the faces of occupation

thought i'd share some beautiful photos from my cousin serving in afghanistan, as part of an "Effects Working Group" that conducted a site visitation at a school in kabul and where a new wing of the school was built with US army funding. let's hope we end this occupation soon, but continue the progress of building schools and infrastructure in this beautiful country. understood that the true effects of war and rebuilding this country are in the people of afghanistan and are reprsented in these photos.

see more photos by my cousin and the "official" story at the department of defense website. sift through the propaganda if you will.

if you haven't heard of greg mortenson and his mission to educate children in afghanistan and pakistan, take a look at three cups of tea. this is the real thing.

we are what we eat.. uh oh!

after reading naomi klein's the shock doctrine and no logo, i picked up stuffed & starved at bluestockings bookstore in the lower east side. a friend had raved about it, and naomi klein called it "the product of a brilliant mind and a gift to a world hungering for justice."

what else can we do besides make smart choices at the local health food store or shop at the local farmers market? choosing smart food products feels just as impossible as choosing stuff not made in china, vietnam, the phillippines.

reading UC berkeley professor raj patel's investigation into the global food network inspires, upsets and informs. tracing the history of the world food system's ills and abuses, he also reports on the success of powerful collective groups of farmers who are taking back their land and humanizing the food production process.

his conclusion contains the heart of his argument and his plan for us to rebalance what we eat and how it's produced. he asserts several theoretical changes to get us active, thinking and sharing what we know:

1. transform our tastes -- wean ourselves from the sugar, salt, fat and processed products that food corporations push on us & learn to savour food differently. patel suggests the companies who "benefit most from the food system's inequities" must be held accountable. taxing processed food is a start to put pressure on agribusiness, just as removing soda and candy vending machines from schools (nj) or banning transfats (nyc) sends a strong message from public health advocates.

2. eat locally & seasonally -- buy local products, avoid those superstores/walmarts, and support locally owned businesses as much as possible. local food will taste more fresh than food that is treated to travel long distances. it will cost less and have a lower impact on the environment.

3. on a much broader level -- directly understand the human element of where and how our food is produced, and support farm workers rights and living wages for all. shouldn't we all have access and wages to afford higher priced fair trade and organic food?

Maxed Out

This is one powerful film. If you have not seen it you should, fast (while you cut up your credit cards). It is about the takeover of our government by corporations in part, but also how entrenched every politician is & cozy in bed with these companies and that the 2005 Bankruptcy Law (which the new Vice Presidential nominee Senator Biden voted for) was a sham and a giveaway to credit card companies (the law was written by MBNA).

It shows how the system is stacked against the common person and how we simply all are a tragedy away from losing everything. It shows that when these tragedies do strike the credit card companies and collection agencies could care less about you, so they sell your debt to anyone with a penny. I was one of those people when I lost almost everything due to a terrible car accident (I got lucky and sued the fuckers). For years afterward I had scum bags calling me because they said I still owed them money (although I didn't).

Electing a democratic president will not change this fact, get rid of your debt or stop these companies from funding our government. Here is the trailer. You can also read the book "Maxed Out."



Roll Call vote for the Bankruptcy Bill, Senator Clinton did not vote though she supported an earlier version and Senator Obama did vote against it as most democrats did, but not Senator Biden.

Slavery By Another Name

Slavery By Another Name is the story of slaves after the civil war who "journeyed into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation and then back into the shadow of involuntary servitude." And reveals among other things modern companies who benefited most from "neo-slavery."

I am reading a book with a similar theme right now based a violent criminal in the New York State Penetentiary that a journalist traces his roots back to slavery. It is an exhaustive account of this man's family, Willie Bosket and the treatment of America to his family from the Revolutionary war to modern times. An astounding achievement. All God's Children.

Regardless, there are still books to be read that explain the violence against African-Americans in this country and this is another one. Watch Bill Moyers interview the author. Great work by Mr. Moyers as usual.

Dreams From My Father

I am reading Obama's first book, Dreams From My Father, that is a poignantly honest book about finding out who he was...about race...mixed race...and truly about what made the next President of the United States. It is a more important book than the Audacity of Hope because it is about what made him, it is more honest and it is before he had any real notoriety at all, i.e. before the 2004 convention speech.

