Join us for sweet treats & bubbly – after hours! We’ll have special gifts, our monthly sale special, & surprises that you won’t want to miss!
Tag Archives: Small Business
Rick Stack for “We Who Grieve”
Join us at People’s Book for a conversation with Rick Stack about his latest book We Who Grieve.
About the Author: Rick Stack’s career is dedicated to social justice. His experiences in the Jackson County(MO) Public Defenders Office led him ot question the reliability of severe sanctions based on a system susceptible to human error. Research on global resource issues brought Stack to Washington, DC, in the late 70s, where he held a series of positions devoted to fighting hunger and poverty, first globally, then locally. Most notably, Stack was the Founding Executive Director of the Capital Area Food Bank throughout the 1980s, and the DC Central Kitchen’s first Board chair.
Stack co-produced the award-winning documentray, In the Executioner’s Shadow (2018). The film was the centerpiece of Oregon’s statewide abolition campign, resulting in legislation to reduce the use of capital punishment. Screenings of the film generate thoughtful discussion, and have changed hearts and minds.
About the Book: We Who Grieve is intended to be a comforting companion for those in the throes of grief and for their supporters. With this work, Stack hopes to add empathy to a world sorely in need of more.
This event is in-person and free to attend.
Leta Hong Fincher for “Leftover Women, 10th Anniversary Edition”
About the book: Leta Hong Fincher’s landmark book Leftover Women shone a light on the resurgence of gender inequality in 21st-century China. Ten years on, women in China continue to experience a dramatic rolling back of rights and gains in the increasingly patriarchal political climate of the Xi Jinping era.
Leftover Women explores the structural discrimination against women and the broader problems with China’s economy, politics, and development that lie behind them. This updated edition includes a new preface exploring developments in China in the 10 years since the book’s original publication, including the new “three child policy”, the growth in online feminist and LGBTQ activism and the state’s increasingly repressive moves against dissent.
About the author: Leta has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Dissent Magazine, Ms. Magazine, BBC, CNN and others. She won the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award for her China reporting. Fluent in Mandarin, Leta is the first American to receive a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University’s Department of Sociology in Beijing and is currently a Research Associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. She has a master’s degree from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Harvard University.
Andrew White for “Together and Apart: Biographies of Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Georgia O’Keeffe”
About the book: Three separate biographies connecting three groundbreaking artists, told in their own words. Andrew White brings his gorgeous and lyrical style to a set of biographies that read like a whisper and a song. White adapts the writings and work of these three artists in an active dialogue with the source material of their lives.
About the author: Andrew White is a cartoonist. His current project is Yearly, an annual comic that he has published since 2018.
This event is in person.
Danielle Arigoni for Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation
About the Book: Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation argues that climate resilience planning must be evaluated and implemented using a lens of aging. There is a role for all sectors (housing, transportation, health care and elder care, emergency management, and more) in implementing strategies that reduce risk for the growing share of older adults in our communities and enhance resilience for all.
About the Author: Danielle Arigoni (M.R.P. ’97) is an urban planner and community resilience expert. She currently serves as Managing Director for Policy and Solutions at the National Housing Trust, providing strategic direction for the organization’s sustainability and resilience policy efforts and oversight and guidance for NHT’s state and local advisory services.
This event is in person.
The Green Way Reading Series Vol. 5
The Green Way Reading Series is a monthly literary event based in Takoma Park, MD curated by Elizabeth Bryant and Takoma Park’s Poet Laureate Taylor Johnson. The series centers emerging and established poets and artists in interdisciplinary, intergenerational and cross-regional dialogues. We want these programs to encourage growing participation and local engagement in the evolving landscape of contemporary poetry. The intention is to bring something new to this area with offerings that provide a space for horizontal community building, the generation of new work, and the amplification of local poets. The series is made possible by generous support from the Cave Canem Foundation and the Maryland State Arts Council, in addition to our collaboration with Takoma Park’s People’s Book. The space is open from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, readings begin at 5:30 pm. We hope that you can join!
