Thoreau Center Brown Bag - Social Media Discussion

In the news:

• Bing and Facebook form a partnership to bring your social network into your search results.
• President Obama answers your questions from Twitter.
• Malcolm Gladwell claims that Twitter and Facebook cannot be used to change the real world, angering Clay Shirky and activists around the world.
• Google’s new exec in charge of location-based and local services loves Foursqaure.
• While Ning launches a new service to create highly customizable social websites and mobile applications that allow you to connect to them anywhere.

There are new developments in the world of social networking daily. Online social media has already changed the environment in which nonprofits, foundations, philanthropists, and social entrepreneurs operate in rapid, novel, and often unexpected ways. What does it all mean and where is it all going? This event is an opportunity to meet with other organizations and individuals working in the Thoreau Center for an informal lunchtime discussion about such issues. Learn about your neighbors' experiences with these new tools, share strategies and lessons learned, and hopefully have some of your questions answered.


Representatives from United Religions Initiative - @global_uri, and Tides - @TidesCommunity (and the library - @WholeEarthLib) have signed on to give brief presentations to get the discussion started, and if you have experiences, projects, etc. you would like to arrange to share, please contact John Bertland at library@thoreau.org. Otherwise just come with your ideas, thoughts, and questions and join in the discussion.

Thoreau Center Exhibition Opening Reception:

Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here

Art and readings about the 2007 destruction of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad, Iraq

Thursday, October 14
5:00pm to 7:00pm
Thoreau Center for Sustainability, San Francisco

On March 5, 2007, a car bomb exploded on Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 30 people and wounding over 100 others. As the center of Baghdad’s bookselling, Al-Mutanabbi Street was the heart and soul of the city. In April 2007, San Francisco bookseller and poet, Beau Beausoleil, and Al-Mutanabbi printmaker, Grendl Lofkvist, formed the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition, asking letterpress printers to craft a visual response to this attack.

And they did. Over a hundred printmakers submitted their own broadsides depicting Al-Mutanabbi Street’s thriving haven for artistic freedom and a place of civil discourse.

Join us for an evening of art, wine and storytelling in support of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition. The evening’s program will include an exhibition of artwork from many of the printmakers who created and donated their work to help support the progress of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition. Also, three printmakers will read from their own writings in response to this 2007 incident. The readers include Deema Shehabi - Palestinian- American Poet - Co-Editor of the anthology, "Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here"; Esther Kamkar - Iranian -American Poet - Contributor to the anthology, "Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here" ; Bettina Pauly - A California Printer - A Letterpress Contributor to the "Al-Mutanabbi Street Broadside Project"

Brown Bag events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

Thoreau Center Film Screening: "The Killing Seasons"

Presented by Director John Antonelli

Friday, October 8

12:30 pm

Pacific Room at Tides

Can wildlife conservation efforts go too far? Two African stories. Two white families. Two vastly different approaches: one ruthless, one collaborative. Two perplexingly different outcomes.

Filmmaking partners John Antonelli and Will Parrinello will screen their 20 minute rough cut of The Killing Seasons. Shot on location in Zambia and Swaziland, the film began as short segments about Hammer Simwinga and Thuli Makama, two Goldman Environmental Prize winners. Now, midway in the production, Antonelli is shaping the story in the edit room and planning another trip to Africa. This informal feedback session will help inform the filmmakers on their progress and guide them as they move forward.

Antonelli's Sam Cooke: Crossing Over was broadcast on PBS American Masters, which was just nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series.

Parrinello's most recent film Mustang: Journey of Transformation had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS.

For more information on the filmmakers, go to www.mvfg.com

Brown Bag events are free informal mid-day learning sessions hosted at Tides. Friends, neighbors and colleagues are welcome. Visitors, please sign in at the front desk.

New book donations from IFG

Thank you to the International Forum on Globalization for their recent donation of numerous books to the library collection, including the following diverse selection of books by some of their board members, staff, and other associates. Also be sure to check out the recommended book list they put together this month, part of our new series looking at what books Thoreau Center organizations are reading and recommending.