In this short excerpt he writes with an understanding I have never (and I mean never) heard from a politician. An understanding that is truly remarkable, how poor communities perish under the capitalistic tendencies in this nation and abroad; destroying neighborhoods forever...he writes about his days community organizing and the destitution he witnessed and how it is the same everywhere, it just looks different. He weaves his childhood in with the work he does along with the feelings of loss and loneliness he feels and weaves a poetic look at our nation. You should read this book.

"It was the absence of such coherence that made a place like Altgeld [Gardens] so desperate, I thought to myself; it was that loss of order that made both Rafiq and Mr. Foster, in their own ways, so bitter. For how could we go about stitching a culture back together once it was torn? How long might it take in this land of dollars?

Longer than it took a culture to unravel, I suspected. I tried to imagine the Indonesian workers who were now making their way to the sorts of factories that had once sat along the banks of the Calumet River, joining the ranks of wage labor to assemble the radios and sneakers sold on Michigan Avenue. I imagined those same Indonesian workers, ten, twenty years from now, when their factories would have closed down, a consequence of new technology or lower wages in some other part of the globe. And then the bitter discovery that their markets have vanished; that they no longer remember how to weave their own baskets or carve their own furniture or grow their own food; that even if they remember such craft, the forests that gave them wood are now owned by timber interests, the baskets they once wove have been replaced by more durable plastics. The very existence of the factories, the timber interests, the plastics manufacturer, will have rendered their own culture obsolete; the values of hard work and individual initiative turn out to have depended on a system of belief that's been scrambled by migration and urbanization and imported TV reruns. Some of them would prosper in this new order. Some would move to America. And the others, the millions left behind in Djakarta, or Lagos or the West Bank, they would settle into their own Altgeld Gardens, into a deeper despair."

a bright vision for the future-- essential reading

from symposia books in providence, RI (a wonderful bookstore we discovered a few years ago), a book i want to get... i briefly knew chris carlsson (friend of a friend) when i lived in san francisco in the mid 90s, he started the critical mass bike ride phemon, every friday in the city...

Chris Carlsson, the author, will be at symposia on monday may 19th for an in-store reading...

Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-lot Gardeners are inventing the Future Today!

"Chris Carlsson is one of our most original and compelling voices of radical social change in America. Nowtopia opens a window onto today's vibrant subcultures of technical experimentation and cooperative work, in everything from biofuels to bicycling, gardening to the webworld. More than tinkerers and bohemians, these renegade innovators are pioneers of new ways of living beyond the market and ordinary jobs. Carlsson moves effortlessly from tales of personal liberation to a trenchant analysis of the reconfiguration of class. Nowtopia is a ringing appeal for the liberation of human creativity from the noose of wagework--before it's too late."

-Richard Walker, Prof. of Geography, University of California, Berkeley, Author of The Capitalist Imperative

new jersey local boy = literary bad boy

growing up in oakland, new jersey, who knew someone from our boring suburban enclave would become such a literary bad boy? maybe you don't know him, but you should... jonathan ames.

a graduate of indian hills high school (though he graduated several years before me), jonathan ames has become quite the literary star (and he was almost a TV star on showtime but the pilot didn't expand into a series)... now he's delving into the graphic novel format (with illustrator dean haspiel who illlustrated the quitter by harvey pekar, an amazing story)... i couldn't be happier! see a recent story/other illustration collaboration "next door neighborless" here.

more about mr. ames on wikipedia... thanks for making new jersey proud... and showing that the typical suburban upbringing is not so predictable!

here in a publishers weekly article, he discusses his new book:

The Alcoholic ended up as a graphic novel (published by Vertigo, which recently announced a plan to put more focus on original graphic novels) through Ames's friendship with artist Dean Haspiel, a fellow Brooklynite. "I was sitting in a cafe in Brooklyn,” Ames said, “and he came up and introduced himself to me, said he was a fan of my writing, and then we fell in love, and eventually adopted several children. We were kind of like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, except nobody knew it," Ames joked. More seriously, he added, "After meeting at the cafe, we became friends. One of those rare after-age-35 new friendships."

a bird's eye view-- THE AVIAN CODE

just when i thought the joy of reading and books was lost on the younger generation to the tech world of video games, ipods, wii, etc., i realized a good story will always find a home (even if that requires self-publication)! this weekend i picked up a new book, courtesy of my co-worker at legal services. we often talk books but this one is near and dear to his heart. written by his son, brendan when he was just 11 years old, the avian code captures a piece of the wild... from the viewpoint of birds, specifically a peregrine falcon, an osprey, an arctic tern and a swallow-tailed kite.

