World Wide Work bulletin - 2015 no.3

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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