August 31-September 1, 2019: August 2019 Recap

[A Recap of the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

August 5: Remembering Marilyn Monroe: Her Death: On the anniversary of Monroe’s tragic death, a MonroeStudying series starts with why that tragedy has become unnecessarily controversial.

August 6: Remembering Marilyn Monroe: Her American Origins: The series continues with three under-remembered, tellingly American details from Monroe’s early life and identity.

August 7: Remembering Marilyn Monroe: Her Films: Three stages of Monroe’s brief but impressively multi-layered filmography, as the series rolls on.

August 8: Remembering Marilyn Monroe: Her Marriages: How each of Monroe’s three marriages reflects different mid-20^th century American contexts.

August 9: Remembering Marilyn Monroe: “Candle in the Wind”: The series concludes with three ways Elton John’s iconic song captures key elements of Monroe in and beyond the myths.

August 10: Birthday Bests: 2010-2011: My annual bday series starts with 34 favorite posts from the blog’s first year.

August 11: Birthday Bests: 2011-2012: 35 favorites from year 2!

August 12: Birthday Bests: 2012-2013: 36 from year 3!

August 13: Birthday Bests: 2013-2014: 37 from year 4!

August 14: Birthday Bests: 2014-2015: 38 from year 5!

August 15: Birthday Bests: 2015-2016: 39 from year 6!

August 16: Birthday Bests: 2016-2017: 40 from year 7!

August 17: Birthday Bests: 2017-2018: 41 from year 8!

August 18: Birthday Bests: 2018-2019: And my newest bday post, 42 favorites from this past, 9^th year of AmericanStudying!

August 19: Cville Influences: Proal Heartwell: For my annual post-Charlottesville series, I focused on influences from my Cville childhood, starting with my favorite teacher.

August 20: Cville Influences: William Byers: The series continues with the man who taught me to swim and can teach us all about the histories of segregation and race in Cville.

August 21: Cville Influences: Four More Public School Teachers: Four more wonderful Charlottesville public school teachers and influences, as the series rolls on.

August 22: Cville Influences: Steve Cushman: Professional, poetic, and personal inspirations from my second favorite University of Virginia Professor.

August 23: Cville Influences: Satyendra Huja: The series concludes with the quiet influences of diversity and their potently loud effects.

August 24-25: Cville Influences: Bellamy Brown: The City Council campaign of a Cville peer helps me highlight how my own generation are adding our influences to the city and world.

August 26: Talking We the People: Early Talks: A series on book talks for my new book starts with how I shaped the ideas through early talks at a NH discussion group, the Gardner Museum, and FSU.

August 27: Talking We the People: Shirley Prison: The series continues with what was distinct about talking We the People in a prison classroom, and what was inspiringly the same.

August 28: Talking We the People: Needham Public Library: An amazing chance to talk about the book in the library where I wrote it (and my last three), and in front of the two young men who inspired it.

August 29: Talking We the People: Toadstool Bookstore: Three inspiring individual conversations at my most recent book talk, as the series reads on.

August 30: Talking We the People: Upcoming Talks: The series concludes with three upcoming talks that illustrate the breadth of spaces and audiences for which I’d love to talk We the People!

Next series begins Monday,

Ben

PS. Topics you’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!

August 30, 2019: Talking We the People: Upcoming Talks

[I’ve long been a fan of book talks, but since my most recent book, We the People: The 500-Year Battle over Who is American, is intended to be my most public yet, I’ve redoubled my dedication to talking about it anywhere and everywhere. Since I’m on sabbatical this fall and even more flexible, I wanted to take this week to highlight some of my prior and upcoming talks, as examples that I hope can lead to more such opportunities! I’ll travel and talk anywhere and am happy to pay my own way for the chance to share these stories and histories!]

On three Fall 2019 talks that illustrate the breadth of audiences/conversations with which I’d love to share this book.

1)      Boxborough Public Library: Along with independent bookstores like yesterday’s subject, the Toadstool, public libraries have been and remain one of my favorite venues for talks. I love everything about such talks, from the ethos of the institution to the consistently helpful staff to the diverse and engaged audiences, and I would do everything in my power to get to a library anywhere in the country. Currently I have one more library talk scheduled, at the Boxborough (MA) Public Library in early October, and I’m excited to share We the People there. But again, I’ll never say no to a talk at a library, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know or feel free to reach out to them directly!

