American Experience “We Shall Remain”

Monday evenings at 8pm April 13th through May 11th UAS will host a big screen broadcast of the PBS series “We Shall Remain” in the Egan Library. Each broadcast will be followed with an informal discussion. Please contact Wendy Girven (wjgirven@uas.alaska.edu) with any questions or visit the show’s website.

Coraline Creators visit JPL

With all of the buzz following author, Neil Gaiman’s receipt on the 2009 Newberry Award for The Graveyard Book (check out this video tour) and the release of the motion picture adaptation of Coraline, it’s a good time to be a Neil Gaiman fan as new editions of his wildly popular, imaginative books  will surely follow.    Check out a few random things Caroline;  Wired Magazine blurb about Coraline in 3D which features a clip from the film,  Craft magazine article “Coraline brings Craft to the Big Screen” .  Don’t miss the local events listed below.

Though I certainly hold a close place in my heart for Coraline, my favorite Gaiman book is The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.    For fans of Coraline, however, in case seeing the screen adaptation wasn’t thrilling enough, this month we have an incredible opportunity for you to meet two people who helped bring Gaiman’s nightmarish vision to life.

There will be two events:

Conversation with the Coraline Creators-  Saturday, April 25th  7pm @ Downtown Library

Coraline puppet creators Georgina Hayns and Mark Gaiero will discuss the making of the movie Coraline and their role as puppet creators for the animation.  

Caroline Workshop- Sunday, April 26th 1-5 pm @ Douglas Library

A 4-hour hands-on workshop making simple puppets, working with professional armatures and learning the basics of stop motion.  Film experience is suggested.  Registration is required as space is limited.  There will be a $10 materials fee.  To register contact JUMP at 586-3440 or email pat_at_jumpsociety_dot_org

Storytubes and Varjak Paw

Congratulations to JPL patron, Izzy who won an honorable mention for his review of Varjak Paw by S.F Said in the 2009 StoryTubes Contest. StoryTubes encourages readers of all ages to share reviews of their favorite books in a short video format to be shared online. Here’s Izzy’s video,

Immigrant Tales

A sampling of stories from the literary world in celebration of those who braved the unknown, left behind beloved homes in order to seek better opportunity or at least, to survive.

Kim Masters shared a terrific essay on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday about her family’s roots in Czechoslovakia and the influence one young British man had in assuring the survival of so many Czech children in the days leading up to the Holocaust. Read and listen to her essay Finding A Hero Amid Fading Memories.

Following this moving segment by Masters, Scott Simon sat down to speak with Romanian musician, Sanda Weigl to discuss moving to East Berlin days before the Berlin Wall, her time in a forced labor factory and finally finding home in New York City. The segment features Weigl’s music, rich in Gypsy influence, which she regularly performs in cabaret’s backed by a three piece all Japanese trio, dubbed, “the band” who, insists Wiegle, “play Romanian gypsy music better than most Romanian musicians today”.

Both stories got me thinking about my Grandparents, who immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1949 following years of hiding throughout Germany, passing as Germans. My Grandparent’s versions of history always challenged my perceptions as in their experiences, it was the kindness of the Germans in the face of a Russian invasion which allowed for their safe departure from Lithuania and eventually to the U.S. I came across a terrifc documentary, Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness, which chronicles the bravery of a Japanese consul in Lithuania in during the war, who helped many Lithuanian-Jews obtain exit visas. William Kaplan’s , One More Border: the true story of one family’s escape from war torn Europe is a beautifully illustrated (Shelley Tanaka) account of his father’s esape from Lithuania is an excellent and historically accurate telling of the story for younger readers.

For a wide sampling of the immigrant experience try a few of the following.

Crossing into America: the new literature of immigration which I tracked down in order to read Li-Young Lee’s, The Cleaving which is featured in the collection. Lee will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference and I’ve been eagerly devouring his unique brand of poetry.

In the July/August issue of Orion Magazine, Charles Bowdan and Julian Cardona’s, Exodus, a cross-border look at the latest wave of immigration from Mexico will leave you reeling in the unstoppable power of the current of this economics of survival situation.