whitman, Twain. Some explored it with a degree of seriousness, while others (especially Mark Twain) found it ripe for ridicule and parody. 

Phrenology also bears some relation to the other pseudo-scientific racial theories that gained force in the 19th century and which still resonate in the form of eugenics and other 20th and 21st Century racialized speculations. *The statute prohibiting phrenologists (as well as soothsayers, clairoyants, seers, spirit mediums, et al) was repealed by the state back in 1979. Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on Phrenology, which offers a comprehensive view, along with good links to primary source material. Enjoy!

All best,

Rebecca