2)      Southgate Women’s Circle Breakfast: Reading and discussion groups, like the New Hampshire one I highlighted in Monday’s post, offer a distinct kind of audience and conversation from most other spaces and talks, and I’d love to find ways to connect the book to more such groups and communities. I had the chance to speak at the Women’s Circle Breakfast a year and a half ago, and am excited to be returning to talk with this group once more, this time about connections between We the People and competing forms/visions of patriotism in America (likely the subject of my next book, for more on which watch this space!). I’ll say again, if you are part of or know of other reading/discussion groups for which you think We the People or related topics might be of interest, please feel free to pass those along!

3)      The Lillian E. Smith Center: Academic and educational settings and institutions will likely always remain a central destination for my talks, and rightly so—way back in the intro to my third book I called public scholarship a form of education, and I continue to believe that the two modes of inquiry and discussion are deeply intertwined. I’ve got a few academic talks in the works for the fall, but one that’s definitely on the schedule is my contribution to the Smith Center’s Symposium. My online friend (and soon to be in-person friend, finally!) Matthew Teutsch is the Smith Center’s new Director, and that’s just one more reason I’m beyond for the chance to learn more about Smith and her works, take part in this Symposium, and share my ideas of exclusion and inclusion as part of that conversation. Just one of the many reasons I’m very stoked for a fall full of book talks!

August Recap this weekend,

Ben

PS. Ideas or suggestions for future talks, in-person or online? I’d love to hear them!

August 29, 2019: Talking We the People: Toadstool Bookstore

[I’ve long been a fan of book talks, but since my most recent book, We the People: The 500-Year Battle over Who is American, is intended to be my most public yet, I’ve redoubled my dedication to talking about it anywhere and everywhere. Since I’m on sabbatical this fall and even more flexible, I wanted to take this week to highlight some of my prior and upcoming talks, as examples that I hope can lead to more such opportunities! I’ll travel and talk anywhere and am happy to pay my own way for the chance to share these stories and histories!]

On three distinct, equally inspiring conversations I experienced at my most recent book talk.

1)      An Early Engagement: As is my wont, I arrived significantly early at Peterborough’s wonderful Toadstool Bookstore for my talk this past Saturday afternoon. That perpetual earliness is both a blessing and a curse, but this time it was certainly more of the former, as my seat next to the display of my book and talk info meant that I was able to sell a couple copies before the talk began. That was much appreciated, but I appreciated even more my conversations with those potential readers, and especially one with a young man who is considering writing his own book (on why, contrary to popular stereotypes, millennials will save the US and the world). The conversation about writing, publishing, and many related topics offered an excellent reminder that the community of writers (past, present, and potential) is another vital form of solidarity for my work, and got the whole event off to a really inspiring start.

2)      A Cultural Context: The Q&A/discussion after the talk was, as has been the case with just about every talk I’ve ever given, the best part, as each and every audience member had an interesting perspective to add into the mix. But I was especially struck by the perspective of a woman who at a young age moved to the mainland from Puerto Rico, and was able to offer an analysis of the exclusionary definition of America from the point of view of someone (and a family and community/culture behind her) who has become part of the nation in every meaningful sense, yet still felt and feels that sense of separation. I’ve written in this space about the song “America” from the musical West Side Story, and how much it captures that insider-outsider dynamics when it comes to the Puerto Rican American community. But this audience member offered a far more personal, intimate, and thoughtful perspective on those questions, and I’ll carry that perspective with me in all future discussions of the book.

3)      A Present Problem: As I imagine will be the case at pretty much all my book talks, our conversation—before, during, and after the talk—was never too far removed from current events, and particularly from (to quote the title of my book’s Conclusion) “The Battle in the Age of Trump.” There’s a valuable therapeutic quality to such conversation to be sure, a sense of solidarity that is part of why I love giving talks and engaging audiences of all types; but I find that such collective connections of historical/scholarly topics to current events can also genuinely model practical ways to engage our present problems. I felt both those effects at many moments during this talk, but never more so than in my one-on-one conversations with John Willis, a retired professor and Peterborough resident who came to the talk wearing a “Make Racism Wrong Again” hat and a “Black Lives Matter” pin, and whose thoughtful historical and contemporary ideas more than bore out those adornments. As this series has consistently illustrated, my talks are always as much about the perspectives I hear as those I share, and John, like all the folks at the Toadstool, exemplified that inspiring balance.

Upcoming book talks tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Ideas or suggestions for future talks, in-person or online? I’d love to hear them!