brendan knows a lot about birds, their diets and migratory patterns... he recently won second place as the young birder of the year 2007 and first place in the writing category from the american birding association.

in his first book, brendan imagines in clever, witty details the society of birds. when their book, the avian code, filled with the laws and rules governing the avian world, is carelessly stolen and discarded by the human children, a band of feathered heroes takes flight to recover it.

a string of close calls and adventures awaits the rescue team... and along the way, they encounter their worst enemies... the humans (hunters, children who trample on nature, TV watchers), a roving gang of cowbirds, and also the evil rogue shrike.

i enjoyed the interesting details about each type of bird, their descriptions, habits and avian vocabulary which are intertwined with the adventure story (the author provides explanatory notes for avian terms). more importantly, brendan addresses the theme of humans versus nature, and how humans treat their environment. whether describing the hunter who shoots the falcon or the children who throw stones & hunt the birds for fun, he brings a voice to the avian world: "maybe someday all people will get brain-washed from television and forget to pollute our lovely environment," hopes katie aka katrina, the prairie falcon who joins the rescue team.

brendan, now 15, remains an avid birdwatcher and expert on avians... what next? avian code: the series... keep writing brendan!

jersey junot wins the pulitzer prize!

still haven't read the brief wondrous life of oscar wao that takes place in various locales of jersey including paterson and the rutgers campus???? what are you waiting for? it's officially one of my top 5 books...

junot diaz, jersey boy and rutgers alum, has won the pulitzer prize for fiction... read more about junot on the rutgers website and alumni news page. for more details about his childhood in old bridge, his recent "rome" prize and other thrilling details, see yesterday's star ledger article.

here's a snippet for our jersey readers:

New Jersey, a state worth discussing. Though much of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes place at Rutgers and in the Dominican Republic, a variety of New Jersey spots, from the Woodbridge Center mall to Wildwood, also get the Díaz treatment. “The same way I wanted to document the lives of my friends that nobody seemed to care about, that no one seemed to notice,” he says, “I also wanted to document a state which is the place where I learned to be human, to be an adult. That landscape helped shape my perceptions, my opinions, my vision of the world. It launched me into the world. On top of that, you feel like no one’s doing it, and you think, well, no competition.” No competition? What about Philip Roth? What about Díaz’s contemporary, Tom Perrotta? “It’s not that it’s not being done,” Díaz notes, “or hasn’t been done, it’s just that there’s so much more work to do. It’s a state worth discussing.”

COFFEE FIX

having started a new work gig today and losing some of my freelance freedom, i already am jonesing for my "eli special banana mocha coffee drink." i miss it terribly, the taste, foamed milk design, bittersweet aroma, the warmth of the cup, ah! see one of eli's masterful creations above...

well i just might have to get this book to cheer myself up...

from the joe newsletter: CAFE LIFE NEW YORK

There have been several books released this fall in which Joe has been mentioned, as well as a number of great books written by Joe regulars. Last week, a very special book came out and anyone who loves coffee bars in New York will want to check it out: Sandy Miller has published Cafe Life New York, a comprehensive guide to the many cafes of the Big Apple. Organized by neighborhood, the book includes a full chapter (with beautiful color photos) about Joe, as well as many other stellar Gotham coffee bars: Gimme, Ninth Street Espresso, Grumpy, and Gorilla, just to name a few. We'll be selling the book at our shops, or you can also purchase it through the publisher: http://www.interlinkbooks.com/.

and, joe goes green!!!!!! hurrah!

We've been working hard in recent months to make sure that we are running as environmentally friendly a business as we can. We took a great step last month with our new composting program--that's right, now instead of throwing away coffee grounds, fruit rinds, boxes, and old pastries, hundreds of pounds are collected from us every night by a special company that converts the compost into fertilizer. We've started the program at Waverly and will add the other shops on January 1st.

Texas' Feminist Bookstore Faced with Closure

It seems like only yesterday that I brought news of another woman owned business closing up shop in Austin, Texas. Sadly, I have more news. Texas’ only feminist bookstore is being forced to close up shop if it can’t raise $50,000 by mid-December – that’s just around the corner, kids.

