As a former sheriff’s deputy and an African-American woman involved with community and educational efforts through Black Citizens and Friends, Janielle Westermire has a unique and very personal perspective on race relations and the Black Lives Matter protests that gripped the United States following the 2020 death of George Floyd.

Listen to Janielle Westermire’s interview and the other interviews in the Social Justice Archive, a part of the Mesa County Oral History Project.

Join us for Neighbors Night at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, in the Central Library Mesa Community Room.

David Combs and other members of Black Citizens and Friends will talk to kids and their families about Black History Month, which happens in February. Learn about the amazing accomplishments of African-Americans!

The Fruita for Equality Committee announced their 2022 meeting schedule. Meetings will start at 5:30 p.m. The meeting dates are as follows:

The February Fruita for Equality meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, at the Fruita Branch Library IdeaLab or virtually via Zoom.

Agenda:

Fiction - Echo Tree: the collected short fiction of Henry Dumas

"Championed by Toni Morrison and Walter Mosley, Dumas's fabulist fiction is a masterful synthesis of myth and religion, culture and nature, mask and identity. From the Deep South to the simmering streets of Harlem, his characters embark on real, magical, and mythic quests. Humming with life, Dumas's stories create a collage of midcentury Black experiences, interweaving religious metaphor, African cosmologies, diasporic folklore, and America's history of slavery and systemic racism.

Henry Dumas was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, in 1934 and moved to Harlem at the age of 10. He joined the Air Force in 1953 and spent a year on the Arabian Peninsula. Upon his return, Dumas became active in the civil rights movement, married, had two sons, attended Rutgers University, worked for IBM, and taught at Hiram College in Ohio and at Southern Illinois University. In 1968, at the age of 33, he was shot and killed by a New York City Transit Authority police officer." - Amazon.com

Fiction - The Jigsaw Man: Inspector Angelica Henry series by Nadine Matheson

A serial killer and his copycat are locked in a violent game of cat and mouse. Can Detective Inspector Angelica Henley stop them before it's too late? On the day she returns to active duty with the Serial Crimes Unit, Henley is called to a crime scene. Dismembered body parts from two victims have been found by the river.

The modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer, who has spent the past two years behind bars. When he learns that someone is co-opting his grisly signature, the arrangement of victims' limbs in puzzle-piece shapes, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

As the body count rises, Henley is faced with an unspeakable new threat. Can she apprehend the copycat killer before Olivier finds a way to get to him first? Or will she herself become the next victim?

Drawing on her experience as a criminal attorney, debut novelist Nadine Matheson delivers the page-turning crime novel of the year. Taut, vivid, and addictively sinister, "The Jigsaw Man" will leave you breathless until the very last page. - Description from the library catalog

Fruita for Equality is an initiative to promote and support equality, inclusivity, and diversity through meaningful conversations and action in the community. Collaborators in Fruita for Equality include Mesa County Libraries, Fruita Rotary, the City of Fruita, and Lithic Bookstore and Gallery.

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Contact Mesa County Libraries at 970-243-4442 or visit mesacountylibraries.org