OAKLAND, CA—On Saturday, February 23, New Village Press, will be showcasing its best books with a full day of author presentations, film screenings, and a free writing workshop at the Oakland Public Library's Temescal Branch. The New Village Press Book Circus is an opportunity for community members, artists, activists, organizers, academics, and writers to discover this nonprofit publisher and learn more about vibrant, grassroots work being done in the United States and beyond. With over 35 titles, New Village Press focuses specifically on creative, citizen-initiated efforts to build community in the face of seemingly impossible social, environmental, and economic challenges. The New Village Book Circus will cover exciting works that explore the fields of social justice, community building, urban ecology, participatory planning, and community-based arts. New Village titles will be available for discounted purchase, and some books will be free to attendees. The entire event is free and open to the public.
The first half of the Book Circus will consist of a participatory workshop on writing for social change. Activist, author, and educator Louise Dunlap (Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing) will share key tools for building the self-confidence and skill to write with "the power to shift attitudes, change policies, and restore sanity to a world gone mad." The workshop will run from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm and is open to writers and aspiring writers of all levels. Registration is not required, but recommended; contact pr@newvillagepress.net. (See the writing workshop event entitled Undoing Our Silences for more information.)
The second half of the Book Circus, from 1:15 pm to 5:00 pm, will feature presentations by local authors, artists, activists, and educators sharing their stories of community-building projects, as well as excerpts from films on the work of New Village and its authors. Discussion will include the revitalization of communities, the green schoolyards movement, the importance of community-based arts and education, the arts as a tool for conflict resolution, and the value of public spaces to community resiliency.
Featured presenters will include environmental justice pioneer Carl Anthony, writer and community culture and justice advocate Arlene Goldbard, performance and social justice author/editor Roberto Gutiérrez Varea, educator and author Judith Tannenbaum, and New Village Press founding director Lynne Elizabeth.
New Village Press's director will share her insight into the world of independent publishing, as well New Village projects beyond books. Carl Anthony, who has been a leading environmental justice activist since the 1970s, will be discussing the intersection of public commons, particularly green space, and community building—the subject of Karl Linn's book, Building Commons and Community. Arlene Goldbard, author of New Creative Community, will be sharing her extensive experience with community-based arts as a force for social change. Judith Tannenbaum, nationally respected educator, speaker, and author, will discuss the role of the arts within prisons, as exemplified by her and Spoon Jackson's joint memoir By Heart. Guest editor/author Roberto Gutiérrez Varea will present film and book excerpts from the international Acting Together Project about performance artists healing unspeakable trauma and conflict.
The film screenings will include excerpts from "A Lot in Common," "Green Schoolyards," "The Barefoot Artist," "By Heart," and "Acting Together on the World Stage." Following the morning writing workshop, afternoon presentations will be organized into themed blocks (see below Book Circus Schedule for program details). All events will take place in the Temescal Branch Library community room. The space is wheelchair accessible. Light refreshments will be served.
New Village Press Book Circus — Schedule
Saturday, February 23, 2013, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Oakland Public Library Temescal Branch Community Room
Address: 5205 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609
Phone: (510) 597-5049
Writing for Social Change Workshop and Introductions
10:00am–12:30pm
"Undoing Our Silences"—Free writers workshop conducted by author Louise Dunlap
Featured Book: Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing by Louise Dunlap
12:45pm-1:00pm
New Village intro film and welcome by Lynne Elizabeth, director of New Village Press
Revitalizing Community Spaces through Nature and Art
1:00pm–2:00pm
"A Lot in Common"—Feature film about creating community gardens and other shared spaces
Featured Book: Building Commons and Community by Karl Linn
Guest Author: Carl Anthony
2:15pm-2:30pm
"Green Schoolyards"—Short film about transforming school grounds into ecological oases
Featured Book: Asphalt to Ecosystems by Sharon Gamson Danks
2:35pm-3:00pm
"The Barefoot Artist"—Clip from feature film about the life of Lily Yeh and the Dandelion School
Featured Book: Awakening Creativity by Lily Yeh
Community-Based Arts
3:00pm–3:30pm
Guest Author: Arlene Goldbard
Featured Book: New Creative Community by Arlene Goldbard
Additional Books: Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts, Arts for Change,
Performing Communities, Works of Heart
Two-Person Memoir: Telling a Prison Story
3:30pm–4:00pm
"By Heart–Spoon Jackson"—Short film
Featured Book: By Heart by Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson
Guest Author: Judith Tannenbaum
Additional Book: American Tensions
Power of the Arts to Heal Conflict and Trauma
4:00pm–4:30pm
"Acting Together on the World Stage"—Clip from feature film about the Acting Together Project
Featured Book: Acting Together, volumes 1 & 2, edited by Cynthia E. Cohen, Roberto Gutiérrez Varea, and Polly O. Walker.
