Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: July 2022
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Wood from a Sun Valley water reservoir was repurposed by the Library for use as bookshelves, now holding a repository of knowledge. Photo: Steve Deffé
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A Cool Reservoir on a Hot Day |
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All of a sudden in mid-July the south-facing mountainsides blush red-purple, then turn to yellows and browns. We start looking twice at billowing clouds and watch the horizon for smoke. The bones of the Big Wood River – knobby boulders, broken branches – begin to protrude above the silky water. It is hot. We migrate toward lakes and sprinklers, pools, and patches of shade as the West sheds itself of any green pretensions.
But water leaves its mark even as it recedes, as do our attempts to hold it.
Decades ago, a few redwood tanks stored water along the edges of Sun Valley, shoring up reserves for the dry stretches of summer and fall. One tank squatted like the trunk of a behemoth tree – not unlike the redwoods from which its planks had been sawn – in a grove of thin-limbed aspens. The wood grayed; the water inside left shadowy rings where it leveled for a spell. Outside the tank, the aspens sighed and swayed their white boughs, clutching closer to the round walls as the years passed. Over time, the tank was abandoned. Local kids scaled the tank’s outer ridges, and the dry boards creaked as they climbed.
Eventually, the water tank was dismantled and its planks placed in storage, where they laid until they were reclaimed three years ago by The Community Library to be used for bookshelves throughout the stacks. Marked with memories of forests and streams, those water tank planks now hold a reservoir of stories and poems, histories and competing ideas, rants and fantasies...
...a respite through the seasons when the world feels brittle or one’s imagination is dry, or we simply want to drink deeply of wonder.
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Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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An Evening with Roxane Gay |
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"I could at least remind people that the world does indeed need
to change. That rage is entirely appropriate. And that there is
so much beauty in our lives." ~Roxane Gay
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By Martha Williams
Director of Programs and Education
Each July, during the month Ernest Hemingway was born and died, The Community Library recognizes his literary legacy by presenting a distinguished lecturer here in the Sun Valley area, a landscape that he loved for 22 years. This year, we were honored to welcome the phenomenal writer and cultural commentator Roxane Gay.
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Roxane Gay: Best-selling author, social commentator, and
one of today’s boldest and most celebrated thinkers
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Over the course of an hour on the Library’s Donaldson Robb Family Lawn, Gay shared her journey from writing stories on napkins as a young child to learning how to use her voice so that people would listen.
She spoke in her honest and witty and sharp voice and read to us two of her newest essays. The first was an incisive (and hilarious) pop culture critique on the new Top Gun movie - a piece that exemplified her later response to an audience question about how she conveys humor through her writing: “If we can laugh together, then perhaps there are other things that we can do together as well,” so humor becomes a starting point to help us talk to each other, she said.
The second reading was a more serious piece on this moment we are living in: a moment when school children in our country must be prepared to face unbearable violence in the classroom, when Black Lives Matters protestors take to the streets, when books (including hers) are being banned, and when legislators are called on to take action but take none. In speaking directly of the Uvalde, Texas, shooting, she said: “It’s important that we know what happened, that we name it, that we never forget.”
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She gives me hope that we each have such a bold voice inside ourselves; but while we look for our own words,
we can rely on hers and those of other powerful writers.
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Gay emphasized the importance she places on saying, meaning, and doing the same thing. “I also just write about the state of the world that we’re living in. A world that I think is increasingly complicated and increasingly fraught and painful for a lot of people. And, so, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we say, what we think, and what we do, and how often times there are a lot of differences between those three things.”
Yes, the words writers put forth have limits, she acknowledged. “Words matter, but they can only do so much. Words have to work in concert with action and a deep and sustained investment in change.”
This beautiful dance of words and action is reflected in all that Gay writes—from novels and short stories to essays, podcasts, graphic novels, and more. She knew early as she found her voice that she wanted to write for real people, not just other academics, people she shared experiences with and those she didn’t.
“I understood that my work probably wasn’t going to change the world, but perhaps I could at least remind people that the world does indeed need to change. That rage is entirely appropriate. And that there is so much beauty in our lives.”
Gay believes we pay a price for not saying and meaning and doing the same things. Working together, these efforts “bend toward a better future” for everyone. And while the price of such work may seem high to some, she advocates that it is more affordable than being silent.
