Original Proposal - Brown Girl Dreaming

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johnkarls
Posts: 2034
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Original Proposal - Brown Girl Dreaming

Post by johnkarls »

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• Originally proposed by johnkarls » Wed May 23, 2018 5:22 pm
• The original proposal had 641 “views” in Section 3 (“Possible Topics for Future Meetings”) before being transplanted here
• Earlier on 5/23/2018, the June Bulletin of the NYC Harvard Club had been received by e-mail
• The June Bulletin listed among the zillions of events a 6/13/2018 interview of Jacqueline Woodson in the Club’s Gordon Reading Room following which she would read poems selected from “Brown Girl Dreaming”

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From: john@johnkarls.com
To: Our 158 Members Individual-by-Individual
Bcc:
Subject: Reading Liberally – Resumption of Regular Monthly Meetings – Our Focus Book For Wed Evening July 31
Date: Sat, June 29, 2019 - from 1:52 am MDT to 3:24 MDT (since sent individual-by-individual)
Attachments:
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To: Our 158 Members Individual-by-Individual (for reasons explained below)

Dear Friends,

Hopefully you received the following e-mails for resuming our regular monthly meetings – two weeks ago to solicit focus-book suggestions and one week ago to solicit your vote for the focus book for Wed evening July 31.


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Political Censorship Against Our Organization by Major E-mail Providers

The PS to the June 22 e-mail that follows immediately below explains that on or about 9/1/2018, major e-mail providers began to fail to deliver our e-mails even though they have essentially displaced the US Postal Service and the US Postal Service is NOT permitted to steam open letters in order to decide whether to deliver them.

That is the reason why this e-mail is, and the June 22 e-mail was, sent individual-by-individual rather than one or two batch e-mails with everyone listed as Bcc’s. [And why this and the two previous e-mails have been sent from three different e-mail accounts; a fourth used recently produced even more horrendous results.]

Nevertheless, a check with more than a dozen regular meeting attendees showed that the overwhelming majority did NOT receive either the June 22 or June 15 e-mail.


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Temporary Rules To Cope With The Censorship

Ordinarily, we cancel any meeting for which a minimum quorum of 6 RSVP’s is not attained.

However, until we are able find a way to cope successfully with the censorship, the minimum quorum for a meeting to proceed is waived and I will be happy to meet with whomever is willing to discuss the focus topic, even if that is only one other person.

Nevertheless, in order to maintain the integrity of our Six-Degrees-Of-Separation E-mail Campaigns to the nation’s decision makers, a minimum quorum of 6 for doing so will still be required.


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RSVP’s Still Requested – Skype Requests

Nevertheless, RSVP’s are still requested.

If, for no other reason, than our long-standing rule that RSVP’s can decide UNANIMOUSLY to hold a meeting at a location that may be more convenient to them than the Salt Lake City Library (210 East 400 South). [In other words, one negative vote maintains the SLC Library as our venue.]

Anyone who would like to Skype should note that with her/his RSVP.

[For example, 4 of the 7 initial members of our Global-Warming Thorium-Fission Working Group and 6 of the 8 final members were Skypers.]


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Our Focus Book for July 31 = “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson

Amazon.com – 2016 paperback (349 pages) for $8.00 + shipping; $9.99 Kindle
Salt Lake City Library – original 2014 hard cover – 6 of 9 copies currently available
Salt Lake County Library – original 2014 hard cover – 25 of 37 copies currently available


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Description

“Brown Girl Dreaming” won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbury Honor award, the NAACP Image Award, and the Silbert Honor Award.

It is a memoir of Jacqueline Woodson’s own early life, comprising 349 pages of poetry.

Raised in South Carolina and Brooklyn, Woodson always felt half-way home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up an African American in the 1960’s and 1970’s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.


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Author Bio

Jacqueline Woodson is the author of more than 30 award-winning books for young adults, middle graders and children. Among her many accolades, she is a four-time Newbury Honor winner, a three-time National Book Award finalist (in addition to winning it for “Brown Girl Dreaming”) and a two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner.

