Arlington Public Library

Authors

Video: Author Talk with Mike Curato

Author of “Little Elliot”

Watch now: https://youtu.be/LI64sMbM6jc

Arlington Public Library welcomed Graphic Novelist and Illustrator, Mike Curato, to discuss his body of work, books, his process and journey. Curato is the author and illustrator of everyone’s favorite polka-dotted elephant, “Little Elliot.” This book series has won several awards and has been translated into over ten languages. Mike has the pleasure of illustrating and contributing to other titles by other authors. Mike has won several awards and more recently, his debut young adult graphic novel, “Flamer”, was awarded the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Young Adult and the 2021 Massachusetts Book Award for Middle Grade/Young Adult.

Recorded June 7, 2023.

Video: History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

With Local Author and Historian Charlie Clark

Watch now: https://youtu.be/2m-9t8UznbQ

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials. There may be some lessons to be learned by looking into our own local history.

Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions are answered in Clark’s illustrated talk, presented in partnership with the Center for Local History.

A longtime journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, Charlie Clark writes the weekly “Our Man in Arlington” column for the Falls Church News-Press. He has just published his fifth book, a memoir of adolescence titled “My Gap Year–Reinterpreted.” Last year he published “George Washington Parke Custis: A Rarefied Life in America’s First Family,” with McFarland Books. With the History Press, he has published “Lost Arlington County, Arlington County Chronicles,” and “Hidden History of Arlington County.” In July 2019, he retired as senior correspondent for Government Executive Media Group, part of Atlantic Media. He previously has worked as an editor or writer for The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Time-Life Books, Tax Analysts and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He lives in East Falls Church with his wife Ellen.

 

Video: Melissa Márquez, Shark Scientist

Author of the “Wild Survival” Kids’ Adventure Series

Watch now: https://youtu.be/f_-gQ2tX4GQ

Márquez is a marine science education expert, currently finishing her doctoral degree at Curtin University. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Mexico, Melissa has worked at the forefront of marine science education and communication for over a decade, hard at work combatting the misinformation that’s rampant in ecological fields — and paving the way for Latina women like her in science.

Márquez is also the author of the “Wild Survival” kids’ adventure series.

 

Video: Celebrate Pride with Author Alex Myers

June 13, 2022 Pride Month virtual talk with author and transgender educator Alex Myers.

Watch now: https://youtu.be/qmbYwJRDlD8

Alex Myers, author and transgender advocate, discusses his work to help communities become more gender inclusive. Myers teaches English at Phillips Exeter Academy. Since coming out as transgender in 1995, he has worked with schools to help them support transgender students and become more gender inclusive. Myers is also a novelist whose work explore gender, identity, and history. His novels include “Revolutionary,” “Continental Divide,” and “The Story of Silence.”

Alex Myers most recent book, “Supporting Transgender Students: Understanding Gender Identity and Reshaping School Culture” is a guide to help schools learn the basics of what gender is and why it matters in education.

Video: “Off Our Chests” Author Talk with Dr. John and Liza Marshall

A surprisingly open memoir co-authored by the married duo of a world class oncologist and a cancer survivor about love, pain, hope, strength and resilience while navigating the overwhelming breast cancer advocacy movement.

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/5JPqRkpBzp4

About the Authors:
Liza Marshall left her law practice in 2005 to focus on her family and Hope Connections for Cancer Support, of which she is a founding member. In 2006, at the age of forty-three, Liza was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer, the most deadly form of the disease. Throughout her treatment and beyond, Liza has been an active volunteer at Hope Connections and other local non-profits, serving on boards, directing development campaigns, and supporting a variety of communities and missions.

John Marshall is a medical oncologist and a professor at Georgetown University, and an internationally recognized expert in gastrointestinal cancers and the development of new treatments for cancer. He has been outspoken on controversial issues in cancer research, including his criticism of the dominance and success of breast cancer advocacy and research at the unfortunate expense of other specialties.

About the Interviewer:
Bethanne Patrick is a Washington Post book reviewer and the editor, most recently, of “The Books That Changed My Life: Reflections by 100 Authors, Actors, Musicians and Other Remarkable People.”