I have such great memories of BookWoman. I remember when I was young and my mother returned from a trip to Austin sporting a new shirt she got from the local women’s bookstore (the pic on the left was what was on the shirt). I was in awe. I didn’t know there was such a thing. I had never even thought about feminism much less the need for a space for women’s work. When I moved to Austin a few years later for school, BookWoman became one of my favorite places. I bought some of my first feminist theory books there, perused the music section and attended many organizing events.

Needless to say, I’m certain that BookWoman is important to many, many other Texans – young, old, male, female, most importantly feminists. Do what you can to help them find a more affordable space and keep their doors open. Learn more about their struggle and donate a little scratch.

THREE CUPS OF TEA

a friend of mine (coffee barista melissa from mola) recommended a book three cups of tea to me a few months ago. i got it from three lives bookstore right away then put it on my shelf of to do reading. and finally last week, i dived in and read it through. three cups of tea tells the story of greg mortenson (see photo at left) and his mission to educate children in remote areas of pakistan and afghanistan as a way to promote peace. mortenson, a former mountaineer and K2 climber, stumbled upon a rural village when he lost his track down the mountain. and so began a new journey and life's work for him as a builder of schools in areas where the taliban holds strong. he asserts a simple goal: provide schools and non-religious based education for children in remote, impoverished areas to combat terrorism and extremism.

for over a decade, mortenson has faced incredible obstacles (kidnapping, treacherous working conditions, death threats after 9/11, lack of funds, meetings with the taliban, fatwas against him by mullahs and a meeting with rumsfeld) and ultimately flourished. he runs the central asia institute "to promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia."

at times i wondered how he pushed forward despite the adversity and impossiblity. mortenson always thought about the families he first encountered in korphe, pakistan and how the village cared for him when he was lost and near death. yet the book, written by mortenson and david oliver relin, doesn't get too maudlin or pull at your heart shamelessly. mortenson is that rare person who commits to changing the world and never stops. i'm planning to donate this week to CAI. read for yourself and be inspired. don't we all need that now?

to do: make your TO DO list

we all have our secret and not-so-secret to do lists. even though my treo contains a lot of my to do stuff, i still scribble down mini-lists throughout the day. well here's a gal who blogged about lists, collected lists and now has published a book. she invites folks to send her their lists to preserve the dying habit. should i share my obsessive, completely trite tasks for preserving?

see the promo...

...sugar sugar...

halloween is approaching. candy has been packed in the aisles at CVS since labor day. can we munch on chocolate without the guilt of sugar's history? i don't think so. last year i read sweet and low by rich cohen where he detailed his family's history of sugar substitute fortune. more guilt about the sugar trade and production, as well as our addiction to sweets. i basically have stopped eating "regular" chocolate. i've switched to fair trade or organic brands (dagoba, yum) and i would never look back.

i found some icky facts about sugar production from the green guide but also lots of fair trade treat options for the holiday:

Pesticides and fertilizers used in the production of sugar have led to the destruction of aquatic ecosystems. The loss of topsoil to cane fields has destroyed forest habitats. But sugar's sins start with the slave trade, as Europeans brought captured Africans to work in the cane fields of the Caribbean throughout the 18th century, where slaves died in greater numbers than in the U.S. Sadly, this legacy hasn't come to an end: The chocolate trade has encouraged forced labor in Africa as cocoa farmers sell their product at prices well below what they can afford.

Forty-three percent of the world's cocoa is produced in the Ivory Coast, where over a quarter of a million children work on cocoa farms without access to education and apply pesticides without adequate safety gear, conditions deemed abusive by the International Labor Organization. A staggering number, as many as 12,000 children, are likely to be forced laborers. Much of the impetus behind the use of child labor stems from insufficient income for cocoa producers. In 2002, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture found that cocoa revenues in West Africa average between $30 to $100 U.S. dollars per household member per year. To compensate, cocoa farmers seek out cheaper labor and resort to higher-yield sun-grown cocoa beans, which require significant deforestation. Because sun-grown beans are more susceptible to pests and diseases than those grown in shade, farmers use heavy doses of hazardous pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

The Goods

Divine Chocolate, partially owned by the farmers of Kuapa Kokoo, sells 100 percent fair-trade-certified chocolate. Pass out bite-sized milk chocolate eggs ($6.50/200 pieces; http://www.lwr.org/). Or give kids a chocolate treasure. Global Exchange is carrying Divine's Fair Trade Gold Coins, which read "Ghana Freedom and Justice" on one side and "Fair Deal for Cocoa Growers" on the other ($3.99/22 pieces; store.gxonlinestore.org).