Her “Miracle Boys” was adapted into a TV mini-series directed by Spike Lee.

She served 2015-2017 as the Poetry Foundation’s “Young People’s Poet Laureate.”

And the U.S. Library of Congress named her its “National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature” 2018-2019.


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Book Review Excerpts

* “You can read ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’ in one sitting, but it is as rich a spread as the potluck table at a family reunion. Sure you can plow through the pages, grabbing everything in one go, like piling a plate high with fried chicken and ribs, potato salad and corn bread…. [But this] is a book full of poems that cry out to be learned by heart. These are poems that will, for years to come, be stored in our bloodstream.”
– New York Times

* “The writer’s passion for stories and storytelling permeates the memoir, explicitly addressed in her early attempts to write books and implicitly conveyed through her sharp images and poignant observations seen through the eyes of a child. Woodson’s ability to listen and glean meaning from what she hears lead to an astute understanding of her surroundings, friends, and family.”
— Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

* “Mesmerizing journey through [Woodson’s] early years. . . . Her perspective on the volatile era in which she grew up is thoughtfully expressed in powerfully effective verse. . . . With exquisite metaphorical verse Woodson weaves a patchwork of her life experience . . . that covers readers with a warmth and sensitivity no child should miss. This should be on every library shelf.”
— School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

* “Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned. For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.”
— Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

* “[Woodson’s] memoir in verse is a marvel, as it turns deeply felt remembrances of Woodson’s preadolescent life into art. . . . Her mother cautions her not to write about her family but, happily, many years later, she has and the result is both elegant and eloquent, a haunting book about memory that is itself altogether memorable.
— Booklist, STARRED REVIEW

* “A memoir-in-verse so immediate that readers will feel they are experiencing the author’s childhood right along with her. . . . Most notably of all, perhaps, we trace her development as a nascent writer, from her early, overarching love of stories through her struggles to learn to read through the thrill of her first blank composition book to her realization that ‘words are [her] brilliance.’ The poetry here sings: specific, lyrical, and full of imagery. An extraordinary—indeed brilliant—portrait of a writer as a young girl.”
— The Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW

* “The effect of this confiding and rhythmic memoir is cumulative, as casual references blossom into motifs and characters evolve from quick references to main players. . . . Revealing slices of life, redolent in sight, sound, and emotion. . . . Woodson subtly layers her focus, with history and geography the background, family the middle distance, and her younger self the foreground. . . . Eager readers and budding writers will particularly see themselves in the young protagonist and recognize her reveling in the luxury of the library and unfettered delight in words. . . . A story of the ongoing weaving of a family tapestry, the following of an individual thread through a gorgeous larger fabric, with the tacit implication that we’re all traversing such rich landscapes. It will make young readers consider where their own threads are taking them.”
— The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, STARRED REVIEW

* “Woodson uses clear, evocative language. . . . A beautifully crafted work.”
— Library Media Connection, STARRED REVIEW


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We look forward to seeing each of you on Wed Evening July 31.

Your friend,

John K.

PS – To unsubscribe, please press “reply” and type “deletion requested.”


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From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: Our 158 Members Individual-by-Individual
Bcc:
Subject: Resumption of Regular Monthly Meetings – Your Vote Requested for July 31 Focus Book
Date: Sat, June 22, 2019 – from 12:27 am MDT to 3:19 am MDT (since individual-by-individual)
Attachments:
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To: Our 158 Members Individual-by-Individual (for the reason explained in the PS)

Dear Friends,

Hopefully you received the following e-mail last Saturday soliciting your suggestions for focus books for our July 31 meeting.

Now it is time to vote for the focus of our Wed Evening July 31 meeting.

The suggested foci (more info available about each in the second section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “Possible Topics for Future Meetings”) –

(1) Unmasking the Administrative State by Prof. John Marini;
(2) The BBC’s Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister & The Deep State;
(3) Political Censorship by Major E-mail Providers (including censorship against our organization);
(4) Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (up from the ghettos in the 1960’s, she is the winner of zillions of awards for her books for children and adolescents, and serves as the Library of Congress’ “National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature”);
(5) Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism by Ian Bremmer (Pres. of The Eurasia Group);
(6) Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level by Harvard Professors James Sebenius, Nicholas Burns and Robert Mnookin;
(7) The Square and The Tower by Harvard Prof. Niall Ferguson (husband of previous two-time Reading Liberally author Ayaan Hirsi Ali);
(8) The Road Not Taken: E. Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot (Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations).

