Book Discussion Group Meeting

The Human Rights Council is hosting a national day of action on Thursday, April 28th in support of transgender youth.

Come join us for the launch of our new literary series, Recommeded Reading Night! For this inaugural edition, we've invited local authors to talk for 10 minutes each about their favorite books of the year!

The Ladydrawers Comics Collective, joined by Femicomix Finland, will get you ready for the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo (CAKE) with a series of performances, readings, games, and possibly interpretive dances from international comics creators that will show you how to make comics The
Ladydrawers Way™. You will also be able to peruse the debut of our new anthology, How To Draw Comics The Ladydrawers Way™! By the end of the evening you will definitely know how to draw comics The Ladydrawers Way™!*

*Education not guaranteed.

BIOS:
Aino Sutinen produces infocomics, strips, documentary, and autobiographical comics and some short stories. She also works as press officer at Finnish Comics Society in Helsinki.

Anna-Leena Kankaanpää uses comics to empower herself and, hopefully, others. She publishes comics online for a health organization and her superpower is stashing tons of
material for all her great publications to come.

Anne Elizabeth Moore is a world-traveling cultural critic and comics journalist. She is the author of Unmarketable and Cambodian Grrrl, and chief cat-herder of
The Ladydrawers Comics Collective.

Delia Jean is an artist and cartoonist from the North Side of Chicago with a passion for teaching, a knack for drawing, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She's a frequent collaborator and organizer with The Ladydrawers Comics Collective.

Johanna Rojola is a comics artist and teacher from Helsinki. She's an active member of the Femicomix Finland.

Hanna-Pirita Lehkonen is a feminist comics artist and an activist from Vantaa, Finland. She specializes in educational comics, youth work and body positivity.

Ray Swanson is a non-binary zinester, comicker,
and militant crafter located in Chicago. Their work focuses on trans and queer themes and what it means to be"other." Also aliens, zombies, and space mermaids. 

Sheika Lugtu is a cartoonist, animator and printmaker. She lives on the internet and draws comics about food, cows and her life.

Taina Hakala is a selfmade artist working with comics, collage, drawing, photography. She organizes comics reading sessions and other network activities.

Femicomix Finland is a feminist network that organizes different kinds of events in Finland and around the world. 

The Ladydrawers Comics Collective is a diverse ("queer") group that conducts original studies on the impact of gender and race on economics in comics and other forms of cultural production, and releases their findings in comics both experimental and traditional. The group has a
monthly column on Truthout and has previously published work in Bitch, Annalemma, and Tin House. Their strips have been reviewed by Forbes, Jezebel, Hyperallergic, The Chicago Reader and The New York Times Magazine. The group's first book, Threadbare, is about the hidden connections between the garment trade and the sex trade, and comes out next year. Ladydrawers.wordpress.com

QueerReaders welcomes folks of all ages, genders,  identities and abilities who love to read queer-centric works. We read across genres, and focus on selections by queer
writers who are also people of color, transgender, sex workers, folks
with disabilities and other groups whose voices are often marginalized. 

We meet every third Sunday at 2pm at Women & Children First. 

Our upcoming book selections are:
March 22 at 2 pm
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
April 18th at 2 pm
The Summer We Got Free by Mia Mackenzie 

Co-sponsored by Chicago Books to Women in Prison and the Chicago
chapter of Black and Pink

Join an interactive book
discussion with Crystal Laura (Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the
School-to-Prison Pipeline) and Maya Schenwar (Locked Down, Locked Out:
Why Prison Doesn't Work and How We Can Do Better). The authors will discuss
the school-to-prison pipeline, the social forces that lead to incarceration,
the way prison breaks down connections between people, and the impact of prison
on families--including their own. They'll also touch on the crucial role that
books play for people in prison. Maya Schenwar is the editor-in-chief of
Truthout. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian,
Salon, the Nation, Mother Jones, and other publications.
Maya is the recipient of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Chi
Award and a Lannan Residency Fellowship for her writing on the impact of prison
on families and communities. Crystal Laura is an assistant professor of
educational leadership and co-director of the Center for Urban Research and
Education at Chicago State University and a volunteer teacher at St. Leonard's
Adult High School for formerly incarcerated men and women. Among her
publications are Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School-to-Prison
Pipeline and Diving In: Bill Ayers and the Art of Teaching into the
Contradiction (co-edited with Isabel Nunez and Rick Ayers). By day, she explores
teacher education and leadership preparation for learning in the context of
social justice with the goal of training school professionals to recognize,
understand, and address the school-to-prison pipeline. During the second shift,
she co-parents two marvelous boys who give her work in the field of education
particular urgency. Refreshments will be served.

Young Authors’ Club

Wednesdays, July 10 to August 14

4:30 to 6:30 p.m. (note new time)

Kids ages 9 to 11 are invited to explore their creativity, improve writing
skills, and have fun in this kids-only writing workshop. Based on the
successful Story Week® method of creative writing, young writers
will be led through a series of games, creative exercises, and guided
visualizations as they develop their own stories from first idea
through revision, culminating in a reading party for family and
friends. Club leader Kathie Bergquist has an MFA in Creative Writing
and teaches writing at Columbia College Chicago. She has two years’
experience teaching creative writing workshops for fourth to sixth
graders in Chicago Public Schools. Session fee is $275. For more
information or to reserve your spot, email Kathie Bergquist at
kathiebergquist@gmail.com. 

The Cure for the Common Book Group

Join Linda Bubon and Lynn Mooney (who, combined, have more than 30 years' experience leading book groups) for an evening of wine and cheese and a discussion of what's working, and what isn't, in your book groups. We'll compare strategies for selecting books, keeping discussions on track, and more. We'll also preview the best new books for book groups from publishers' spring/summer 2013 lists (and will be giving away advance copies of some of them!) Come prepared to share your experiences of great books and not-so-great ones. Email Lynn at wcflynn@gmail.com if there are any particular issues you're hoping we'll cover that night, and we will do our best to come prepared! 

A Kiss Means I Love You

Andersonville stays up late for the Late Night Andersonville festival!
For four hours, stores and restaurants will be offering great discounts
on distinctive gifts and delectable after-hours meals, plus

Andersonville stays up late for the Late Night Andersonville festival!
For four hours, stores and restaurants will be offering great discounts
on distinctive gifts and delectable after-hours meals, plus

This month's book is Portraits of a Few of the People I've Made Cry by Christine Sneed.

This is month's book is Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain

This month's book is On Lies, Secrets & Silence by Adrienne Rich (and book selection meeting)