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist, and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race, and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), a book of computational poetry that received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. Their other poetry books include How Narrow My Escapes (DIAGRAM/New Michigan), Personal Science (Tupelo Press), a slice from the cake made of air (Red Hen Press), and But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise (Red Hen Press). Their fifth book, Negative Money, is available now. They direct the MFA in creative writing program at the University of Maryland. Their new chapbook, written with AI, is called A Black Story May Contain Sensitive Content and won the 2023 Diagram/New Michigan chapbook contest.
Justin Phillip Reed is an American writer and amateur bass guitarist whose preoccupations include horror cinema, ideological failure, and uses of the grotesque. He is the author of two poetry collections, The Malevolent Volume (2020) and Indecency (2018), both published by Coffee House Press. His hybrid collection, With Bloom Upon Them And Also With Blood: A Horror Miscellany, will be released in fall 2023. Born and raised in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, he participates in alternative rock music cultures, ogles Toyota Tacomas, and enjoys smelling like outside. His current favorite band is Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile.
Simon Shieh is a Taiwanese American poet. He is the author of Master (Sarabande Books) and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Simon’s poems and essays can be found in POETRY, American Poetry Review, Guernica, Best New Poets, and The Yale Review, among others. Simon co-founded Spittoon Literary Magazine (spittoonlitmag.com) which translates and publishes the best contemporary Chinese writers. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Charlotte, and their dog, Momo.
Juneau Black for Twilight Falls
Join us at People’s Book for a conversation with Juneau Black about their latest book in the Shady Hollow Mystery series, Twilight Falls!
About the Author: Juneau Black is the pen name of authors Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel. They share a love of excellent bookshops, fine cheeses, and a good murder (in fictional form only). Though they are two separate people, if you ask either of them a question about their childhood, you are likely to get the same answer. This is a little unnerving for any number of reasons.
About the Book:
It’s spring in Shady Hollow, and romance is in the air. Even reporter Vera Vixen is caught up in the season as her relationship with new police chief Orville Braun blossoms. But true love is not always smooth sailing, as two of the hollow’s young residents come to find. Jonah Atwater and Stasia von Beaverpelt find themselves battling their families in order to be together. And when Jonah’s father, Shelby, goes over the top of Twilight Falls, all signs point to Stasia being the murderer.
The evidence against Stasia appears overwhelming, and Orville arrests her. It looks like the case is closed, but Vera isn’t so sure. There are almost too many clues indicating Stasia is the killer, leading her to suspect someone is setting Stasia up. Besides, what about the mysterious ghostly creature skulking around town at night? Maybe he or she was involved? As Vera investigates further, her sleuthing puts her in direct opposition to Orville, and soon she’s stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble.
This event is in person.
Meet the Author: Emily Ettlinger
Just in time for Halloween Month, it’s Skeleanor the Decomposer!
Meet local graphic novelist Emily Ettlinger.
About the Book:
An instantly charming and vivid chapter-book graphic novel, starring a music-obsessed skeleton, Skeleanor, and her quest to find her sound (and her confidence) by debut creator Emily Ettlinger.
Skeleanor loves music more than life itself. There’s just one problem: She has a bit more rattle than rhythm at the moment. No matter what type of instrument she plays—from the fiddle to the xylobone—she always seems to scare the people of Little Casketon away. But with the Little Casketon Summershine festival coming up, and the town band missing a player, maybe Skeleanor (along with the help of her best friend, Batima) could show people her skills and finally take center stage.
Hilarious and heartfelt, Skeleanor the Decomposer (published by Penguin Workshop) by debut author and illustrator Emily Ettlinger is a story about chasing your passions no matter what other people say. Sometimes, all you need is a dream, your friends, and a little music.
About the Author:
Emily Ettlinger is a Maryland-based illustrator, cartoonist, and product designer and Rhode Island School of Design 2016 graduate.