Video: Marcia Chatelain, Author of “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America”

Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans, fast food restaurants like McDonald’s have long symbolized capitalism’s villainous effects on our nation’s most vulnerable communities. But how did fast food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods in the first place? In “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who—in the troubled years after King’s assassination—believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality. With the discourse of social welfare all but evaporated, federal programs under presidents Johnson and Nixon promoted a new vision for racial justice: that the franchising of fast food restaurants, by black citizens in their own neighborhoods, could finally improve the quality of black life. Synthesizing years of research, “Franchise” tells a troubling success story of an industry that blossomed the very moment a freedom movement began to wither.

Marcia Chatelain is a scholar, speaker, and strategist based in Washington, D.C. She teaches courses in African American life and culture at Georgetown University. When she’s not in the classroom, she’s on the road, talking to audiences about our nation’s pressing and pervasive social issues, including racism, universities and the history of slavery, as well as activist movements.

Video: Arlington Reads with Emma Brown

An Arlington Reads Signature Author Event.

A discussion of “To Raise a Boy,” a journalist’s searing investigation into how we teach boys to be men—and how we can do better.
In the course of her reporting in the wake of the #MeToo movement, Emma Brown interviewed hundreds of people—educators, parents, coaches, researchers, men, and boys—to understand the challenges boys face and how to address them. What Brown uncovered was shocking: 23 percent of boys believe men should use violence to get respect; 22 percent of an incoming college freshman class said they had already committed sexual violence; 58 percent of young adults said they’ve never had a conversation with their parents about respect and care in sexual relationships. Men are four times more likely than women to die by suicide. Nearly 4 million men experience sexual violence each year. “To Raise a Boy” combines assiduous reporting, cutting-edge scientific research, and boys’ powerful testimonials to expose the crisis in young men’s emotional and physical health. Emma Brown connects the dots between educators, researchers, policy makers, and mental health professionals in this tour de force that upends everything we thought we knew about boys.

More to Explore: Author Rebecca Traister

Did you catch our conversation with Arlington Reads featured author Rebecca Traister? You still have time!

The interview will be available until Thursday, April 15 on:

March 18 Rebecca Traister

During the conversation, Ms. Traister discusses her latest book “Good and Mad,” the story of female fury and its cultural significance, demonstrating its crucial role in women’s slow rise to political power in America, as well as the ways that anger is received when it comes from women as opposed to men. 

More to Explore

If you are interested in learning more about the women and historical moments featured in “Good and Mad,” we have curated a book list, which spotlights the works of Gloria Steinem, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alicia Garza, and many more.

Good and Mad Book List

Take a deep dive into Traister's work with this YouTube playlist featuring speeches and conversations referenced throughout “Good and Mad.”

  1. Leymah Gbowee Discusses The Role of Women OnThe Front Lines of Peacebuilding   
  2. Myisha Cherry Anger is not a bad word TEDxUofIChicago
  3. Patrisse Cullors and Angela Davis TimesTalks
  4. Emma Gonzalez's powerful March for Our Lives speech in full
  5. Congresswoman Lee’s AUMF Speech on 9/14/01
  6. Shirley Chisholm Declares Presidential Bid, January 25, 1972
  7. 1970s USA Women's Liberation Rally with Gloria Steinem
  8. Michelle Obama on being called an "angry black woman"
  9. Audre Lorde on Radical Care and Political Warfare
  10. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman” Performed by Kerry Washington

Learn more about upcoming Arlington Reads events and watch previous Arlington Reads conversations.

Arlington Reads

Video: Multiracial Coalitions in the Civil Rights Era

The Poor People’s Campaign, held in Washington, D.C., during the spring of 1968, has long been overshadowed by the assassination of its architect, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the political turmoil of that year.

But while the campaign did not achieve its lofty goals — including a rededication to the War on Poverty and an end to rampant police brutality — it did prove to be an illustrative moment of a “long” civil rights movement that highlighted the essential yet oft-forgotten objective of economic justice and everything that entailed. This multiracial campaign also shed lights on the interdependent relationship between racial identity and political coalition among African Americans and Mexican Americans. While the fight against poverty held great potential for Black-Latino cooperation, such efforts also exposed the complex dynamics between the nation’s two largest minority groups.

Presenter Gordon K. Mantler is Executive Director of the University Writing Program and Associate Professor of Writing and of History at the George Washington University. Mantler has taught writing and history since 2006 at GW, Duke University, and Guilford College in North Carolina. Since 1999, Mantler has specialized in the history and rhetoric of 20th century social justice movements and the African American and Latino experience in the United States, as well as public, oral, and film history. He has received numerous awards and grants, including financial support from the Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library.

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