There is a great joy in hearing a writer read their work, especially as we gather together at the Library. It’s especially joyful when those words speak to a common humor, and painful but revelatory when they speak to common pains. We invited Roxane Gay to be this year’s Hemingway Distinguished Lecturer because her words give voice to these commonalities, despite all that may separate us.
She gives me hope that we each have such a bold voice inside ourselves; but while we look for our own words, we can rely on hers and those of other powerful writers.
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Recommended Titles from Roxane Gay |
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For its 2022 Hemingway Distinguished Lecture, The Community Library welcomed author and cultural critic, Roxane Gay. Here are a few of her titles in adult fiction, nonfiction, Spanish, and YA—
all free with your Library card!
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by Roxane Gay
in print, ebook
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by Roxane Gay
in print, ebook, eaudio
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by Roxane Gay
in print, ebook
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by Roxane Gay, et al
in print
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by Roxane Gay
in print, ebook, eaudiobook
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by Roxane Gay
in ebook/Nook
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by Roxane Gay, et al
in print
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Recommended Titles from the
Community Speaker Series
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byImbolo Mbue
in print, eaudio, ebook
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byImbolo Mbue
in print, eaudio, ebook, CD
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Herald from the Hemingway House |
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“During my time as a Fellow at the Arizona State University Social Transformation Lab, I have had many learning opportunities.
"Now, as I reflect upon my time at the National Immigration Forum and begin to think about new work on the horizon to strengthen our democracy as part of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the opportunity to serve as a Hemingway Writer-in-Residence could not have come at a better time.
"Through its stewardship of the Hemingway House, thoughtful public programming and incredible support for the entirety of the community, the Ketchum Community Library is a treasure. I am incredibly grateful for
the time I spent in Ketchum.”
~Ali Noorani
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Ali Noorani joined us in June to discuss his book, Crossing Borders: A Conversation on Reconciling our Nation of Immigrants. He was joined by Bob Naerebout of the Idaho Dairyman's Association and Zeze Rwasama of the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in a conversation about immigration in southern Idaho.
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Struggle, Survival, and Success:
Reflections of a Daughter of Immigrants
by Diana Sabrina Muñoz, Summer Programs Intern
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This is my third time interning here at the Community Library, and I honestly have never been so excited for a program [as Crossing Borders with Ali Noorani, above].
As the daughter of immigrants, who traveled here to the United States from both Guatemala and Mexico over 20 years ago, I have personally seen the struggles of being both a legal and illegal immigrant, in not only my own family but among my peers. I have also experienced firsthand the privilege of being a United States citizen. . .
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THANK YOU to Our June Donors
for Supporting the Stories of the Library
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Anonymous (3)
Margaret and Stewart Adam, Jr.
Susan Alban
Jolene and Thomas Beckwith
Hillarie and Taylor Brigode
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Maryanne and Dick Davis
Jenny Emery Davidson and Mark Davidson
Julie Firestone
Elaine and John French
Geri Herbert
Horizon Foundation
Wendy and James Jaquet
Craig A. Johnson
Jeanne and Luke Knecht
Gina Knox
Patricia McClung and Allen Morgan
Holbrook Newman and Geoff Isles
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Linda Jensen and Robert Nimmo
Barbara and David Rognlien
Alexis and Michael Rowell
Gail and Robert Smelick
The Bundy Family Foundation
–Christina E. Carroll
The Bundy Family Foundation
–Kristin E. Orr
The Frankel Family Foundation
–Janet Reider & Thomas Frankel
The Judith and Marshall Meyer Foundation, Inc.
The Lehman Foundation
–Barbara and John Lehman
Charlotte Unger
von der Heyden Family Foundation
–Ellen and James Gillespie
Jeff Walker
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Jennifer and Douglas P. Biederbeck in memory of Inge-Lise Eckmann Lane
Mila and Marty Lyon in honor of Marshall Meyer
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Robyn and Todd Achilles
Big Wood Landscape
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelley Weston
Claudia and John D. Gaeddert
Kyla Merwin
Elaine H. and Michael T. Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
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The Community Library is supported by people who believe in the free flow of news, entertainment, and information.
It’s never too early to start planning to make a gift from your IRA (also known as IRA Charitable Rollover Gifts). Money can be transferred directly from your IRA to a 501(c)(3) charity, such as The Library, TAX-FREE! Donors must be 70½ years of age, and a gift from an IRA helps you meet your Required Minimum Distributions.
Strategize now to save on next year’s taxes. Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, is here to assist you.
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