Temple Book Club Discussion In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan September 25, 1:00 p.m., Paley Library, Lecture Hall 1210 W. Berks Street, Philadelphia, PA The New York Times called Michael Pollan’s latest book “lively and invaluable.” In Defense of Food (2008) takes on the food industry, proposing an answer to the question of what we should eat. He challenges the prevailing approaches to nutrition and proposes an alternative way of eating, informed by the traditions and ecology of unprocessed food. Join the Book Club for a discussion of this groundbreaking book.

April 17 1:00 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall The Temple Book Club presents a discussion with author and historian Peter Cole. Cole will speak on his book Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive Era Philadelphia (University of Illinois Press, 2007). Dr. Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University. His research focuses on the intersections of class, ethnicity, and race in U.S. History. Dr. Cole was born and raised in South Florida. He received his B.A. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Georgetown University. He has taught at Georgetown, Washington College, Western Maryland College, and most recently for two years at Boise State University. About the Book: For almost a decade during the 1910s and 1920s, the Philadelphia waterfront was home to the most durable interracial, multiethnic union seen in the United States prior to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) era. In a period when most unions, like many institutions, excluded blacks or segregated them, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was ideologically committed to racial equality. More than any other IWW affiliate, however, Local 8 worked to become a progressive, interracial union. For much of its time, the union majority was black, always with a cadre of black leaders, which included Ben Fletcher. Local 8 also claimed immigrants from Eastern Europe, as well as many Irish Americans, who had a notorious reputation for racism. In Wobblies on the Waterfront, Peter Cole outlines the factors that were instrumental in Local 8’s success, both ideological (the IWW’s commitment to working-class solidarity) and pragmatic (racial divisions helped solidify employer dominance). He also shows how race was central not only to the rise but also to the decline of Local 8, as increasing racial tensions were manipulated by employers and federal agents bent on the union’s destruction. Critics Say: “By demonstrating how interracial solidarity prevailed on the Philadelphia waterfront for the better part of a momentous and critically important decade, Peter Cole kindles the flames of the ‘class-race’ debate. As he also demonstrates, Local 8’s achievements in this regard were all the more remarkable because the larger context–in Philadelphia and in the nation–was one of racial polarization and virulent white racism.”–Bruce Nelson, author of Divided We Stand: American Workers and the Struggle for Black Equality “Wobblies on the Waterfront offers a fascinating and engaging look at the Philadelphia longshoremen in Local 8 of the IWW. Offering a fresh perspective on an important organization that charted its own, independent course in the 1910s and ’20s, this study considerably adds to our knowledge of waterfront unionism, Philadelphia labor, the IWW, and race and labor. Local 8 deserves the in-depth treatment that Peter Cole gives it, for it stood out as a rather unique example of militant, interracial unionism in an age in which exclusion or segregation was the rule in the labor movement.”–Eric Arnesen, editor of The Black Worker: Race, Labor, and Civil Rights since Emancipation

April 9 4:00 pm Special Collections Reading Room Join a discussion around the variety of artists’ creative impressions of book design, using Ann Kresage’s Air Born: An Artist’s Book, as a starting point. This conversation allows for full exploration of the multiple techniques and concepts used in creating these creative treasures. The Special Collection Department’s rich and varied collection of artists’ books will illustrate the discussion with an interactive showcase. The Special Collections Showcase events allow for up-close encounters with, and conversations about, the historical sources found in a variety of special collections at Temple University Libraries. They offer the opportunity for investigation of the materials that document history.

April 7 2:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Temple University Libraries and the General Education Program welcome author, professor, and theoretician Janet Jakobsen to Paley Library April 7. Jakobsen’s latest book, Secularisms, will be published by Duke University Press in March of 2008. She will speak on her latest research and writing with “Should we Secularists Just Admit we Lost?” and engage in conversation with the audience. Jakobsen, the director of the Center for Research on Women at Barnard College, teaches feminist and queer theories, sexuality studies, theories of women’s activism, and a course on religion and gender. Professor Jakobsen¹s research interests include: feminist and queer ethics; religion, gender, and sexuality in American public life; social movements and feminist alliance politics; and global issues of economics. Her other publications include: Working Alliances and the Politics of Difference: Diversity and Feminist Ethics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998); Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance (NYU Press, 2003); and Interventions: Activists and Academics Respond to Violence (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), for which she served as editor along with Elizabeth Castelli. This event is also consponsored by the Department of Religion, and Department of Jewish Studies.

March 26 4:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Please join Temple University Libraries and the Temple University Press in welcoming author, entrepreneur and restaurateur Ellen Yin. The press recently published Yin’s Forklore: Recipes and Tales from an American Bistro, which coincided with the 10th Anniversary of her legendary Philadelphia restaurant, Fork. Yin will speak on her book, her accomplishments, and her restaurant, and then engage in conversation with guests. This event will also feature trivia, door prizes, and a reception. Yin’s book will also be for sale. Fork Restaurant is an acclaimed New American Bistro in Old City, Philadelphia. Since its opening in 1997, it has received many regional and national accolades including being named one of the “Best New Restaurants” by Philadelphia magazine and one of Philadelphia’s “Top Tables” by Gourmet magazine. In 2004, she expanded Fork to include Fork:etc, a specialty food store with prepared foods, artisanal and gourmet products. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, Fork continues to delight new visitors from throughout the world as well as its own local fans. Her last cookbook, From Our Restaurant’s Kitchen (2002), a compilation of the restaurant’s recipes and staff favorites, benefited scholarships for inner city students.