If you decide to vote for one of the topics, please view your vote as also an RSVP for Wed Evening July 31 in the event your topic is selected (in other words -- no obligation, moral or otherwise, if a different topic is selected).

We will meet at the Salt Lake Library (210 East 400 South) unless there is UNANIMOUS agreement to meet elsewhere for the convenience of the RSVP’s.

We look forward to seeing each of you on Wed Evening July 31.

Your friend,

John K.

PS – This e-mail is being sent to our 158 members individual-by-individual for reasons explained in the materials in the second section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org labelled “Possible Topics for Future Meetings” with respect to Topic No. 3 above (“Political Censorship by Major E-mail Providers (including censorship against our organization)”).

PPS – If you plan to watch the Presidential Candidate Debates next week, you might be interested in whether the candidates are asked the questions that were sent to the Debate Moderators (cc: the candidates) by our Global Warming - Thorium Fission Working Group. A copy of what was sent to them (and a Washington Post article on the position of the various candidates on nuclear power) is available at http://discussingliberally-saltlake.org ... dfd7#p2456.

PPPS – To unsubscribe, please press “reply” and type “deletion requested.”


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From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@yahoo.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Regular E-mail
Subject: Resumption of Regular Monthly Meetings – Solicitation of Focus Book Suggestions
Date: Sat, June 15, 2019 – 5:25 am MDT and 6:35 am MDT (software limit of 100/hour)
Attachments:
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Dear Friends,

As you may recall, Yours Truly has been taking another sabbatical for the last 11 months in order to write another book, this one on the topic of “The National Audubon Society Executes Great Salt Lake Death Warrant.”

[During the 11 months of “irregular order” we have had 3 Ad Hoc Meetings and 2 Working Groups, one of which has been extremely active – details in the 5th section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “Another John Karls Sabbatical To Write Another Book.”]

It is now time to resume the “regular order” of monthly meetings supported by such things as Short Quizzes and Suggested Discussion Outlines.

However, “regular order” means that the Focus Book for each meeting is selected by the attendees of the previous month’s meeting (with Yours Truly NOT voting except to break ties).

And, of course, our last regular meeting was 11 months ago.

We faced the same problem 5 years ago at the end of my first sabbatical, that one to write a book on the topic of “Inner-City Holocaust and America’s Apartheid ‘Justice’ System (In Honor of Jonathan Kozol and In Memory of John Howard Griffin)” – details about “Inner-City Holocaust” in the 3rd and 4th sections of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org.

We took a week for everyone to propose new Focus Books -- since, for example in the present case, some of the proposals from 11 months ago in the 2nd section of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org entitled “Possible Topics For Future Meetings” may address topics that have become a bit dated and there may be books published recently that address now-more-burning public-policy issues.

Following which all of the approximately 150 recipients of our “regular order” weekly e-mail were invited to vote for the new focus book.

Accordingly, each of you is invited to propose, by next Friday evening, a new focus book.

If you are not registered to post on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org, just e-mail your proposal to me and I will post it for you.

Next week’s pre-dawn Saturday e-mail (June 22) will contain a list of all of the proposals and an invitation to vote by the following Monday (June 24).

Those who have voted will be informed on Tues June 25 of the winner.

Which will afford 5 weeks for everyone to get the book and read it in time for a meeting on Wed Evening July 31. [Wed Evening July 24 is Pioneer Day in Utah.]

[The regular weekly pre-dawn Sat e-mail (June 29) will contain the first Short Quiz.]

If any of you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

We look forward to seeing each of you on Wed Evening July 31.

Your friend,

John K.

PS – To unsubscribe, please press “reply” and type “deletion requested.”

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