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A crowd hovered over the man lying on the grass as his skin turned purple. Chera Kowalski crouched next to his limp body, a small syringe in her gloved hand. Squeeze. The antidote filled the man’s nostril. The purple faded. Then it came back. Kowalski’s heart raced. “We only gave him one, and he needs another!” she called to a security guard in McPherson Square Park, a tranquil patch of green in one of Philadelphia’s roughest neighborhoods. “He’s dying,” said a bystander as the tension...

Dear Carolyn: Like other people who provide services to others in trouble, do you ever feel burned out? If you don’t, congratulations, but what do you advise to keep it at bay? — Burnout Burnout: Sure, I’m susceptible. I do a few things: I take the vacation time I’m given. (Not all of it yet, but I’ve gotten better.) I also try to space it out over regular intervals so I don’t get too worn. I make sure that when I quit for the day, I really quit — no nighttime email surfing, for example,...

Ijeoma Oluo doesn’t like to talk about race. But she has to. She talks about race so that maybe the gap that separates white people from people of color can be bridged. Her new book, “So You Want to Talk about Race,” came out earlier this year, and since then she’s been in hot demand for TV appearances and public events. [For more on this story by CRAIG SAILOR, go to http://www.thenewstribune.com/entertainment/article206923864.html ]

In my study on socially/politically conservative librarians, self-censorship came up as a major part of this groups’ work-life experience (Theme 7: In The Closet). Participants shared a need to suppress their opinions or recalled being told that they should not let colleagues know that they are conservative, lest they subject themselves to subtle or blatant discrimination or abuse (Kendrick & Damasco 2015). During my current work on the low-morale experiences of racial/ethnic minority...

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has seen this movie before. Alienated people who feel left behind by their leaders elect a demagogue whose dog-whistle politics feed their basest instincts. The year was 1989. Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, and a progressive “New South” movement was on the rise. And yet a white supremacist was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives — former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and current outspoken Trump supporter David Duke. Landrieu, who served as a...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz carries his career-long exploration of Latinx immigrant identity into his debut children’s title, “ Islandborn .” Díaz told Crosscut.com on Tuesday (March 20) that he developed the book, which features a Black Latinx girl as its protagonist, to combat the White normativity of children’s literature. “I experienced [not finding kids’ books with characters of color] and I certainly never wanted anyone else after me to experience it,” he explained. “So...

The Library of Congress ( LOC ) selected both hit and obscure recordings of artists of color for preservation in the National Recording Registry today (March 21). Per a LOC announcement , 25 newly honored audio works bring the total number of recordings in the registry to 500. The recordings from this class span 85 years and include a mix of commercially released music, field recordings and radio broadcasts. The National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 authorized the creation of the...

In today's current political and cultural climate, it's crucial that everyday Americans are engaging in important conversations about race, bias, discrimination, and privilege. For people of color, these conversations are nothing new; they are a requirement in communities where experiences of racism, bias, and bigotry are a part of everyday life. But for many white people who have never been burdened by a system built specifically to keep us down, these conversations can seem confusing,...

Depressive symptoms in girls shot up by 50 percent from 2010 to 2015, a rate more than double that for boys. As social media, college admissions and body image ideals become more ruthless, adolescent girls find themselves increasingly pressured to overachieve. In "Enough As She Is," Rachel Simmons explores how effortless perfection became the expectation for girls and how parents and society can "dispense with the myth of the so-called amazing girl." Guests: Rachel Simmons, author, "Enough...

This spring marks the 50th anniversary of two pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement: the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the passage of the Fair Housing Act . As we reflect on the last half-century of racial justice struggles and victories, many of the books in this roundup uplift overlooked artists and activists of color while others uncover racist institutions that endure through new models. Below, nonfiction titles to keep on your radar as we exit winter dormancy...

So much of raising children is unimaginable until it happens, an abstract future materialized awkwardly into an actual child covered in dirt. Amid constant unpredictability, one small unsung comfort for parents is the chance to revisit books from childhood, to share with your own children the stories you knew and loved. Recently I came across my old copies of Betty MacDonald’s Mrs. Piggle-Wigglebooks, a series about magic cures for children’s foibles that amazed me as a child. But when I...

Thanks to everyone who came out to the meeting on Friday to discuss TI Libraries! I have attached my PPT to this blog if you would like to explore the resources that were shared. You can also view the presentation in Google Drive .