Northport Summer Writers’ Series examines Social Justice: Past, Present, and Future
From staff reports
The Friends of the Leelanau Township Library Summer Writers’ Series this year examines the theme, “Social Justice: Past, Present, and Future.” All events are held at 7 pm at the beautiful Willowbrook Mill in Northport.
The series’ second event on July 18 will feature Glen Arbor Sun editor and author Jacob Wheeler whose book, Angel of the Garbage Dump: How Hanley Denning Changed the World, One Child at a Time, is required reading for anyone who feels the call to serve humanity through social justice. Denning, a native of Maine, was spurred to action when she saw garbage pickers competing with vultures for food dumped by trucks at the Guatemalan City dump. She pulled thousands of children out of one of the largest urban landfills in the Americas by launching Safe Passage, an educational reinforcement nonprofit.
On July 25, the writers’ series welcomes Sarah Shoemaker, author of Children of the Catastrophe, a beautifully written, historically accurate novel that tells the story of the downfall of the Greeks in Smyrna through the saga of the fictional Melopoulos family and the injustice they experienced after World War I.
The final writer’s talk on Aug. 1 will be given by Soon-Young Yoon, author of Citizen of the World a collection of her reflections as a feminist who has worked for both the United Nations and international women’s organizations. She asks us to look at the world through women’s eyes to see how gender equality makes a difference in solving problems.
All events will be followed by dessert and refreshments.
The first event in the series was held on July 11 in memory of Nancy Giles. Author Dave Dempsey read from his book, Great Lakes for Sale. The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and the drought-ridden western United States wants to get their hands on it. Wall Street is creating markets that would treat fresh water as a commodity. New action and thinking are necessary to devise a plan for sharing the Great Lakes to forestall human disasters.
The Friends of the Leelanau Township Library supports the library programs and acquisitions and is open to anyone for a $1 membership contribution. Information can be found on the Leelanau Township Library website, LeelanauTownshipLibrary.org.
