Final Comments on Black History Month 2011

To round out Black History Month, we’ve asked Suban Nur Cooley, Managing Editor for Capital Gains, to share a few words about her identity as a woman of color in the United States.

When the Capital Area District Library approached me to be the guest speaker for African American Read-In Day yesterday, I was honored. A little perplexed, but honored. You see, I’m not technically African American … I’m African Australian.

I have lived in America for a little more than five years, but my cultural experience in this country would be similar to that of a new immigrant. I am a foreigner here, making me curious, observant and aware of the social differences I experience while ingesting America from this unique perspective. There’s just one problem: everyone assumes I’m African American.

As a woman of color with an Australian upbringing in the United States, I am a walking cultural anomaly. I look like an African American, but I don’t sound African American and I don’t resonate with the African American experience. Why? Because I am a new immigrant. That is my most common experience.

My celebration of Black History Month encompasses a few different histories. It’s not just the civil rights movement in America that I celebrate. In Australia, I was an immigrant. An immigrant of color. My family migrated from Somalia in 1988, just before the civil war took an ugly turn. Australia, a country with a history I am not all proud of, enabled for this migration in 1975, after Prime Minister Gough Whitlam abolished the White Australia Policy – A policy which intentionally restricted “non-white” immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1973 – and replaced it with the Racial Discrimination Act. Suffice it to say, I understand discrimination, and what it means to be a person of color.

I also understand what it’s like to cling to my own heritage, a desire and commonality among both new immigrants and African Americans. I have my own language, food and cultural customs, and continuing to maintain and educate the world about these experiences enables for a broadening of our global experiences, regardless of what community you live in.

Embracing culture, is embracing our world. I am forever learning about others, and teaching others about myself. Even though I’m not African American, I am excited to understand, learn and embrace what it means to “be” African American.

-Suban Nur Cooley, CADL Guest Blogger & Managing Editor of Capital Gains

Airplanes

Flickr user: xlibber

Local career expert Lisa (a.k.a. Recruiter Uncensored) shares some of her knowledge with us every Monday. You can read this post in its original form here.

What could airplanes possibly have to do with a job search? I’ll get to that in a moment. First, a little background.

I hate to fly. HATE IT! Even though I look composed while securely strapped in my seat, I’m a mess of nerves. When I fly there is always a Reader’s Digest in my hands. The humor pages help distract me from my anxiety during take-offs and landings.

Because I hate to fly, I am only boarding a plane when my destination is so far away I’d rather risk death by airplane crash than endure days of highways and road trip food. That means my flights are long. Long flights are to blame for the second problem I have with flying, who I get stuck sitting next to.

Surely I’m not alone in dreading who my flight buddy might turn out to be. Even though we’re only talking a few hours, it doesn’t seem that way when pressed for space and trying to tend to ones sanity. My tolerance goes way down. Will I be stuck next to a talkative wiggler? Will the person get up and down constantly for bathroom breaks and carry-on bag search expeditions? Will the person be drowning in some Calvin Klein scent designed to gag those who haven’t built up an immunity?

The person who sits down in the seat next to me is a big deal. We’re going to spend crucial time together. Their proximity to me will play a role in my ability to hit my goal of getting off the plane without enduring an embarrassing panic attack. Never mind this person may be the person I share my last precious moments of life with should the plane run out of gas or all of the screws suddenly rot away. Do you see the significance?

Now, for how this relates to the world of job searches. If you are a candidate being interviewed for a job, it’s not impossible the interviewer is wondering what it would be like to sit next to you on an airplane. Okay, not exactly, but kind of. Your skills may be top notch, but how would it feel to be stuck in a confined space through stressful moments with you? Keep in mind people often spend more waking time interacting with co-workers than their own families. That’s a lot. No one is going to want to saddle themselves with someone who drives them bonkers. That’s not meant to be a dig. It’s part of the human condition to drive people bonkers at times. We all have the potential to annoy someone if we are out of sync with how that person operates.