Visit http://www.divinechocolateusa.com/ to search for retailers by state.

Equal Exchange's organic and fair trade Dark Chocolate Mini's are available for a limited time this Halloween. ($12/68 minis; eeretail.stores.yahoo.net).

For whole chocolate bars, try Alter Eco's certified organic and fair trade chocolate ($4.29/bar; http://www.altereco.com/, 415-701-1212).

Beyond labor issues, help reduce environmental frights by choosing candy made from organic sugar, which is produced without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers with methods that conserve soil. Try the Candy Tree's Organic Mixed Fruit Toffee, sweetened only with organic fruit juices and corn syrup and containing no artificial colors ($2.89/2.6 oz bag of individually wrapped pieces, http://www.veganessentials.com/) and Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops, made with 100-percent natural colors and flavors ($2.69/bag of 15; http://www.veganessentials.com/). Or buy a pack of organic candy mix including organic gummi bears, lollipops, root bear float candy and milk chocolate ($28/80 pieces; naturalcandystore.com/c-natural-candy-mixes).

a chambermaid reading with author saira rao

it was a wonderful night... last night saira rao entertained us at our nyc chambermaid book party with true tales of judicial hell from her federal clerkship experience. saira answered questions from the group, mostly comprised of lawyers, such as, "well, how mean is mean?" saira shed some light on the most private branch of our government and expressed outrage at clarence thomas' latest attack on anita hill in his memoirs.

saira then read an excerpt from her book and some of the ex-clerks shared their own chambermaid tales. we had good food, drinks and shared much laughter... thanks saira!!

invite saira to your reading club or throw a book party for chambermaid. you'll have a chance to get a signed copy, ask saira for more inside scoop on absolute power and the justices, and learn more about the soon-to-be sheila raj (aka chambermaid) lifetime series.

Justice or not, Clarence Thomas is an Ass

It’s hard to miss all of the hullabaloo over Justice Clarence Thomas’ new memoir, My Grandfather's Son. It’s like nails on a chalkboard if you ask me.

I am appalled that a man that will go down in history as a conservative Supreme Court Justice (how exciting!), is such a whiny baby. I recently had a discussion with my girlfriend, who is an attorney, about it and she implied he had every right to be upset. Whenever I attack the Court, all my lawyer friends get up in arms about my lack of respect. I’m all for respecting the Court and those that sit on the bench, but I will still call an ass an ass, and Justice Thomas is an ass.

Thankfully, an Op/Ed contributor in the Washington Post agreed with me this morning. What a wonderful way to start the day!

Since her words perfectly sum up my thoughts of the man who sits on the high Court, I figure it’s easier just to paste them here:

Here is some of the evidence Thomas omits:
First, Hill did not wait 10 years to complain about his behavior. Susan Hoerchner, a Yale Law School classmate of Hill's, described how she complained of sexual harassment while working for Thomas, saying the EEOC chairman had "repeatedly asked her out . . . but wouldn't seem to take 'no' for an answer." Ellen Wells, a friend, said Hill had come to her, "deeply troubled and very depressed," with complaints about Thomas's inappropriate behavior. John Carr, a lawyer, said that Hill, in tears, confided that "her boss was making sexual advances toward her." American University law professor Joel Paul said Hill had told him in 1987 that she had left the EEOC because she had been sexually harassed by her supervisor.

Second, Hill was not the only former subordinate of Thomas's with complaints. Former EEOC employee Angela Wright described how Thomas pressured her to date him, showed up uninvited at her apartment and asked her breast size. "Clarence Thomas would say to me, 'You know you need to be dating me. . . . You're one of the finest women I have on my staff," Wright told Senate investigators.

Wright's account was corroborated by Rose Jourdain, a former speechwriter who, like Wright, was dismissed by Thomas. Jourdain said Wright had complained that she was "increasingly nervous about being in his presence alone" because of comments "concerning her figure, her body, her breasts, her legs."
Another former Thomas employee, Sukari Hardnett, said of his office, "If you were young, black, female and reasonably attractive, you knew full well you were being inspected and auditioned as a female."

