THURSDAY, MAY 20, 7pm – NON-FICTION
STEPHAN SALISBURY
author of Mohamed’s ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland ($26.95 Nation Books)

Mohamed Ghorab had no hint one late spring morning that when he dropped his daughter off at school, his life would change forever. Federal agents and police surrounded him in front of terrified parents, teachers and school children. They hustled him off to jail and eventually deported him. His wife was detained at the same time. Agents raided the obscure Philadelphia mosque where Ghorab was imam, ransacking its simple interior and his house next door.
This was a fearful time in the life of America following 9/11, as prize-winning reporter Stephan Salisbury well knew. But he did not anticipate the extremity of fear that emerged as he explored the aftermath of that virtually forgotten raid. Over time, the members of the mosque and the imam’s family opened up to him, giving Salisbury a unique opportunity to chronicle the demolition of lives and families, the spread of anti-immigrant hysteria and its manipulation by the government.
As he explored these events, Salisbury was constantly reminded of similar incidents in his own past—the paranoia and police activity that surrounded his political involvement in the 1960s and the surveillance and informing that dogged his father, Harrison Salisbury, a well-known New York Times reporter and editor, for half a century. Salisbury weaves these strands together into a personal portrait of an America fracturing under the intense pressure of the war on terror—the homeland in the time of Osama.

“Stephan Salisbury tells a dark and important story that has not been told before and that vividly conveys the texture of the lives of men and women caught up in a web of hostility and government interference.” Gay Talese

“Drawing on his own history as an antiwar dissident, Salisbury writes compassionately of the families destroyed and the lives ruined by government-orchestrated repression. This is a vital document for our times, lyrical to an extent unexpected in a political book, yet imbued with a fervor that at every turn is made just by dogged, scrupulous reporting.” Ken Kalfus, author of The Commissariat of Enlightenment

“Stephan Salisbury has written a deeply reported, thoughtful meditation on what happens when a society decides it needs to spy on its own. Salisbury’s immersive account of the real-life consequences that happen when an entire community is placed under suspicion makes it clear that covert government surveillance comes with costs that can’t be measured on any balance sheet. Everyone agrees that abuses of power are bad, but Salisbury pushes readers to ponder the consequences—for individuals and for our open, democratic society—that accompany even the legal variety of permanent surveillance.” Michael Schaffer, author of One Nation Under Dog

Stephan Salisbury is the senior cultural writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he has been a reporter for three decades. He has covered everything from the Pennsylvania prison system, unrest in Ireland and Eastern Europe and the coup in Turkey to the culture wars in the United States and the disruptions of American life in the wake of 9/11. He has received numerous awards and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize as part of an Enquirer team investigating local election fraud in 1995. He is married to the painter Jennifer Baker; they have a daughter and a son.

FRIDAY, MAY 7, 7pm – NON-FICTION
Art Sanctuary, The Brothers Network & Moonstone Arts Present
KEITH GILYARD
author John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism ($39.95 University of Georgia Press)

“John Oliver Killens is a genius of the South, and Keith Gilyard has honored this youngblood, civil rights and union activist, novelist, dramatist, and screenwriter in a superb biography. Gilyard’s engaging written voice draws us into a dramatic and important life, and his deep commitment to the highest standards of research inspires our trust and admiration. John Oliver Killens ably documents and brings to life the yearnings and accomplishments of a major figure in our national literature.” – Rudolph P. Byrd, Goodrich C. White Professor of American Studies, Emory University

John Oliver Killens’s politically charged novels And Then We Heard the Thunder and The Cotillion; or One Good Bull Is Half the Herd, were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His works of fiction and nonfiction, the most famous of which is his novel Youngblood, have been translated into more than a dozen languages. An influential novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and teacher, he was the founding chair of the Harlem Writers Guild and mentored a generation of black writers at Fisk, Howard, Columbia, and elsewhere. Killens is recognized as the spiritual father of the Black Arts Movement. In this first major biography of Killens, Keith Gilyard examines the life and career of the man who was perhaps the premier African American writer-activist from the 1950s to the 1980s. Gilyard extends his focus to the broad boundaries of Killens’s times and literary achievement—from the Old Left to the Black Arts Movement and beyond.

