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Biography and Memoir February 2020
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Feed Your Brain Tuesday, March 3 , 6pm Village LibraryIs your brain starved for better nutrition? Join us as we learn about foods that can help with concentration, mood regulation and mental clarity. A nutrition educator from Natural Grocers will share the secrets of a better brain at any age. Registration is required.
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Historically Speaking: Women's Suffrage Saturday, March 7, 2pm Downtown LibraryIn honor of Women's History Month and the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, join us to learn about the Women's Suffrage movement in Oklahoma. Our guest presenter, Dr. Jennifer Holland, will tell the story of how Oklahoma women gained their right to vote 2 years before the historic 1919 date and how the Suffragette Movement played out on the national scale.
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Book BingoWhether your New Year’s resolution is to improve your health, learn a new skill, or read more, the Library is hosting a program that may motivate you to do just that! On January 1, 2020, we're kicking off Book Bingo, a winter reading challenge for adults. Participants who read five books between January 1 and February 29, 2020 are entered for a drawing to win an eReader, tablet, or exclusive prize pack.
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African American Heritage
Search historical records for African Americans that include the Federal Census, Marriage and Cohabitation Records, Military Draft and Service Records, Registers of Slaves and Free(d) Persons of Color, Freedman's Bank, and more.
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African-American History Online
Covers more than 500 years of African-American history using biographies, primary sources, images, videos, timelines, maps, and charts.
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it is: a non-linear dual portrait of Roman author and naturalist Pliny the Elder and his nephew Pliny the Younger, a lawyer and senator.
Read it for: an illuminating glimpse into the tumultuous Roman Empire of the 1st century; insights into how the pair influenced future generations of scholars and thinkers.
Did you know? Charles Dickens drew inspiration from the Younger's work to create the character of Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What's inside: a chronological collection of six decades of correspondence written by National Book Award-winning author Ralph Ellison that offer an intimate glimpse into his life and career.
Why you might like it: Co-edited by Ellison's literary executor John F. Callahan, these previously unpublished letters are supplemented with richly contextualized introductions and footnotes.
Don't miss: Ellison's frequent musings to fellow black intellectuals Richard Wright and Albert Murray about life, work, and politics. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook and audiobook. Starring: Berlin-based Polish Jewish bookseller Françoise Frenkel, who fled the Nazis in 1939 and spent the next four years evading capture in occupied France.
Read it for: a nail-biting tale of courage and survival.
What sets it apart: Originally published to little fanfare in 1945 Switzerland, Frenkel's memoir lingered in obscurity until a copy resurfaced in 2010, leading to its English language publication nearly 75 years after its initial release. |
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| And Then We Grew Up: On Creativity, Potential, and the Imperfect Art of Adulthood by Rachel FriedmanWhat if? Years after her attendance at the Interlochen Arts Camp stoked her passion for a career as a violinist, author Rachel Friedman contemplates the path her life might have taken had she stuck with her childhood dreams.
Don't miss: interviews with Friedman's former Interlochen classmates exploring creativity, ambition, and identity.
Is it for you? Readers who've felt conflicted about their life's path or the weight of expectation will find much to relate to in this reflective chronicle. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it's about: how "Honored Madam" Mary Ball Washington's prickly relationship with her eldest son George Washington shaped him as a man, politician, and president.
Who it's for: readers seeking fresh perspectives about figures on the periphery of history.
Reviewers say: "a sharp and fully dimensional view of the singular Mary Bell Washington" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani PerryWhat it is: a revealing biography of acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun playwright and social activist Lorraine Hansberry.
Topics include: Hansberry's conflicted views on her privileged upbringing; career beginnings writing for Pan-Africanist newspaper Freedom; brushes with the FBI; her closeted sexuality.
Why you might like it: Library Journal calls this concise and engaging portrait "a must-read for fans of black and queer history." |
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| Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray by Rosalind RosenbergStarring: lawyer, activist, and first black woman Episcopal priest Pauli Murray, who, among other accomplishments, inspired Thurgood Marshall's arguments in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and co-founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966.
Read it for: a poignant portrait of a complicated figure grappling with identity -- though Murray used she/her pronouns throughout her life, she also unsuccessfully sought hormone therapy in the 1930s and is embraced today as a transgender icon.
Try this next: Readers looking for insights on Murray's life in her own words will want to check out her candid memoir Song in a Weary Throat. |
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| Digital editions: always available as a hoopla audiobook. What it is: a sweeping and thought-provoking biography of Alain Locke, the first black Rhodes Scholar and father of the Harlem Renaissance.
Awards buzz: The New Negro won the National Book Award in 2018 and the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.
Is it for you? Weighing in at over 900 pages, Jeffrey C. Stewart's extensively researched work doesn't shy away from Locke's flaws, like his penchant for misogyny or his willingness to indulge his patrons' racism for his own financial gain. |
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| Digital editions: available as an Overdrive ebook. What it is: a graphic biography of abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass, based on his writings and narrated by the man himself. Art alert: Damon Smyth and Marissa Louise's detailed illustrations empathetically convey the characters' struggles and emotions.
Reviewers say: "This thoughtfully crafted portrait will delight and inform, regardless of readers' prior knowledge of Douglass's life and legacy" (Library Journal). |
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| What it's about: how six men and women -- all former slaves or children of slaves -- became millionaires in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Featuring: Mississippi teacher O.W. Gurley, who developed Tulsa, Oklahoma's affluent Black Wall Street; cosmetics and hair care entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker, soon to be portrayed by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer in the Netflix series Self Made.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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