Woodland Reads 2008 > Rexroad.com

Bob Salley just sent me the information on Woodland Reads 2008. It is below.

Get your copy and read with the rest of Woodland.

BTW -- I talked to a Palmdale City Councilman last night. He says that new Palmdale Librarian Paul Miller is doing well. I told Vice-Mayor Knight he was evil for taking Paul out of Woodland.

I now have the full schedule for the events of WOODLAND READS 2008, which will run from February 14 through 17.

   This year’s Woodland Reads program has, as its focus, the book MABEL MCKAY: Weaving the Dreamby Greg Sarris. Woodlanders in League for Literacy (WILL) inaugurated the program in 2002 with The Circuitby Francisco Jiminez and have followed up with a highly successful list of author-related events featuring:Epitaph for a Peach byDavid Mas Masumoto, The Kite Runnerby Khaled Hosseini, and Devil in the Detailsby Jennifer Traig. The idea is to have as many people as possible read the author’s work before his arrival so that our whole community is on the same page with that author when he arrives.

   Greg Sarris (Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, author and screenwriter) will visit both local high schools and Woodland Community College, speak at a luncheon at the college, speak at Yolo County Museum, and read and sign his books at The Next Chapter. After two days of events with the author, this year's program continues with weaving exhibits and demonstrations at the Yolo County Historical Museum in Woodland, out at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, and over in Winters, at the Winters Participation Gallery.

   This gives members of the community several chances to meet the author and to earn about native basket weaving ... it's both entertainment and educational. Read on.

FEB 14Thursday - aka Valentines Day (with the author)
    10amClassroom Talk at Pioneer High School
    12:00Author Luncheon & Talk  atWoodland Community College, 2300 East Gibson Road
                            in the Community Room - tickets are $20 (available now at The Next Chapter)
    2pmClassroom Talk at Pioneer High School
    4pmClassroom Talk at Woodland Community College
    7pmAuthor Reading & Book Signingat theNext Chapter Bookstore, 622 Main Street

FEB 15Friday (with the author)
    8amClassroom Talk at Woodland High School
    10amClassroom Talk at Woodland High School
    2pmMuseum Talk atYolo County Historical Museum(Gibson House)512 Gibson Road.

FEB 16Saturday
    9am-2pmNative Basket Weaving Demonstrationat theCache Creek Nature Preserve, 34199 County Road 20
    5-8pmNative Basket Weaving Demonstration at theWinters Participation Gallery, 18 Main Street, Winters
                - for class information on “Four Native American Basketry Techniques” by Kathy Wallace, call (530)-795-2009

FEB 17Sunday
    2pm -Native Basket Exhibition Reception & Openingat Yolo County Historical Museum(Gibson House) 512 Gibson Road

The Book (available NOW at the Next Chapter)
MABEL MCKAY: WEAVING THE DREAM
    A world-renowned Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman, Mabel McKay expressed her genius through her celebrated baskets, her Dreams, her cures, and the stories with which she kept her culture alive. She spent her life teaching others how the spirit speaks through the Dream, how the spirit heals, and how the spirit demands to be heard.
   Greg Sarris weaves together stories from Mabel McKay’s life with an account of how he tried, and she resisted, telling her story straight—the white people’s way. Sarris, an Indian of mixed-blood heritage, finds his own story in his search for Mabel McKay’s. Beautifully narrated, Weaving the Dream initiates the reader into Pomo culture and demonstrates how a woman who worked most of her life in a cannery could become a great healer and an artist whose baskets were collected by the Smithsonian. Hearing Mabel McKay’s life story, we see that distinctions between material and spiritual and between mundane and magical disappear. What remains is a timeless way of healing, of making art, and of being in the world.

Comments on the Book
“Wonderful, and urgently needed in these days of confusion over Native American identity and spirituality. . . . Vibrant testimony to the survival of American Indians and the power of the old spirits.”—Leslie Marmon Silko

“A significant book. It is not only about a person, but an entire culture.”— Santa Rosa Press Democrat

“A mesmerizing interplay of biography and autobiography. . . . A spotlight trained on the complexity, sadness, humor, and strength of modern Pomo people. . . . Ostensibly the ‘as told to’ biography of the eponymous late, world-renowned Pomo basket weaver, Mabel McKay is an honest, heartfelt testament. . . . McKay is a character in every sense of the term: wise, iconoclastic, demanding, a self-conscious author to the story of her own life. . . . To say that Greg Sarris does Mabel McKay justice is to say a great deal. He renders her story with respect and candor in a novelist’s prose. She comes to life in all her complexity.”—Michael Dorris,Los Angeles Times Book Review

“All the lean wit of a Castaneda tale, the lyric spark of the Black Elk translations, Weaving the Dream is a modern-day Indian classic.”
                                    —Kenneth Lincoln, author ofThe Good Red Road

The Author
GREG SARRISwas born in 1952 in Santa Rosa, California. Part American Indian, Filipino, and Jewish, Greg Sarris was adopted at birth and raised in both Indian and white families. He attended local schools through Santa Rosa Junior College, and received a B.A. in 1978 from UCLA. He worked in Hollywood as a model and actor before going to graduate school. He earned a Ph.D. in modern thought and literature at Stanford University in 1988. Also, he was a professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; and a full professor at UCLA for ten years. Greg Sarris is presently a college professor, author, screenwriter, and the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University.

Greg Sarris writings:

Novel
Watermelon Nights(1998)

Short story collections
Grand Avenue(1994) This collection also became a Robert Redford-produced HBO teleplay.
The Sound of Rattles and Clappers: a Collection of New California Indian Writing(1994) editor/contributor

Nonfiction
Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts(1993)
Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream(1994)
Approaches to Teaching the Works of Louise Erdrich(2004)

the History of WOODLAND READS          "Getting Everyone on the Same Page"

   An ambitious plan was hatched, back in 2001, to get every able person in Woodland to read the same book. Following programs in several major American cities, (WILL) Woodlanders in League for Literacy asked for public participation in an exciting effort to foster literacy, acceptance and respect. That first year, more than 1,200 people read The Circuitand met its very gracious author. The following year, David Mas Masumoto brought his knowledge and enthusiasm to the program. In 2004, WILL choseThe Kite Runner, and the author charmed the crowds with his wonderful novel of Afghanistan. In 2006, a Woodland native, Jennifer Traig, told her own humorous story withDevil in the Details. WOODLAND READS has a rich history of getting people together. Please join us this year.

WOODLAND READS 2008 is brought to you byWoodlanders in League for Literacywith help from theRumsey Tribe and Cache Creek Casino Resort,Friends of the Woodland Library,NVB Bank,Yolo County Historical Museum,Woodland Community College, Cache Creek Nature Preserve,Woodland Joint Unified School District and The Next Chapter.

Questions, call The Next Chapter at (530) 668-4620, or stop by the bookstore at 622 Main Street.

That's enough information for now.
Digest it ... Readthe book ... Come to the events.
Thanks for reading -John

The Next Chapter
Woodland's Independent Bookstore
622 MAIN, Woodland, CA 95695
(530) 668-4620
http://members.aol.com/nextchap

Comments

By jhsweetie@sbcglobal.net @ Monday, February 04, 2008 9:43 PM

Is Next Chapter or another Yolo County bookstore offering discount for purchase of this book in conjunction with the Woodland Reads program?

You must be logged in to post a comment. You can login here