This isn’t about discrimination or not appreciating diversity. I’m not condoning individuals who don’t give people a chance because they are different from them in some way. We all do need to learn how to reach out to others and compromise. What I’m pointing out is the reality that personalities and habits play a role. Skills alone aren’t enough to proclaim someone a fit. On the bright side, the door swings both ways. Job seekers are equally capable of recognizing a potential supervisor may not be in sync with them enough for the job to be a good option. Chemistry matters to both sides and that’s okay.

-Lisa W-P. CADL Guest Blogger

DVDs to Help You Celebrate Black History Month

This year, Black History Month is dedicated to celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. To round out our Black History Month recommendations, our librarians put together this  list of movies highlighting African Americans’ role in the Civil War.

Glory

Buffalo Soldiers

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives

Black History: The War Years and the Civil Rights Movement

-compiled by Zandra B., CADL Downtown Teen Services Librarian

Get Your 150 Minutes of Physical Activity

An article from Science Daily points to over 40 research studies showing that regular exercise can reduce the risks of depression, dementia, hypertension and some forms of cancer.    Thanks to the Centers for Disease Control, we are starting to get it: Doing 150 minutes of moderate activity per week=fewer health problems.

But what are we Michiganders to do when the winter months seemingly impose home confinement? Consider getting some exercise in your living room.  The Capital Area District Library has a treasure trove of DVD’s and videos for walking, yoga, aerobics and dance fitness.  Check out these DVD’s:

Two Mile Walk with Leslie Sansone

The Bollywood Dance Workout

All you need is a TV and DVD or video player.  But perhaps you really want to get outside and burn your calories in the snow.  Consider snow shoeing or cross country skiing at our very own Lake Lansing Park-North.

For a greater challenge try Nordic walking. I t’s reported to produce up to a 46% increase in energy consumption compared to walking without poles.

These activities are not hard to learn, are fairly inexpensive (compared to other winter sports) and present little risk of injury.   Check these books out today:

• Nordic Walking for Total Fitness
• The Snowshoe Experience : Gear Up & Discover The Wonders
• Of Winter On Snowshoes

 

Webberville Geeks the Library

If you have been on the library’s website lately, or visited any of CADL’s 13 locations, you may have noticed references to a fun new program called Geek The Library. This campaign features eye-catching posters and displays that explore what it is that people are passionate about—in other words, what they “geek.” No matter what you geek, the library can help you explore your interests.

Don’t wait to start exploring your passions! Do you geek knitting? How about Legos? No matter what you are interested in, the library has information and programs for you. It’s truly a resource for each and every member of our community.

-Julie C., CADL Webberville Head Librarian

Dental Emergencies

©2010 American Dental Association

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month and a great opportunity to bring some useful resources and information to your attention.  The American Dental Association (ADA) has created tools in English and Spanish for parents to use in educating their children about healthy dental habits.  Fun games, puzzles, coloring sheets, and posters are available free at their website.  We have a sample of the downloads at the Health Resources Kiosk on the 2nd floor of the Downtown Lansing Library.  In addition to these handouts, the ADA has compiled a list of instructions for addressing dental emergencies.  This information is printed with the permission of the American Dental Association and is copyrighted by them.

Are you prepared for a dental emergency?

Thousands of dental emergencies—from injuries to a painful, abscessed tooth—take place every day. Would you know what to do if your child broke a tooth or had a tooth knocked out while playing outdoors? What if you had a bad toothache in the middle of the night and couldn’t get to the dentist until the next day? Knowing what to do can lessen the pain and save a tooth that might otherwise be lost.

Keep your dental office phone number and an emergency number where the dentist can be reached after hours with other emergency numbers.  Call the dentist immediately for instructions on how to handle a dental emergency.

Toothache:

• Rinse the mouth with warm water to clean it out. Gently use dental floss or an interdental cleaner to remove any food or other debris that may be caught between the teeth.
• Never put aspirin or any other painkiller against the gums near the aching tooth. This could burn gum tissue. If the toothache persists, try to see the dentist.

