Calling Maine Home

CALLING MAINE HOME: Immigrants' Images, Voices, and Visibility

6th floor, Glickman Family Library, USM Portland Campus
October 26, 2009 - February 26, 2010 (during regular Library hours)

OPENING RECEPTION November 19, 5:30-6:30pm

Annual Exhibition of the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine
Curated by: David Carey, Jr. and Blanca Iris Santiago
Assisted by: Robert Atkinson, Reza Jalali, Victoria Chicon

In the whitest state in the nation, recent immigrants struggle between wanting to be visible and wanting to fade into the background. Whether by conscious decision or destiny, Maine is now home. This exhibition explores the triumphs and challenges of Mainers from such diverse paces as Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

For further information or to schedule a gallery talk, contact Susie Bock, bocks@usm.maine.edu, 207-780-4269.
  For directions: http://usm.maine.edu/discover/maps.html

Susie R. Bock
Head, Special Collections
Director, Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine
Library Liaison, Women and Gender Studies
University of Southern Maine Libraries
207-780-4269
207-780-4067 (fax)
314 Forest Ave.
PO Box 9301
Portland, ME 04104-9301

Cheryl Rainfield Book Reviews

I have not used "tags" well and have children's book review sites all over the place.. some day I'll clean it up.

Today I found a wonderful site by Cheryl Rainfield.  She has lots of suggestions for picture books, by themes that make a difference for me right now:

• How to Feel Better: Coping & Working With Emotion 
  
  
• Encouraging Creativity: Thinking Outside the Box 
  
  
• Finding Friends: A Sense of Belonging 
  
  
• Even Grouches Can Change: Looking Past Assumptions & Attitudes
  
  
• Pure Fun: Laughter & Joy
  
  
• Feeling Loved & Safe: Nurturance 
  
  
• Being Yourself: Accepting & Believing In You 
  
  
• Inner Strength: Strong Girls & Boys 
  
  
• Fantasy & Magic: Let Your Imagination Soar 
  
  
• Love of Words: Books Celebrating Books, Writing, & Language 
  
  
• Bedtime Soothers: Night Time Doesn't Have to Be Scary 
  
  
• Super Heroes: Feeling Strong Through Hero Identification 

She also has reviews for middle school and teen books... 




(x-posted w/Friends School blog)

Packaging Boyhood - tonight in Portland (Nov 12)

Packaging Boyhood

Paid Sick Leave NOW!

The call to keep kids home from school always makes me think about a book I read a few years ago, called Forgotten Families, by Jody Heymann. The author documented the public health threat that emerged after we created "workfare" and parents in low wage jobs are forced to be away from home for upwards of 10 hours a day without enough pay to cover childcare expenses. (She also examines the health problems facing poor children in other countries). She found that an increasing amount of caregiving -- for self, sibling, younger neighbors, cousins, and older people -- is falling to children who are too young for paid work themselves. This means kids as young as 5 are caring for toddlers, or are left home alone for significant chunks of time, or are confined to small spaces if they come with their parents to work (chained to a table kind of small spaces). The book broke my heart, and enraged me. What would it be like to build public policy on as if children really mattered?

The New York times reported that the lack of Paid Sick Days in the U.S. may worsen the H1N1 pandemic. And the U.S. lags so far behind other industrialized countries (and other countries, period) it is clear that paid sick leave is considered a reasonable benefit for working families in the larger world. (Check out this pdf)

Senate President Libby Mitchell put forward an Act to Prevent H1N1, which would provide paid sick leave to a limited number of workers in Maine, while federally the Healthy Families Act lingers.

If you'd like to work on passing a paid sick leave law, contact the

Maine Women's Lobby

They are also doing a story collection project:

Have you - or anyone you know - been affected by the H1N1 virus and had to go to work anyway? Or lost pay because you had to stay home?

Contact Charlotte at cwarren@mainewomen.org or 207.622.0851

You can also provide your story online by answering a few questions.