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 7pm – AUTHOR SIGNING
VISIONS OF EXILE
LIGIA RAVÉ author of Hanah’s Paradise
MARK LYONS author of Espejos y Ventanas/ Mirrors and Windows: Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and Their Families

Praise for Hannah’s Paradise

Like Scheherazade, the narrator of Ligia Ravé’s beautifully rendered novel, HANAH’S PARADISE, has to tell stories—in this case her family’s stories—in order to keep memory alive. Primarily, the memories are of suffering, displacement and loss. Only in Hanah’s Paradise, a magical, mystical place in northern Israel, where the history of this far-flung Jewish family is recorded in letters, recipes and songs, can happiness be found. However, this happiness, too, is only temporary—Jews are fated to wander the world, as the patriarch of the family comes to understand. A branch of flowering bamboo will be the sole reminder of their lost paradise. Told in wonderful, vibrant language, the tale of the Ravayah family has the magical, almost dreamlike quality of a García Márquez story, only this story has taken over a thousand years to tell and there is, as yet, no end to it.

Lily Tuck, author of The News from Paraguay, winner of the 2004 National Book Award

An epic of faith and family, Hanah’s Paradise spans one of the more eventful millennia of Jewish history. Ligia Ravé writes with passion, wisdom and a profound knowledge of the way the past tugs at the heartstrings of the present moment.

Ken Kalfus, author of three New York Times Notable Books of the Year

Imaginative and playful, HANAH’S PARADISE is Ligia Ravé’s heirloom garden, a paradise lost and rediscovered, lush with erotic poetry, tasty recipes and Jewish mysticism. Ravé takes the reader from Eden to eternity, provocatively proposing a scenario that transcends conflicts in the Middle East.

Arts Critic CARRIE RICKEY:

LIGIA RAVÉ, received a doctorate in art history from the Sorbonne, moved to the United States in 1982. An architect and a scholar, she has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Tulane University, where for a decade she was the Henry Luce Professor of Architecture and Society.

Mark Lyons has published fiction in Whetstone (J. P. McGrath Memorial Award), Bucks County Writer, Sensations, the Schuylkill Valley Journal of the Arts, and Piker Press, and his work has been read in the Writing Aloud series at Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company. He is a recipient of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships for 2003 and 2009 and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The oral histories in ESPEJOS Y VENTANAS / MIRRORS AND WINDOWS grew out of Mark’s extensive work with Latino immigrants in Pennsylvania. It is a collection of rich and profoundly moving stories of the Mexican immigrant community of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, whose three generations have migrated north to work in the world’s largest mushroom industry. Published in both Spanish and English, these oral histories offer a rare window into the aspirations and fears of these immigrants and their children. They also provide personal testimonies of the general struggles of immigrant populations for social, political, and economic rights. Mark currently serves as co-director of the Open Borders Healing Stories Project, in which immigrants produce audio stories about their lives; these stories are webcast, played on radio, and published in Wild River Review.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 7pm – NON-FICTION
LISA TRACY
author of Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family’s Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time ($25.00 Random House)

After their mother’s death, Lisa Tracy and her sister, Jeanne, are left to contend with several households’ worth of furniture and memorabilia, much of it accumulated during their family’s many decades of military service in far-flung outposts from the American frontier to the World War Two–era Pacific. In this engaging and deeply moving book, Tracy chronicles the wondrous interior life of those possessions and discovers that the roots of our passion for acquisition often lie not in shallow materialism but in our desire to possess the most treasured commodity of all: a connection to the past.
What starts as an exercise in information gathering designed to boost the estate’s resale value at auction evolves into a quest that takes Lisa Tracy from her New Jersey home to the Philippines and, ultimately, back to the town where she grew up. These travels open her eyes to a rich family history characterized by duty, hardship, honor, and devotion—qualities embodied in the very items she intends to sell. Here is an inventory unlike any other: silver gewgaws, dueling pistols that once belonged to Aaron Burr (no, not those pistols), a stately storage chest from Boxer Rebellion–era China, providentially recovered family documents, even a chair in which George Washington may or may not have sat—each piece cherished and passed down to Lisa’s generation as an emblem of who her forebears were, what they had done, and where they had been. Each is cataloged here with all the richness and intimacy that only a family member could bring to the endeavor.