Knocked-out (avulsed) tooth:

• Try to find the tooth!
• Hold the tooth by the crown and rinse the root in water if the tooth is dirty. Don’t scrub it or remove any attached tissue fragments.
• If it’s possible, gently insert and hold the tooth in its socket while you head to the dentist.
• If that’s not possible, put the tooth in a cup of milk and bring it to the dentist. Time is critical for successful reimplantation, so try to get to your dentist immediately.

Broken tooth:

• Rinse your mouth with warm water to clean the area.
• Use cold compresses on the outside of the cheek to help reduce the swelling.

Tongue or lip bites or wounds:

• Clean the area gently with a clean cloth and apply cold compresses to reduce any swelling. If the bleeding can’t be controlled, go to a hospital emergency room or clinic.
• You may able to reduce bleeding from the tongue by pulling it forward and using gauze to put pressure on the wound.

Objects caught between teeth:

• Try to gently remove the object with dental floss.
• Never use a sharp instrument to remove any object that is stuck between your teeth.
• If you can’t dislodge the object with floss, contact your dentist.

Possible broken jaw:

• Apply cold compresses to control swelling.
• Get to the hospital emergency room immediately.                                        ©2010 American Dental Association

-Eunice B., CADL Reference Librarian

A New History of the Civil Rights Movement

Today CADL welcomes guest blogger Danielle McGuire, author of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. McGuire will be our featured speaker at this year’s African American Family History Showcase on Saturday, February 26. Join us at the Downtown Lansing Library for this event beginning at 11 a.m. McGuire will be appearing from 1-2 p.m. Click here for more information on this and other Black History Month activities at the library.

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Black History Month affords us the opportunity to explore African Americans’ long struggle for freedom and dignity in America. But too often, we hear the same simplistic summaries of the civil rights movement: stories about Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream; and stories about Rosa Parks and her tired feet. I’ve always wanted to know more—especially about the ordinary, everyday people who made the movement happen day-by-day, week-by-week. I am drawn to the courageous black women whose names are often left out of history books, but whose powerful protests helped ignite the very movements we think we already know.

My first sense that historians had missed something big in the civil rights movement was in the winter of 1998. I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was listening to NPR. Veterans of the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott were speaking about their experiences and Joe Azbell, the editor of the Montgomery Advertiser talked about a woman I had never heard of. He said something like, “Gertrude Perkins is never mentioned in the history books, but she had as much to do with the bus boycott as anyone on earth.” I stopped and looked at my friend, confused. “Everyone knows Rosa Parks was the one who caused the boycott,” I said, “so who the heck is Gertrude Perkins?” The next day, I went to the archive and ordered the Montgomery Advertiser on microfilm and started searching. I found out that two white police officers kidnapped and raped Gertrude Perkins, an African-American woman, in 1949. Instead of remaining silent, she told her minister, Reverend Solomon S. Seay Sr,. and he encouraged her to press charges. Local black activists and ministers rallied to her defense and launched a citywide campaign to bring her assailants to trial. Their public protests were so effective, the “Perkins case” appeared on the front page of the Advertiser, the local “white” newspaper, for nearly two months. In the end, however, an all-white, all-male grand jury refused to indict the policemen. Still, it was the first time the black ministers were, as Seay put it, “all shook up.”

I was not sure what to do with this information—how to fit it into a story that was already so well known. I couldn’t see how it connected until I started digging a little deeper. I was in the process of researching the 1959 gang-rape of Betty Jean Owens, a black college student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida when I kept coming across similar cases of white men attacking black women throughout the Deep South. It seemed as if every front page of every black newspaper between 1940 and 1950 featured the same story: a black woman was walking home from school, work or church when a group of white men abducted her at gunpoint, took her outside of town, and brutally assaulted her. I began sifting through court files and old trial transcripts and the evidence showed that white on black rape was endemic in the segregated South. Black women were vulnerable to racial and sexual violence and they often testified about their experiences—in churches, courtrooms, and congressional hearings. Their testimonies often led to civil rights campaigns that began with a simple demand for justice and became a struggle for human rights and human dignity. This was true in Montgomery, where Rosa Parks and her allies had been protesting rape and sexualized racial violence on the buses for nearly a decade before the 1955-56 boycott, as well as other major movement centers. I felt like I had discovered a whole new civil rights movement with black women and their struggle for bodily integrity at the center—a movement that is as poignant, painful and complicated as our own lives.