More about Question 1

The loss of marriage equality in Maine has triggered my deepest cynicism and frustration at our political process as well as at my fellow-Mainers. A friend offered a link to Strong Father's post, about how to help kids with gay or lesbian parents make sense of the vote.

And Greater Good offers a more general resource for thinking about how to help kids learn forgiveness...

The Family Ambassador project helps to educate people about family diversity in Maine and witness the grief and sadness that families might be experiencing right now... they are looking for new families to join!

Talking about Losing Marriage Equality in MAine

It is difficult to know how to talk to children about yesterday's election results regarding marriage equality in Maine. If you believe, as I do, that we are experiencing institutionalized discrimination, the public values reflect a different ideology and set of practices than those we're teaching as core values and responsibilities for our children. Yet, my impulse to criticize the Yes on 1 campaign also perpetuates hurt and fear and worry among my children, and I don't know the standpoints of everyone else's children.

Some children are waking up as victims of discrimination, some as empathetic bystanders and friends, some without language or consciousnesses about the event, some perhaps feeling victorious. Kids will take in the messages and effects of the repeal differently depending on their own identities, family lives, and communities. So, how do we talk about the election in an inclusive, honest, and caring way?

It is probably through storytelling -- letting kids from all kinds of families talk about how this all feels. But where and how and with who? In some way, the worry that kids would talk about families and feelings at school is part of what fueled the Yes on 1 campaign. And yet, if they are not given space to share the multitude of experiences and feelings, how do we grow empathy, how do we banish internalized prejudices?

The Anti-defamation league has resources for teaching relatively young children about prejudice and discrimination. Honoring the reality and existence of discrimination helps all kids see themselves as part of history, part of social structure and part of a hopeful future.

Understanding Prejudice has a booklist coded by age -- the books about gender and family diversity are towards the bottom -- all create opportunities to open up conversations about social justice and our own experiences of isolation, stereotyping, etc.

Although we missed "Ally week" the tools provided by GLSEN might still be useful to us; the concept of being an Ally is a very powerful one for creating cross-identity connections. They also offer a "Safe Space" kit.

Finally, for folks wanting to dig deeper, there are new resources emerging from the social pyschology literature about addressing "stereotype threat." That is, when we know that stereotypes exist, that prejudice is possible, that people might assume negative things about us because of our identity group, we behave in response to that possibility. An instance of discrimination doesn't have to happen to us personally for more generalized prejudice and discrimination to effect us. How might young people whose sexual identities are still emerging or who are questioning their sexual identity confront stereotype threat and how might they behave in response? (see this related teaching tolerance piece on the use of "good morning, girls and boys")

DETOX YOUR TOYBOX --TOMORROW NIGHT -- MY LAST REMINDER :)

Are you curious about Tuesday night's  FREE panel event "Detox Your Toy Box"  (7pm, October 20th, USM Abromson Center  -- parking is FREE) but worried that you'll be overwhelmed with scary information?  There is so much bad news -- check out this Bangor Daily News article  about toxins in the blood of Maine health care workers for a shock -- but feeling shamed, guilty or panicky often immobilizes us instead of helping move us toward action.

At this event, we are going to get the most up-to-date scientific information from David Bellinger, a Harvard researcher with a commitment to translating the science into ideas we can work with.  We're also going to celebrate the most recent community activism on this issue (take part NOW), and learn about upcoming opportunities for making change, with help from Kristine Jenkins of the Environmental Health Strategy Center. 

And, perhaps most important for parents and teachers, Nicole Borrasso, a teacher at FSP, is going to inspire us with stories about the ways that kids are engaged in environmental stewardship through outdoor play, education and  exploration.  They already have ecological intelligence  and we can partner with them to make cleaning the planet both a joyful and an ordinary everyday practice.  See David Sobel's article in YES magazine  for a teaser ... or this more recent YES article  about "place-based" education.  

More follow-up resources to come!