Third, as Merida and Fletcher found, some of the behavior Hill complained about resonated with episodes from Thomas's past. Hill described an episode in which Thomas, drinking a soda, asked, "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?" James Millet, a college classmate of Thomas's, recalled "an almost identical episode" at Holy Cross. "Pubic hair was one of the things he talked about," another classmate said. Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, in "Strange Justice," found two others who recalled a pubic hair-Coke can comment at the EEOC.

It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy to walk down memory lane with the Justice. Aw…memories…how many women did this man harass anyway?! Mr. Thomas, I hope you enjoy your book royalties as much as you enjoy stripping away women’s rights, civil rights and civil liberties.

9 questions for author saira rao

in between her book tour stops, saira rao addressed some of my burning questions about chambermaid. the subversive garden will soon be hosting a book party for saira in manhattan. for more info, please leave a comment on this post.



1. would you ever consider editing a book of all the clerkship stories? you have so many -- it could be a really fun project.

I think I am going to take a little breather from all things clerkship-related.


2. worst clerk story you've been told?

There are your run-of-the-mill sexual harassment stories. Tales involving judges who forbid their clerks from leaving chambers, even to attend funerals of family members. And then there's the one about molesting chickens.

3. was there one major reason or event that pushed you to write this book?

While clerking, I was struck by how little we, as Americans, know about our federal judges--the revered third branch of our federal government. Why do we know every detail about the President and our congressional representatives -- down to what they eat for breakfast--- yet we know nothing, nothing AT ALL about our judges? This is particularly strange considering that the judiciary is the only countermajoritarian branch of our government. We don't elect judges, cannot remove them, they hide under big black robes, are bestowed with "Your Honors" and earn six-figure salaries for life. Aren't we entitled to know just a little about them?

4. this kind of story -- clerkship truths -- is the first of its kind, right?

There have been other books—Closed Chambers comes to mind—written by former clerks about lessons learned during their clerkship. Chambermaid, however, is the first book of its kind – one written by a former clerk that spotlights the human/personal/bizarre side of judges and the eclectic cast of characters surrounding them.

5. what broad themes does this book represent for you?

Broadly, Chambermaid illustrates how unchecked power can lead to a total loss of respect for other people and a failure of basic human decency. On another level, it highlights some of the issues that are common to women and minorities in the workplace.

6. as your book continues to get more popular, is it reaching new audiences?

It is reaching new audiences, namely lots of book clubs have started to read it. This is wonderful for a host of reasons – best of all ---it means that many non-lawyers are reading Chambermaid and those outside of the legal profession don't take the book so personally!

7. what was your best book reading so far and why?

I am not sure there has been a best…or a worst for that matter. Each reading/signing has been unique and interesting and it's been spectacular fun to meet so many new people – in different cities, jobs, age groups, ethnicities. I have enjoyed every second of it. Well, maybe every other second.

8. tell us about your next book project...

It's in flux right now, so I'll plead the Fifth for the moment.

9. last question, what are you reading right now?

A lovely collection of stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You, by Miranda July. I LOVED "Me and You and Everyone We Know".

read more Q and A with the author on the WSJ's law blog.

thanks saira!

zoopress studio from brazil

zoopress studio is a creation of my friend rosa who is a graphic designer. she and her husband renato studied the art of handmade books here in nyc at the center for book arts. after years of studying and handmaking books, rosa launched zoopress studio back in her home of rio de janeiro, brazil. see photo of her teaching a book binding class.

over the years, i've collected some of their journals and bought their photo albums for unique gifts. they've sent me samples & gifts, such as a small baby photo book of their son. see sketchbook detail above and baby book. the range of colors and detail of each book make these handmade items not only useful but a beautiful piece of art.

see more zoopress creations on flickr here.

claiming georgia tate-- a further discussion with author gigi amateau

in response to my CGT post, author gigi amateau has sent more thoughts she'd like to share about censorship and the media. she rightly questioned my statement about borders pulling the book... my research was limited to only a few stores in nyc/nj and some online reading about "racy" teen novels and some negative comments on amazon. perhaps they chose not to carry the book but have it available online which is what my research indicated. my apologies if i was not completely accurate... see the book's awards here. i've posted gigi's comments in full to keep the dialogue going strong... it just kills me that all reporting on this beautiful story targets and blames the victim... who is a child abused by her father.

