4 days of all hits no misses of keynotes, interviews, panels, book recs, advice...   Highlights:  Day 1 Monday 5/22  an insightful and terrifying and motivational discussion of book banning as an attack on liberty with advice on combating it via local focus and the fact that 30,000 school board seats in the U.S. are opening up this fall  effective OverDrive/Libby strategies executed by savvy librarians  Day 2 Tuesday 5/23  memorable quote from Chuck D's lunch keynote conversation with Kelefa Sannen: "People listen with their eyes." Plus his STEWdio boxed set and naphic grovel play on words with graphic novel and so much more.  public relations, marketing, how not to get cancelled, redemption   Day 3 Wednesday 5/24  book recs!!!  Gloria Edim's (Well-Read Black Girl) conversation with Kim Coleman Foote about her fall release novel Coleman Hill from SJP Lit, including Sarah Jessica Parker Wade Hudson, Just Us Books co-founder, in conversation with Carolyn P. Yoder  Zib

Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western by Mia Mask  non-fiction  University of Illinois Press, February 2023  from the introduction:  Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western addresses the social and political relationship of western films from this [Civil Rights era] period to Black Power and African American liberation...  Because "Buck [and the Preacher]" and "[Black] Rodeo" [films] captured the shifting political zeitgeist, and still endure the test of time as politically and aesthetically progressive cinematic texts, this book-length study is titled: Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western .   The combination of preface and acknowledgments, introduction, five chapters that include reproductions of photos from some of the films mentioned, the appendix of the transcript of an enlightening interview between the author and Jeff Kanew, the director of the 1972 documentary "Black Rodeo" that inspired the book, t

  It's Mother's Day!  This day of celebration of the people who labor to bring forth life and nurture it is well-deserved by its recipients. It's also often problematic for a variety of reasons connected to personal choices, sacrifices, fertility challenges, grief, restrictive gendered expectations, sexual orientation...  Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate!  [images: 1. dvd case and dvd for "The Woman King" feature film and part of a Washington Post article about actress Lorraine Toussaint  2. two pages of Adinkra* symbols representing "learning" and "Mother Earth"   https://www.amazon.com/Adinkra-Alphabet-Asante-Symbolism-Inspired/dp/1733976744/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2WL8WU5AXVJTH&keywords=adinkra+by+united+black+writers&qid=1684089697&s=books&sprefix=adinkra+by+united+black+writers%2Cstripbooks%2C131&sr=1-1   *I'm not affiliated with this title in any way beyond gratitude to the author who gave me a copy of this clev

  Once again PGCMLS, the Prince George's County Memorial Library System, hosted a stellar event that featured an array of talented authors that live in outstanding Prince George's County!  Fiction, non-fiction, reading for adults, teens, children and everyone in between.  https://www.pgcmls.info/