Lowrider Librarian

I love comics, hip-hop, history and beautiful books.  All these things helped form who I am today. As a librarian I still love comics, hip-hop, history, and beautiful books. I feel it is important to cover these aspects in a library collection. Rarely do all these categories come in one work, but this series has it all.  I was stoked to receive this collection as a gift, but didn't get around to reading it until now. Amazingly beautiful slipcase! The Hip-Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor Vols. 1 & 2 exceeds the bar of comics, art, hip-hop, history and beautiful books standards. It will make an invaluable addition to your library collection.  This comic is published by the amazing Fantagraphics press . Buy it now --your community will appreciate it.  Vol. 1 traces the history of Hip-Hop from the 1970's to 1981.  It is filled with little vignettes about seminal figures and events in Hip-Hop history.  The stories it tells begin in the bronx with kids ro...

Buy this book for your Library An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (The Lamar Series in Western History)by Benjamin Madley is a book that should be in every library in the US.  This book covers an essential history that has heretofore been neglected save for a few works such as Murder State . Series:  The Lamar Series in Western History Hardcover:  712 pages Publisher:  Yale University Press (May 24, 2016) Language:  English ISBN-10:  0300181361 ISBN-13:  978-0300181364 Product Dimensions:  6.1 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches The book covers the history of the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the state of California from 1846-1873.  During this time, the book traces the beginnings of the genocide from scattered massacres to full scale state and federally sponsored militia and military massacre campaigns.  The sheer brutality and callousness against the indigenous people of Califor...

Whiteness in US Libraries [Note--this is a blog post.  These ideas can and will be further developed.  These ideas are sketches of what I am thinking at the moment.  Feedback is encouraged and welcome.] US schools and libraries serve as points of diffusion for Whiteness.   Whiteness, as used in this post is defined as the concept that European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.   Whiteness is purveyed uncritically in libraries.  This shucking of Whiteness is done under the guise of objectivity, of adhering the the 'marketplace' of ideas.  But this so-called neutrality is really an adherence and capitulation to the Whiteness paradigm.   Children of color hear the message of Whiteness--"European people and European culture are more important than other people and other cultures.   Children of color live in a world of discrimination and bias in US schools.   Some t...

This talk was given on 4/20/2016 at PCC for Whiteness History Month at PCC. It is based on my trilogy of blog posts on the history of Whiteness in the US. Here are links to the posts: Colonialism and Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/02/colonialism-and-whiteness-legacy-of.html Slavery (a Tool of Colonialism) and Whiteness: a Legacy of Brutality   http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/03/slavery-tool-of-colonialism-and.html    Embedded #Whiteness: A Legacy of Brutality  http://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/04/embedded-whiteness-legacy-of-brutality.html    Here is the talk: I would love to know what you think about the talk, the concepts and the imagery. Please comment. Thank you,  Max 

What is a Ghazal? Get this book now! I had no idea (other than it is a poetic form from the middle east) until I read the introduction to this wonderful work.  I didn't look it up because I was enthralled with the content of this beatific book!  I didn't know James Foley , but my friend Yago Cura was his good friend.  Hinchas press (Yago Cura publisher) just recently published a book of Poetry entitled Ghazals for Foley.  This is a striking collection of poems written by people to James Foley posthumously.   The book also includes a short story written by Foley that is utterly fascinating, intriguing and beautiful.  I feel like I got to know Jim Foley via these poems and his short story.  The intensity of a life so well lived is reason for a celebration.  The poems vary in quality according to my taste, but there are some really striking and personal words here.  They are all beautiful and in deeply pers...

Information and knowledge are diffused via artistic expression in Hip-Hop culture among other methods. Here is a very brief sketch of some ideas on this topic. ANY and ALL comments will be answered and are valued.  Graffiti and Tags There is a lot of metadata here!   Tags and other graffiti carry metadata. for instance, when one sees a tagger's tag--and one is familiar with the the tagger, then one will know about them--how brave they are--by where they throw up their tags--the more dangerous, the braver. One would know much about their style oftentimes. If they are a local, they might have legendary status, people might know much about the tagger from the metadata derived from their tags, yet they might not even know the tagger's real identity. Murals Political Information Hip-Hop Mural Hip-Hop murals tell stories. Sometimes the story is that of the local neighborhood. The art will be done by someone who intimately knows the neighborhood's charac...