Guest Author: Roberto Gutiérrez Varea
Additional Book: Art and Upheaval
Community Resiliency: Fresh Perspectives on Urban Public Space
4:30pm–5:00pm
Featured Books: Beyond Zuccotti Park and What We See: Advancing Observations of Jane Jacobs
Additional Book: Service-Learning in Design and Planning
Books related to this event:
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Beyond Zuccotti Park Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space
2012 Edition
In the wake of the Occupy Wall Street movement, leading planners and social scientists examine public space today and freedom of assembly.
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Service-Learning in Design and Planning Educating at the Boundaries
2011 Edition
Urban planning and architecture educators challenge traditional community-university relationships by modeling meaningful and reciprocal partnerships.
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Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict Volume II: Building Just and Inclusive Communities
2011 Edition
Acting Together, Volume II, continues from where the first volume ends, documenting exemplary peacebuilding performances in regions marked by social exclusion, structural violence, and dislocation.
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Acting Together on the World Stage DVD and Toolkit Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict
2011 Edition
This feature-length documentary film of peacebuilding performances and interviews shows contributions of theater to justice, reconciliation, and coexistence. The DVD is accompanied by a toolkit of resources for educators, practitioners, and policy makers.
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Acting Together: Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict Volume I: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence
2011 Edition
Courageous artists working in conflict regions describe exemplary peacebuilding performances and groundbreaking theory on performance for transformation of violence.
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Awakening Creativity Dandelion School Blossoms
2011 Edition
Awakening Creativity shows in gloriously illustrated detail how Lily Yeh guides a participatory process of artistic expression that uplifts a distressed community. Her open, joyful approach to artmaking is a model for building healthy cultural esteem.
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American Tensions Literature of Identity and the Search for Social Justice
2011 Edition
This new anthology of contemporary American poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction, explores issues of identity, oppression, injustice, and social change.
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Asphalt to Ecosystems Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation
2010 Edition
Case studies from North America, Scandinavia, Japan, and Great Britain demonstrate natural outdoor teaching environments that support hands-on learning in science, math, language, and art in ways that nurture healthy imagination and socialization.
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What We See Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs
2010 Edition
An enlivening discussion of critical issues affecting our cities and economies, What We See revises the insights of urbanist-activist Jane Jacobs through the fresh observations of leading contemporary thinkers in many fields.
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By Heart Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives
2010 Edition
A two-person memoir that explores education, prison, possibility, and which children our world nurtures and which it shuns. At the book's core are two stories that speak up for human imagination, spirit, and the power of art.
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Arts for Change Teaching Outside the Frame
2009 Edition
Beverly Naidus shares her passion and strategies for teaching socially engaged art, offering, as well, a short history of the field and the candid views of more than thirty colleagues.
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Art and Upheaval Artists on the World's Frontlines
2008 Edition
Author William Cleveland tells remarkable stories from Northern Ireland, Cambodia, South Africa, United States (Watts, Los Angeles), aboriginal Australia, and Serbia, about artists who resolve conflict and heal unspeakable trauma.
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Building Commons and Community
2008 Edition
Building Commons and Community documents 45 years of the late Karl Linn's legacy creating neighborhood spaces for communities and by communities. In this richly-illustrated landscape-format hardcover book, Linn presents his philosophies and practical wisd
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Undoing the Silence Six Tools for Social Change Writing
2007 Edition
Undoing the Silence offers guidance to help both citizens and professionals influence democratic process through letters, articles, reports, and public testimony.
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Works of Heart Building Village through the Arts
2006 Edition
Citizen artists revitalize place, celebrate culture and inspire social change in this book of beautiful community-based arts projects. Nine communities from the United States and Canada show the genius, passion and practicality of their creativity.
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Performing Communities Grassroots Ensemble Theaters Deeply Rooted in Eight U.S. Communities
2006 Edition
Ensemble theater is one of the most vibrant, meaningful American performance forms today. It's more than art — it's a social movement.
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Beginners Guide to Community-Based Arts Ten Graphic Stories about Artists, Educators & Activists Across the U.S.
2005 Edition
Ten transformative local arts projects come alive in this illustrated training manual for youth leaders and teachers. This energetic guidebook demonstrates the enormous power of art in grass-roots social change.
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