"I really don’t know if Borders or any other bookstore has pulled Claiming Georgia Tate because of media’s misrepresentation of the story or for any other reason. I do believe the negativity that spun around my book caused booksellers and readers to be more cautious about it. Understanding any bookseller’s decision to carry or return any title is difficult and probably ultimately comes down to whether they think that title will sell or not. On the flip side, Books A Million (BAM), a chain that is very strong in the south, has been so loyal to this book because they immediately understood the positive and spiritual aspects of the story. Even when the book was getting hit kind of hard BAM hung in there with it and I am so thankful for that because I know it’s tough for big chains to take risks on titles like this one from new authors. That said the independent booksellers have really helped my book by hand selling it and giving it a home. In fact, in 2006 it was nominated for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Children’s Fiction Award.

During the height of all of this nonsense, I had a speaking engagement scheduled with a group of adult women. A day or two before I was scheduled to speak a representative from the group called me and requested that I not bring a bookseller with me as planned, not mention the rape that occurred in the book, and not read any section from the book that might contain strong language. I declined the new terms and cancelled the event but, the bookstore had ordered quite a few extra copies based on the expected turnout. I bought the books myself because the bookstore and I were in partnership together and it was important to me that the store not suffer financially because my book and I were censored.

For me it’s not about Borders or Barnes and Noble or BAM or anybody else, but geez what are we all so afraid of that we make it this hard to find one little ole book? And what are the other books out there that can’t even get into print or possibly get written because the environment today is so very tightly controlled? The Subversive Garden is such a critical voice in this conversation. Thank you for doing what you do."

banning "georgia tate"-- an interview with author gigi amateau

i rushed to pick up claiming georgia tate by author gigi amateau (thanks to a discussion with saira rao about the scathing, negative responses to her tell-all judiciary novel chambermaid), already knowing about the controversy surrounding her book. saira had explained that the book, intended for a teen audience, deals with incest, rape and a transvestite, set in the racially charged south. due to negative mainstream press, gigi's book was pulled from borders and other stores (curious, i couldn't find it in several barnes & noble so i ordered it from three lives bookstore).

one wall street journal article described gigi's first book Claiming Georgia Tate as "about a 12-year-old girl whose father pressures her into a sexual relationship." hmm, how's that for sugar coating incest and rape? i read the book in two sittings, emotionally exhausted yet feeling a sense of hope and kindness so lacking in our daily lives. young georgia tate's character represents survival, tolerance and strength in a world that marginalizes us by race, class and sexual orientation. something we should all want to read about.
i wrote to gigi in search of some answers about her book, the media fallout and how georgia tate has affected others... i found out she loves americorps (the domestic peace corps-- i served 10 years ago!) and still has her day job, as a program developer in the non-profit field for elder care & homeless services.

below are some excerpts from our conversation:

on the media: "I do believe that in the mainstream media ... my book and other good books, including Teach Me by R.A. Nelson were wrongly misrepresented as trashy, smutty books of poor literary quality. I also believe that this had an impact on booksellers and readers."

on "reclassifying" georgia's rape: "It outrages me that the rape that occurs in my book has been represented repeatedly as 'sex.' That’s wrong in a BIG way. What occurs in Georgia Tate, is child abuse. It is not consensual, nor pleasurable, nor is it between adults."

on the real message of her book: "I wrote the story to really dig into some ideas that I’m obsessed with: faith, hope, love, and my firm belief that God loves every-freakin’body. But now I’m proud to say it’s an issue book in the following ways: therapists who work with women who have survived sexual assault use Georgia Tate in groups because they say it helps bring women out of their isolation, prosecutors who work in juvenile court prosecuting child abuse cases have told me that this book helps them stay connected to the heart of their work, volunteers in the court appointed special advocates program use the book in their work, and I’ve heard from many readers who have survived trauma that reading this book reminded them of the people in their lives like Tamika, Nana, Leroy, and Granddaddy Tate – the people who saved them."

on the impact of the book's misrepresentation: "I basically wrote a book about God and it’s been blasted as a book about a girl who has sex with her dad. The other day I had an interviewer ask me how I could do this to teen-age readers. Yet, I also was unprepared for the tremendous outpouring of love and joy from book groups, helping professionals, and readers who really took the time to connect the positive message."

it's horrifying to see how the mainstream media commands such blatant control over ideas. and that by clouding the issues and labeling books as trashy, the media can censor what it deems as "smutty."

thanks gigi, for sharing your thoughts and writing this beautiful story of how to claim our own lives, despite every challenge.