“Even as we know we should be winnowing, we’re wallowing,” observes Lisa Tracy in one of her characteristically trenchant observations about America’s abiding obsession with “stuff.” A paean to the pack rat in us all, Objects of Our Affection offers an offbeat and intriguing mix of cultural anthropology, Antiques Roadshow Americana, and military history and lore, as well as a thoughtful meditation on the emotional resonance of objects—what they mean and the oh-so-fascinating stories they tell.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 7pm – FICTION
Art Sanctuary and Moonstone Present
L.A. BANKS
Vampires, Werewolves, and Romance in America: Myth and Reality in the Fiction of L.A. Banks

New York Times Best-selling author, L.A. Banks has penned over 35 novels and 12 novellas in a wide range of genres and is the recipient of the 2008 Essence Magazine Storyteller of the Year Award, as well as the 2008 Best 50 Women in Business Award for the State of Pennsylvania. Recently she was featured as a speaker on the HBO Special on Vampire Literature and Legends as a prelude to the True Blood premier.
A native of Philadelphia, Banks is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania Wharton undergraduate program, and alumnae of Temple University’s Master of Fine Arts in filmmaking program. Ms. Banks began her career in corporate marketing for several Fortune 100 firms and worked as an executive for over a decade at Xerox, Hewlett Packard, and Digital Equipment Corporation. She then subsequently evolved her veteran marketing experience into a solid entrepreneurial career as a marketing consultant within the economic development and community-based organization environment.
In 1992, Banks added another facet to her career, entering the publishing industry. She writes under the pseudonyms; L.A. Banks, Leslie Esdaile, Leslie E. Banks, Leslie Banks, and Leslie Esdaile Banks. She has won several business as well as literary awards, and writes in genres as diverse as romance, women’s fiction, crime suspense, and paranormal. She has contributed to magazines, newspaper columns, and has written commercial fiction for a variety of major publishers: St. Martin’s Press (NYC), Simon and Schuster (NYC), Kensington Publishing (NYC), BET/Arabesque (NYC), Genesis Press (MS), Parker Publishing, Harper, and Tor. Her non-fiction work includes the riveting and motivational story of Bank’s life journey in her contribution to the Chicken Soup for the African American Soul anthology. Banks’ writing career took a new twist in 2000 when she won the coveted contract with Paramount/Showtime in collaboration with Simon & Schuster/Pocketbooks to write a book series for the popular cable network television series, Soul Food. Banks was also contracted to write the Universal Studios/Dark Horse Press novelization of the movie, Scarface, which takes a look at the main character Tony Montana’s life two years before he emigrated from Cuba to American in 1978. In addition, Banks penned a four-book crime thriller for Kensington/Dafina, beginning with Betrayal of the Trust, under her alternate pseudonym, Leslie Esdaile Banks. From there, Banks transitioned into another hot genre—the world of paranormal fiction, where she is currently penning a 12 book Vampire Huntress Legend series under the pen name, L.A. Banks, for St. Martin’s Press, as well as a hot new werewolf series, Crimson Moon Novels debuting spring 2008. Banks is also moving into graphic novels and manga for her thriving Vampire Huntress Legends series, as well as a young adult paranormal sheroes and heroes series.
Currently Banks writes full-time, always working on multiple projects and anthologies simultaneously, and she resides in Philadelphia.