• Barlow, Maude. (2005). Too close for comfort: Canada's future within fortress North America. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
• Mander, Jerry. (1978). Four arguments for the elimination of television. New York: Morrow.
• Shiva, Vandana. (1997). The enclosure and recovery of the commons: biodiversity, indigenous knowledge, and intellectual property rights. New Delhi: Research Foundation for Science, Technology, and Ecology.
• Barlow, Maude, and Tony Clarke. (1998). MAI: the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and the threat to American freedom. New York, N.Y.: Stoddart.
• Korten, David C. (1995). When corporations rule the world. West Hartford, Conn: Kumarian Press.
• Broad, Robin, and John Cavanagh. (2009). Development redefined: how the market met its match. International studies intensives. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
• Goering, Peter, Helena Norberg-Hodge, and John Page. (1993). From the ground up: rethinking industrial agriculture. London: Zed Books in association with International Society for Ecology and Culture.
• Mander, Jerry, and Edward Goldsmith. (1996). The case against the global economy: and for a turn toward the local. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
• Daly, Herman E., John B. Cobb, and Clifford W. Cobb. (1989). For the common good: redirecting the economy toward community, the environment, and a sustainable future. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Paik, Koohan, Jerry Mander, and Hannah J. Bernard. 2009.The SuperFerry chronicles: Hawaii's uprising against militarism, commercialism and the suppression of the earth. Kihei, Hawai'i: Koa Books.
• Mander, Jerry. (1991). In the absence of the sacred: the failure of technology and the survival of the Indian nations. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
• Barnet, Richard J., and John Cavanagh. (1994). Global dreams: imperial corporations and the new world order. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Hertsgaard, Mark. (1998). Earth odyssey: around the world in search of our environmental future. New York: Broadway Books.
• Clarke, Tony. (2007). Inside the bottle: exposing the bottled water industry. Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Read-Out this Friday at Thoreau Center

Reminder: Banned Books Week Continues

There are still a few days left in Banned Books Week (September 25 - October 2), the annual celebration of your freedom to write and read what you want. That means that you still have time to write on our Banned Books Wall on the front of the library. Thank you to everybody who has contributed and be sure to check it out to find out what some of the Thoreau Center’s favorite banned or challenged books are.

And on Friday, be sure to stop by from noon to 2:00 pm for our first ever Read-Out: spend a few minutes at lunchtime reading aloud from banned or challenged books and listen to others do the same - it’s like an audiobook but without the iPod and no volume control, and a fun way to speak out against would-be censors. We will also be announcing the winners of the Banned Books Week essay contest we sponsored for our student neighbors just down the road at the Bay School, and hopefully (their class schedule permitting) one or more of them will stop by to read their essays. If you would like to reserve a time slot to do a short reading (5 minutes or so) please contact the library at library@thoreau.org. Otherwise, just stop by - we will have a selection of banned books on hand. Refreshments will be provided.

Not sure what has been banned or challenged? Here is the top ten list for 2009 as assembled by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom:

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: drugs, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
2. And Tango Makes Three , by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality
3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower , by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group
4. To Kill A Mockingbird , by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
6. Catcher in the Rye , by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
7. My Sister’s Keeper , by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things , by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
9. The Color Purple , by Alice Walker
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group
10. The Chocolate War , by Robert Cormier
Reasons: nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

And some additional resources to check out:

· Amnesty International commemorates Banned Books Week by highlighting the plights of imprisoned and persecuted writers around the world: Banned Books Week 2010

· No. 1 banned author Lauren Myracle writes about her experiences in Wednesday’s Guardian: Building bridges with the book-banners

· The Office of Intellectual Freedom’s informative blog.

· And, of course, there is a Facebook page.

Banned Books Week display

Our Banned Books Week display so far. Lots of room left.

Banned Books Week at Whole Earth Library

It is that time of year again - Banned Books Week! Held during the last week of September, this event celebrates one of the most basic human rights of any democratic society: the right of intellectual freedom. It is a reminder that ongoing efforts to restrict access to books and information continue to be a major problem for schools and libraries all over the country. Books are challenged for a wide variety of reasons, but the effect of a successful challenge is always to deprive people of the opportunity to learn, to read important literature, and to be exposed to new ideas and points of view different from their own. Opposed to such efforts to shield people from ideas or to shut down voices, intellectual freedom holds that the open and civil debate of a free society depends upon a well-informed citizenry with the freedom to read freely.

The Whole Earth Library will once again join libraries throughout the country in Banned Books Week which runs from September 25 until October 2. Look for the return of our interactive, appropriate technology Banned Books display on the outside of the library wall where everyone will be encouraged to write quotes from their favorite banned and challenged books or to just share their thoughts about intellectual freedom in other creative ways. In addition, due to popular demand, our second annual celebration expands this year in a few ways:

• We are sponsoring an essay contest for our neighbors at The Bay School of San Francisco, a private coeducational college preparatory high school just down the street in the Presidio. Students will be asked to write on the subject of intellectual freedom and a sustainable future.The winner will be announced October 1.

• On October 1, there will be a Read-Out! in the hallway in front of the library. That afternoon, from noon to 2:00 pm, come and read aloud a passage from a banned or challenged book. Or sing a banned song. Or act part of banned play. We can be flexible. Refreshments will be provided. If you would like to sign-up for a specific time slot in which to read, please email the library at library@thoreau.org

If you would like to learn more and discover what books have been banned or challenged in the United States, visit the American Library Association's lists of Frequently Challenged Books. 2008's most challenged book, And Tango Makes Three, is no longer at the top of the list for 2009, but you might be surprised by some of the books that have returned to the list. Regardless, you will find lots of inspirational reading ideas.

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; the American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and the National Association of College Stores. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.