-Danielle McGuire, CADL Guest Blogger, Author of At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance—A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power

Teen Cuisine

Whether you’re a teen who loves to cook, who cooks only because your mom is terrible at it, or just an adult cooking novice looking for a simple recipe, CADL has some great teen cookbooks for you to check out.  These books feature easy to follow recipes with few ingredients that make delicious food a possibility for any chef.

Cooking Up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook by Sam Stern

Teens Cook: How to Make What You Want to Eat by Megan Carle

Teen Cuisine by Matthew Locricchio

Teens Cook Dessert by Megan and Jill Carle

Veggie Revolution: Smart Choices for a Healthy Body and a Healthy Planet by Sally Kneidel

-Liz V., Youth Services Librarian

African American History on Display

Display at the Downtown Library

The Downtown Lansing branch has some interesting displays for African American History Month.  On the east side of the building there is a display on the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.  The 54th was the first African American regiment organized in the North.

From the National Archives:

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was one of the most celebrated regiments of black soldiers that fought in the Civil War…The courage and sacrifice of the 54th helped to dispel doubt within the Union Army about the fighting ability of black soldiers and earned this regiment undying battlefield glory.

Photo courtesy of Jesse Lasorda

David Votta (our Local History librarian) told me about a local connection to this story. Two veterans from the 54th are buried in Lansing’s Mt. Hope cemetery: Napoleon Hamilton and Benjamin Thompson. At right is a photo of Hamilton’s final resting place, taken by noted local African American history researcher Jesse Lasorda.

On Saturday, February 26, the  Downtown Lansing Library is hosting the annual African American Family History Showcase beginning at 11 a.m. Displays and table talks from local, state and national organizations will be available throughout the event. To learn more about the event and the featured speaker Danielle McGuire, visit our blog on Black History Month.

Learn more about the 54th and other African American soldiers:

Black Soldiers in Blue : African American Troops in the Civil War Era

Firebrand of Liberty : The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War

The movie “Glory” is about the 54th

 

- Anne R., Reference Librarian @ CADL

Hometown Health Heros Sought

State of Michigan MDCH

Even though it’s still early February, the state of Michigan has announced that this year’s theme for Celebrate Michigan Public Health Week (April 11-17, 2011) is Safety is No Accident: Live Injury Free. This year’s theme embraces the concept of creating a healthier nation by taking action within your community to promote safety and prevent injuries and violence.  If every person takes steps to protect their neighbors, families and communities from harm, Michigan will be a much safer place to live.

You’ll be hearing more about this celebration later this spring, but right now the Michigan Public Health Week Partnership is seeking nominations for Hometown Health Heroes. If you know a person or group who deserves recognition as a Hometown Health Hero for efforts to create injury-free environments and promote safe behaviors, please submit a Hometown Health Hero Nomination. The nomination forms are posted online at the Michigan Public Health Week website and are due by February 24, 2011.  Approximately 10 Hometown Health Heroes will be chosen from the nominees, and then recognized in a special ceremony in Lansing on April 13, 2011.

The Michigan Public Health Week Partnership is made up of the following organizations: the Michigan Association of Counties, the Michigan Association for Local Public Health, the Michigan Public Health Association, the Michigan Public Health Institute, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Wayne State University, and the Michigan Department of Community Health.

For more information about the Hometown Health Hero awards, contact Jim Koval, MDCH, at 517-335-8150 or kovalj <at> michigan.gov.

-Eunice B., CADL Reference Librarian