Visit her at https://www.emiett.com
Jonathan Roth’s Graphic Novel Workshop
Comics/Graphic Novels are a fun and meaningful way to tell stories using both pictures and words. In this workshop, author-illustrator Jonathan Roth (ROVER AND SPECK, BEEP AND BOB) will give helpful tips and fun exercises for kids who want to create comics of their own. For ages 6-12. Paper and pens/pencils will be provided or bring your own.
Babies and Books
Join us for our first ever baby storytime! Designed with kiddos 3 and under in mind, pediatrician Anjali Jain will lead the group in reading a mix of new board books, classics tales, and some songs & rhymes as well! Need more to convince you? FREE coffee for any caregivers! See you there!
Tom Jones for “Space Shuttle Stories”
About the Book:
Experience all 135 NASA space shuttle missions ever flown through the words of the astronauts themselves in this spectacularly illustrated volume. With more than 600 photos from the NASA archives, this guide is perfect for fans of space history and spaceflight. NASA’s space shuttle was the world’s first reusable spacecraft, accomplishing many firsts and inspiring generations across its 30-year lifespan as America’s iconic spaceship. In Space Shuttle Stories, shuttle astronaut Tom Jones interviewed more than 130 fellow astronauts for personal vignettes from each mission, complemented by their written accounts for all 135 space shuttle missions, from Columbia‘s maiden flight in 1981 to the final launch of Atlantis in 2011. The book is a major contribution to the historical record of a momentous era of spaceflight.
Each mission profile includes:
An astronaut narrative that immerses the readers in their personal mission experience
Data about the mission, crew, launch, landing, duration, and highlights
Captivating photographs rarely seen by the public
The Space Shuttle program’s 6 orbiter vehicles (Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour) carried a total of 355 astronauts into orbit on 135 missions aimed at cutting-edge scientific research, satellite launch, retrieval and repair, collaborative work with the Russian Mir station, the launching and servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the construction of the International Space Station. Space Shuttle Stories focuses on the lived, human experiences of larger-than-life space missions. It’s a definitive oral history that captures the importance, wonder, and exhilaration of the Space Shuttle era.
About the Author:
Tom Jones is a veteran astronaut, planetary scientist, pilot, author, and speaker who completed four space shuttle missions and three spacewalks in helping build the International Space Station. Jones has authored six books, including Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir, and has written for aerospace magazines such as Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America, Popular Mechanics, and The Planetary Report. A senior research scientist for IHMC, he appears regularly on television news as an expert commentator for space exploration and science stories.
This book launch (pun intended) will be in person.
Christina Gerhardt in conversation with Antonia Juhasz for “Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean”
Christina Gerhardt is Associate Professor at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Senior Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Barron Professor of Environment and the Humanities at Princeton University. Her environmental journalism has been published by Grist.org, The Nation, The Progressive, and the Washington Monthly.
Antonia Juhasz is a leading energy and climate author and investigative journalist. She is the Senior Researcher on Fossil Fuels in the Environment and Human Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. An award-winning writer, her bylines include Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN.com, The Nation, Ms., The Advocate, The Guardian, and many more. Antonia is the author of three books: Black Tide (2011), The Tyranny of Oil (2008), and The Bush Agenda (2006).
About the Book: Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does an island see when the sea rises? Sea Change: An Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean weaves together essays, maps, art, and poetry to show us—and make us see—island nations in a warming world.
Low-lying islands are least responsible for global warming, but they are suffering the brunt of it. This transportive atlas reorients our vantage point to place islands at the center of the story, highlighting Indigenous and Black voices and the work of communities taking action for local and global climate justice. At once serious and playful, well-researched and lavishly designed, Sea Change is a stunning exploration of the climate and our world’s coastlines. Full of immersive storytelling, scientific expertise, and rallying cries from island populations that shout with hope—”We are not drowning! We are fighting!”—this atlas will galvanize readers in the fight against climate change and the choices we all face.
This event is in person.