MONDAY, APRIL 12, 7pm – NON-FICTION
DR. PATTI FEUEREISEN
author of Invisible Girls: The Truth about Sexual Abuse ($16.95 Seal Press)
April is Sexual Abuse/Assault Month and The Statistics Are Staggering

You are invited to join us for an enlightening and compelling discussion and reading to hear voices of sex abuse survivors as you’ve never heard before while Dr. Patti reads from her new edition- This will be a frank and daring talk about a subject that is often not spoken about. Dr. Patti will be available for comments and after the reading. One in four girls will experience sexual abuse by the time she is sixteen, and 48 percent of all rapes involve a young woman under the age of eighteen. It’s not surprising then, that in a society where sexual abuse of young women is rampant, many women never share their stories. They remain hidden and invisible.
Patti Feuereisen, Ph.D.—or Dr. Patti— a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City, is a pioneer in the treatment of sexual abuse, particularly in treating adolescent girls and young women and the author of Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse—A Book For Teen Girls, Young Women, and Everyone Who Cares About Them. An updated re-issue of Invisible Girls was released in September 2009 with new chapters, including one focusing on sexl trafficking of teen girls. Her website www.girlthrive.com is an invaluable resource for young female sex abuse survivors from around the world and, in 2004, Dr. Feuereisen founded Girlthrive Inc.—the only non profit charity specifically designed to honor teen girls and young women who have survived sexual abuse through scholarships, opportunity and education. Prior to her full-time private practice, Dr. Patti worked in group homes, private psychiatric hospitals, and foster care agencies with teen girls.
Sexual abuse and incest are not topics often discussed in public. Dr. Patti’s approachable, interactive workshops and talks elicit understanding for those who haven’t experienced sexual abuse as well as healing for those who have been hurt. Dr. Patti is a compelling speaker for Take Back The Night events and Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming. Her message is honest and yet always inspiring. After more than two decades treating incest survivors, she has seen over and over again that girls can heal from sexual abuse.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 7pm – NON-FICTION
LISA LEVENSTEIN
author of A Movement Without Marches: African American Women and the Politics of Poverty in Postwar Philadelphia ($45.00 University of North Carolina Press)

“A Movement Without Marches offers a subtle and illuminating portrait not only of political and civic activism, but also of social and economic citizenship in the making, as we learn how African American working-class women worked to make Philadelphia’s public institutions work for rather than against their needs, interests, and rights.” — Alice O’Connor, author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Twentieth-Century United States History

“If we could persuade our elected representatives to consider the historical context in which they make policies regarding welfare and poverty that impact the lives of women and their families this would be one book they should read. The stories here challenge one-dimensional sound bites that too often suffice in public discourse on these issues.” — Tera W. Hunter, author of To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War

“A Movement Without Marches is a deeply humane account of poor women’s struggles for dignity and survival. Lisa Levenstein combines history from the bottom up with an unparalleled account of the institutions, from courts to schools, that shaped and constrained black women’s lives. Her book opens up new ways of thinking about the unfinished history of race, gender, and civil rights in modern America.” — Thomas J. Sugrue, author of Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North

In this bold interpretation of U.S. history, Lisa Levenstein reframes highly charged debates over the origins of chronic African American poverty and the social policies and political struggles that led to the postwar urban crisis. A Movement Without Marches follows poor black women as they traveled from some of Philadelphia’s most impoverished neighborhoods into its welfare offices, courtrooms, public housing, schools, and hospitals, laying claim to an unprecedented array of government benefits and services. Levenstein uncovers the constraints that led women to public institutions, emphasizing the importance not only of deindustrialization and racial discrimination but also of women’s experiences with sex discrimination, inadequate public education, child rearing, domestic violence, and chronic illness. Women’s claims on public institutions brought a range of new resources into poor African American communities. With these resources came new constraints, as public officials frequently responded to women’s efforts by limiting benefits and attempting to control their personal lives. Scathing public narratives about women’s “dependency” and their children’s “illegitimacy” placed African American women and public institutions at the center of the growing opposition to black migration and civil rights in northern U.S. cities. Countering stereotypes that have long plagued public debate, A Movement Without Marches offers a new paradigm for understanding postwar U.S. history.

Lisa Levenstein is assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.