This
edition of the free
bulletin, World Wide Work, is published by
TheWorkSite.org.
New
and worth noting…
BOOKS Me
and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley by Ann Pancake (Counterpoint). One of America’s most compelling and
cliché-free fiction writers takes us deep into the lives of poor
people in her
native West Virginia in this collection of 11 novellas and short stories,
set
against a backdrop of a collapsing economy and corporate destruction of the
land. A
People’s Curriculum for the Earth edited by Bill Bigelow and
Tim Swinehart (Rethinking
Schools).
Teachers,
parents, and community groups can use this timely, 400-page collection of
articles, role plays, simulations, stories, poems, art, and other resources
for
teaching about climate change, energy, water, food, and
pollution. The Residue Years by Mitchell
S. Jackson (Bloomsbury). The writer draws
on his own experience in this revealing and unusually written novel about a
family caught up in the crack epidemic of the 1990s in Portland,
Oregon. The Knotted Bond
edited by Liz
Nakazawa (Uttered
Chaos).
More than 30 Oregon poets write about their sisters. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver (Blue
Rider Press). Dorothea
Lange’s photo
of Florence Owens Thompson, a migrant mother in California, became perhaps
the
most famous image of the Great Depression. This novel about the lives of
the
two women makes a good read as long as one isn’t too concerned with
what is
fact and what is fiction. The Great Transition by Lester
R. Brown (W.W. Norton). The transition
from coal, oil, and nuclear power to solar, wind, and geothermal energy is
happening faster than many people realize, but we must speed it up even
more. Out in the Union by Miriam Frank
(Temple
University). A thoroughly
researched
history from the 1960s to the current decade tells how LGBT workers used
unions
to advance their rights, including domestic partner benefits, AIDS
education
programs, and campaigns for marriage equality, as well as enjoying the
basic
protection a union contract can bring in the absence of legal safeguards. Under the Bus by Caroline
Fredrickson (The New Press). Increasing numbers of working women lack
living wages, paid leave,
affordable child care, or reliable schedules. A legal expert describes how
U.S.
labor laws fail to provide protection and points to some solutions. The Cost of Lunch, Etc. by Marge
Piercy (PM
Press). This collection of
short
stories includes a classic look at hoarding from the point of view of the
hoarder, as well as the memories of a woman who transported draft dodgers
she
didn’t know across the border to Canada during the Vietnam War. Continental Crucible by Richard
Roman and Edur Velasco Arregui (PM Press).
Big corporations and the richest 1% in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada have
used
NAFTA and immigration policy to make billions at workers’ expense. In
some
cases, workers have joined forces across borders to fight back. SOS – Calling All Black People edited
by John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez, and James Smethurst (University
of Massachusetts). The Black
Arts
Movement in the 1960 and 1970s emerged parallel to the civil rights
movement
and stimulated black expression in all the arts. This anthology provides
more
than 650 pages of material from and about that movement. Lens of War edited by J. Matthew
Gallman and Gary W. Gallagher (University of Georgia). 27 scholars who have studied the Civil War
from a
wide variety of viewpoints each selected a photo from the war and wrote a
short
essay reacting to that image and putting it in context. The result is a
well-designed book that provides far-ranging stories and insights even for
those who don’t have a special interest in that war or in
photography.
FILMS Tocando La
Luz. A
moving
documentary follows three blind women in Cuba who are struggling with how
to
achieve their dreams and maximize their independence. Wildlike. A
14-year-old girl whose family has broken down is
sent to Alaska to stay with her uncle, but he abuses her. She runs away and
encounters a man in his 60s whose wife recently died. Thrown together in
gorgeous Alaskan backcountry, they begin to find themselves. Cowspiracy. Industries that produce beef, dairy, and other
animal products do more
to speed up climate change and threaten water supplies than even the fossil
fuel industry, according to this powerful documentary. Yet, the leading
environmental
and climate action groups find these facts too hot to handle politically
and
rarely address the problem. 3½ Minutes. The
documentary’s title
refers to the amount of time it took for a white man named Michael Dunn to
confront
and then kill a 17-year-old black
youth,
Jordan Davis, in Jacksonville, Florida when Dunn felt Davis and his friends
were playing rap music too loudly in their car. Dunn tried to invoke the
state’s “Stand Your Ground” law that can allow murder if
you claim you believed
your safety was in jeopardy. Frame
by Frame. Taking photographs in Afghanistan often runs up
against cultural traditions and can mean risking one’s life. This
documentary
follows four of the leading Afghani photographers, including an
accomplished
female professional who concentrates on showing the lives of women in her
country. The
Hunting Ground.The makers
of the Academy Award nominee, The
Invisible War, about sexual assaults in the U.S. military now have
documented
the problem of rape on college campuses, featuring brave students who are
demanding action in the face of administrators’
cover-ups. Hotel
22. Public bus line 22 is the only 24-hour route in Palo
Alto. For years, homeless people have been allowed to board late at night
and
sleep until they are required to get off at dawn. A 9-minute short
documentary
captures the bitter reality these men and women face in the heart of
wealthy
Silicon Valley. White
Earth. Thousands of people have flocked to North Dakota to
work in the oilfields, living through harsh winters in makeshift trailer
camps
without basic services. A stark, 20-minute short documentary explores this
experience from the point of view of three of the children, as well as a
Mexican immigrant mother trying to keep her family together. Food
Chains. Immigrant tomato
pickers in Florida, united as the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers, have enlisted consumers to help put pressure on major
grocery and fast food chains that control the industry to take
responsibility
for how farm workers are paid and treated. A
Will for
the Woods.Embalming or cremating bodies of the dead are not
sustainable practices in the age of climate change, according to this
documentary. In some places, the money that would be used for that is
shifted
to support preservation of natural spaces. The film focuses on one
man’s
experience with this new approach.
MUSIC Violets
Are Blue by Rani Arbo and
Daisy Mayhem. This talented
band
presents songs about love that often tend more toward realism than romance,
with
titles like “You Should See Me Now,” “I’m Satisfied
With You,” and “Sweet &
The Bitter.” Backyard
Garden by Earthworm
Ensemble. L.A. musicians
combine for
13 spirited songs for young people about gardening, bees, compost,
recycling,
and more. Inside
Llewyn Davis. Classic
folk songs from the soundtrack of the movie about an aspiring performer in
the
1960s.
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