Lowrider Librarian

[This is the last installment of a three part series on Whiteness.]   Whiteness is a concept that describes the cultural, lingual, institutional beliefs, practices and behavior that maintains access to power and reinforces power for White people and people of lighter skin tones.   This colonial system was created for and by Europeans for the benefit of Europeans. Everything was in relation to the European--this is a hallmark of the concept of Whiteness--that everything is judged in relation to Whiteness and not something else.   Whiteness is embedded in the fabric of everyday life in the US The use of patrols to capture runaway slaves was one of the precursors of formal police forces, especially in the South. Slave patrols were organized groups of three to six white men who enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum U.S. southern states. http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-poli...

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...

Part 2 of  a 3 part series on Whiteness and colonialism. [This post is in no way meant to be an exhaustive historical analysis of Slavery and Whiteness.  It is meant to introduce the topic and is meant as a tool for discussion.  Time limitations prohibit me from writing more extensively on this topic.  Thank you for reading.] Plan of the Slaver Vigilante.  Image source:  http://goo.gl/BTYfpC "...northern European settlers and traders, such as the English and Dutch, had less prior exposure to sub-Saharan Africans, or to Mediterranean slavery systems. Their laws for establishing chattel slavery formed primarily in the context of the New World, with a heightened economic incentive to secure slavery for plantation agriculture through rigid racial hierarchies." http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/sectionii_introduction/contrasting_beginnings_of_slav Slavery and Whiteness Slavery and Whiteness go together li...

Why Librarians Should Care About Skateboarders: A Personal Outreach Project By Matt Allison Mesa Public library in NM has a skatepark!               After Hurricane Sandy until the summer of 2015 the Peninsula Library served the Rockaway Beach community out of temporary spaces. As my staff and I waited for a fully operational library to reopen we had time to plan. I got attached to the community.   Along with the overall rebuilding I enjoyed seeing the surf community build a temporary skate park. I moved nearby in 2014. I got approved at work to have a special skateboard and surf collection. I got the green light to try programming. We reopened in September 2015. Making a connection to the skateboarding and surfing scene has been more difficult than I anticipated.   At work my pet project is to connect public libraries and skateboarders. For my area it’s logical to add surfing. This article will not foc...