April 2021 News
Dear Friends,

This spring is marked by a flurry of activity as vaccine rollouts continue. In a period of so much change, it's helpful to find a place of stillness. We start this month's newsletter from such a place, with a poem that reminds us of our mission and the value of building beloved community.

We all have the same little bones in our foot
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.
(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—
find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)
Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.
Maybe we should give more honor to feet
and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—
communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.
Events with Mindy Fullilove
“We the People: Reframing Social + Spatial Justice”
Friday, April 2, 2:00 PM EDT

Register to hear Dr. Mindy Fullilove, author of Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All, in the last installment of this virtual series, which explores how major political events will reframe social and spatial justice ideologies and practice for architects, urban planners, preservationists, real estate developers, and academics. Hosted by University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Main Street Now Conference
Monday, April 12 – Wednesday, April 14

On Tuesday, April 13, Mindy Fullilove will participate in the virtual Main Street Now conference hosted by Main Street America. She will host a special session delving into the ways Main Streets can help us make meaningful change in our communities.

Conference attendees receive a 25% discount on all of Mindy Fullilove's titles through the end of April!
Author's Forum on Urbanism

Watch Mindy Fullilove discuss Main Street in an interview with Kennedy Smith hosted by the Congress of New Urbanism.
Social Medicine from the South Panel

Listen to a panel discussion with Mindy Fullilove on rethinking relations frequently described as "North/South" in social medicine. Hosted by The Global Social Medicine Network.
Jane Jacobs's Lecture: Main Street Stroll & Scroll

In the second program in the Center for the Living City’s Jane Jacobs Lecture series, a panel discussion including Mindy Fullilove investigated the role Main Streets play in cities. Watch on the Center for the Living City's website.
Jane Jacobs's First City Launch
Tuesday, May 4, 6:30 PM EDT
Theater at Lackawanna College, Scranton, PA
Ticketed but free

Join us for the launch of Jane Jacobs's First City: Learning from Scranton, Pennsylvania, a Jane Jacobs Lecture hosted by the Center for the Living City. On what would have been Jane Jacobs's 105th birthday, author Glenna Lang will give a slide presentation at the theater at Lackawanna College, formerly Central High School, which Jane Butzner (later Jacobs) attended. With Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.

Registration to attend the event virtually will be available soon at observescranton.org.
"Jane Jacobs’s First City is a brilliant work of scholarship that convincingly shows how Jane Jacobs’s canonical works developed in the historic, mid-sized city of Scranton. . . . The overwhelmingly new material, brilliantly contextualized, will have a lasting impact."
— Peter Laurence, Clemson University, author of Becoming Jane Jacobs
Tuesday, May 4 – Saturday, May 8

The Center for the Living City will host a week-long celebration of Jane Jacobs's life and legacy in her hometown of Scranton, Observe Scranton: Jane Jacobs's First City. Events will include book readings and signings with Jane Jacobs's First City author Glenna Lang, Jane Jacobs Walks throughout Scranton, and exhibits on Jane Jacobs's life, her work, and the history of Scranton.
Forthcoming in July: In the Struggle
In the Struggle: Scholars and the Fight against Industrial Agribusiness in California
by Daniel O'Connell and Scott Peters

Available for preorder now, In the Struggle brings together the stories of eight politically engaged scholars, documenting their opposition to industrial-scale agribusiness in California.

"Daniel J. O'Connell and Scott J. Peters put us in conversation with the scholars who were pivotal in pulling back the curtain on California agribusiness. . . . It is rare for a work of scholarship to be so moving. This is one of those books." — Gerald Torres, Yale School of the Environment, Yale Law School
Conversation with Margaret Randall
Wednesday, April 7, 8:00 PM EDT

Margaret Randall, author of My Life in 100 Objects, will join writer Martha King in conversation, connecting as authors of recently published memoirs tracing artistic community, action, and liberation through the seismic changes of the last half century. With deeply felt documentation, King and Randall articulate closely related stories of will, vision, and friendship that have shaped avant-garde work and life. Register here.
Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts Signing
Thursday, April 29, 1:00 PM EDT
Melba's Po'Boys,1525 Elysian Fields Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117

Melba's Po'Boys is giving away free, signed copies of Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts to the first 100 customers who purchase a plate lunch or po'boy. Special guests include authors Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight.
Visitors Anniversary
Ann Snitow's memoir Visitors: An American Feminist in East-Central Europe describes her adventures helping to build a feminist movement in post-Communist Europe.

Reading like the best historical novel, it is intimate and worldly, resolutely unsentimental yet finally, even as the political skies darken, optimistic in the conviction that feminism can make life meaningful, fascinating, fun, pleasurable—and better for everyone, even as better is redefined again and again.
"Richly informed, emotionally centered, beautiful written, Visitors is a book to be read by all who crave a deeper understanding of the times in which we live." — Vivian Gornick
Remembering the Triangle Fire
On March 25, 1911, 146 workers, many of them Jewish and Italian immigrant women and girls, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. In commemoration of the 110th anniversary, the Workers United held a virtual event in celebration of their workers today who continue to fight for social and economic justice. Watch the recording here.

NJCU Center for the Arts hosted a virtual panel addressing the question of the relevance of the fire in the contemporary world. The event was moderated by Edvige Giunta, Italian scholar and author of the forthcoming book, Talking to the Girls: Intimate & Political Essays on the Triangle Fire (New Village Press, March 2022). The recording will be available soon on the NJCU Center for the Arts website.
More News
Sharon Danks on Outdoor Learning

Sharon Danks, CEO and Founder of Green Schoolyards America and author of Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, discussed her work on the Pophealth Week Podcast. Listen here.

She was also recently quoted in a story by CBS News, "Schools Without Walls: Lessons in Outdoor Learning."
Recommended Listening

Last month, several of our authors were included in podcasts. Follow the links below to learn about the promise of cultural work, racial justice, and environmental justice.

Carl Anthony and Paloma Pavel, were recently honored with the Thomas Berry Award, presented to selected individuals who have modeled Berry’s great work in their teaching, writing, or public service. Carl Anthony is author of The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race and Paloma Pavel is co-author of Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty.