Children's Hospital Boston Library News

Two Exciting Author Events: Brookline Booksmith hosting Jodi Picoult and Pamela Druckerman (Bringing Up Bebe)

Jodi Picoult, the best selling author of My Sister’s Keeper and Mercy (both available for checkout at the library) will speak at the Coolidge Corner Theater on Wednesday, February 29th at 6pm.  The Brookline Booksmith is offering free tickets  to individuals who pre-ordering her latest book, Loan Wolf, about a family’s battle over their father’s life-support status following a devastating car accident.  Tickets are also available for general sale by calling the Brookline Booksmith at 617-566-6660 or visiting the Booksmith’s website.

Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting (also available at the library), will speak at the Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, March 1st at 7pm. This event is free to the public.  Read about Bringing Up Bebe, which is one of our featured books this month.

Black History Month 2012

Children’s Hospital Boston Library was fortunate enough to host Judy Richardson, noted filmmaker, editor and lecturer in the Gamble Room on February 13th. Richardson, who was an active staff member of the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement, spoke about her life-changing experience in SNCC and read from Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, which she co-authored with five other former SNCC members. Along with her co-editors, Richardson spent 15 years bringing together the accounts of her fellow SNCC members whose stories were “too important, particularly to coming generations.”

In her talk, Richardson dispelled the myths that the female members of SNCC were “poor, oppressed women” and that the individuals that made up the organization were somehow extraordinary. The women of SNCC, argued Richardson, were strong women who braved threats, violence, and imprisonment but who were also drawn together through the humor, music and dancing that helped them get through the horrors they were facing on a daily basis. She also stressed that it is important for younger generations to understand that normal, everyday people were the driving force of the Civil Rights Movement, not just legendary figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. In her conclusion, Richardson drew parallels from her experiences in the Civil Rights Movement to modern struggles against economic and racial inequalities the nation continues to face.

We thank Judy Richardson for sharing her experiences of being a young women fighting for Civil Rights. This event was sponsored by the Black History Month Observance Committee; the Hospital Library; the Office of Faculty Development; the Diversity and Cultural Competency Council; Human Resources and the Office of Fellowship Training.