‘Maus’ creator Art Spiegelman speaks about having his book removed. This was on CNN today: 

https://youtu.be/5BmjCDoIyV0

 

‘The collapse of humanity is deathly funny’: Gary Shteyngart on writing comedy in difficult times.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/15/the-collapse-of-humanity-is-deathly-funny-gary-shteyngart-on-writing-comedy-in-difficult-times?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

It was cold but not that cold and I went downtown with my sign this morning. 30 minutes in an SUV pulled up partly on the sidewalk maybe 100 feet in front of me and there was a young man from the building with a phone in his ear opening the car door for someone  I guessed/hoped that someone would be David Banks the new Schools Chancellor. It was. He saw my sign and me and came down the sidewalk to say hi. Other Chancellors haven’t done that. They’ve kept their head down and headed straight for the building’s side entrance. David Banks stuck his hand out and said the sign’s message was what he was going to be about. I said it could change the world. He more than agreed. I reached in my schoolboy bag and pulled out a pre-pandemic ‘cityReader’ and said that that would explain why I’m here. A young mother who had just dropped her kid off at the pre-school that’s right there had a Buffalo Bills knit cap on. I’d seen her before and I offered her my condolences. David Banks offered his too and said what a great young quarterback they had. He even made a little throwing motion. Nothing not to like about the guy.

When the writer Roopa Farooki retrained in medicine, she never imagined she’d be working through a pandemic. She describes how she has coped with the everyday tragedy by putting her experience into words. Here’s a piece about her book in ‘The Guardian’:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/22/the-clap-for-the-nhs-meant-nothing-novelist-turned-doctor-roopa-farooki-on-her-frontline-experience-of-covid?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

‘Brier Patch’. A brand new installation in Madison Square Park.

http://interiordesignblog.org/in-madison-sq-park-brier-patch-literalizes-the-tangles-of-training/

 

Reading Doesn’t Hurt Iowa Kids

Threatening to throw a teacher or librarian in jail would lead to an outcome that would be worse for everyone. A good piece in an Iowa paper:

https://apple.news/AZKA2lLVEO_SnF-pCiD4IQA

 

Freedom Libraries and the Fight for Library Equity

Freedom libraries in the south provided Black residents with access to spaces and books, whether in church basements or private homes.

https://apple.news/ArlMLVuJKRniOZANfA2w2WQ