Come to the Science, Engineering and Architecture Library for– SEAL eResource Fair March Library Madness! Come meet the eExperts! Find out about library resources that will help you keep up with the latest research. Representatives from the following companies will be here: Elsevier – ScienceDirect, Compendex, INSPEC EbscoHost – Academic Search Premier, GeoREF CSA Proquest – Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, IEEE – IEEE Xplore Thomson -Web of Science, JCR and Biological Abstracts. A library table will feature Multisearch, RefWorks, TULink, Libguides, Blackboard course packages. The sciences, engineering, and architecture are emphasized, but all are welcome. Free food and drink, goodies and a raffle too, so stop by the SEAL eResources Fair.

Quest for Freedom–Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University Libraries Host First Ever Live and Learn Weekend as part of State-Wide Initiative February 8, 2008 4:00 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Quest for Freedom The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation are partnering to celebrate the first-ever Quest for Freedom Live & Learn weekend presented by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office by welcoming renowned author Lorene Cary, whose novel The Price of a Child, was chosen for concurrent reading circles throughout the Commonwealth. The opening weekend will kick-off on Friday, February 8 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Paley Library Lecture Hall. Paley Library Lecture Hall is in the ground floor of Paley Library, located centrally, next to the bell tower, on Temple’s main campus. The program will begin with jazz music provided by pianist Farid Barron. After brief introductions by David Washington, Director of Library External Affairs & Advancement; Lenwood Sloan of the Pennsylvania Tourism Office; and Dr. Diane D. Turner, Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, a panel discussion of Lorene Cary’s seminal work, The Price of a Child, will take place. The panel will feature Cary herself along with Dr. Molefi Asante and Dr. Turner. The panel will be moderated by dr. tonya thames taylor, Frederick Douglass Institute Scholar and history professor at West Chester University. Re-enactors will then engage the audience with performances of abolitionists/activists Francis Harper and Octavius Cato. The program will be followed by a 45 minute reception. In addition to this event at Temple, a tour of Underground Railroad sites, led by Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, will be held on Saturday, February 9. These book learning weekends are a statewide project that uses books as the springboard for discussions and tours as part of a weekend of activities to explore the story of the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. Quarterly Live and Learn weekends are part of the Philadelphia Quest for Freedom program, which serves as an anchor to the statewide program—Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom. Program activities include: educational and interpretive tours, stand-alone historic properties, archives, libraries and other visitor experiences across a six network region of Pennsylvania. This event also marks the first-ever public program held by the Blockson Collection under the leadership of Dr. Turner. For more information, visit the statewide website questforfreedom.org or the regional website, gophila.com/questforfreedom. Live and Learn Weekends are taking place across the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, throughout the spring and summer of 2008. On each weekend you can join a discussion on the featured book in Lancaster, Philadelphia or Pittsburg. The featured book for each weekend is as follows: February 8 – 9: The Price of A Child by Lorene Cary April 4 – 5: The Colors of Courage by Margaret Creighton June 20 – 21: Forever Free by Eric Foner August 15 – 16: Lincoln and Democracy by Harold Holzer & Mario Cuomo The following scholars will lead the book discussions at these locations: Lancaster: Dr. Louise Stevenson, Professor of History and American Studies at Franklin and Marshall College Philadelphia: Dr. tonya thames taylor, Frederick Douglass Scholar and History Professor at West Chester University Pittsburgh: Dr. Katherine Ayres, Lecturer in English/Writing and Coordinator of the Writing for Children and Adolescents Program at Chatham University (The weekend of April 4-5 will have Dr. Lesley Gordon, Professor of History at the University of Akron, OH, as the scholar) Each weekend features great room rates, heritage tours, museum exhibits, reenactments, and restaurant outings. Several weekends will also feature book signings by the authors. For more information, please visit www.visitpa.com/freedom.

January 30 4:00 pm Special Collections reading room Mezzanine level of Paley Library Special Collections Showcase Amazing Stories Annual, No. 1 Please join us for the spring’s first Special Collections Showcase! These events allow for up-close encounters with, and conversations about, the historical sources found in a variety of special collections at Temple University Libraries. They offer the opportunity for investigation of the materials that document history. This January, join a discussion about science fiction and its rise as a significant genre movement in pulps, books, and fanzines from the 19th century through today. Special Collections holds a number of historical science fiction materials in the Science Fiction Collection. This collection contains more than 30,000 volumes, magazines (pulps, fanzines, and academic journals), over 100 cubic feet of manuscripts, and selected posters, paintings, drawings, and related materials. The collection ranges from late 19th century through the 20th century first editions, book club and paperback editions, with international coverage. Amateur and semi-professional science fiction and fantasy serials (fanzines) have been collected and added since the founding of the Science Fiction Collection. The collection also holds a number of manuscripts and author’s papers.

January 24, 2008 1:00 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall Temple Book Club One Book, One Philadelphia Dave Egger’s What is the What (2006) The Book Club hosts a discussion of Eggers’ What is the What, in conjunction with the One Book, One Philadelphia program. This program promotes reading, literacy, and libraries. This year’s selection tells the true story of Valentino Achak Deng, who witnessed atrocities of civil warfare in Sudan as a child. What is the What was a 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Since its original release, proceeds from book sales have funded projects for a school, library, and athletic field in Marial Bai, Deng’s hometown in Sudan. One Book, One Philadelphia is a joint project of the Mayor’s office and the Free Library of Philadelphia. The mission of the program, which is entering its sixth year, is to promote reading, literacy, library usage, and community-building throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. The 2008 program will run from January 8 – March 20, 2008. Temple University Libraries is just one of hundreds of community partners that have contributed resources and developed programs to facilitate the success of One Book, One Philadelphia. For more information on this program please visit: www.library.phila.gov/libserv/obop.htm Please join Temple University Libraries for an engaging discussion on this important work.