Literacyworks January 2018
Happy New Year from the Literacyworks Staff!
Literacyworks is looking forward to a great year. Here are a few things that are coming up:
‘STRAIGHT UP’ 2018
A fundraiser for Literacyworks
When: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018, 6 PM-8:30 PM
Where: Bear Republic Brewing Co. - Lakeside
5000 Roberts Lake Road, Rohnert Park, CA, 94928
DISTINGUISHED JUDGES & PEOPLE’S CHOICE VOTES - COMPETITION COMMENCES 6 PM ~ POLLS CLOSE 8:30 PM
Pre-sale tickets: $35 per person or $40 at the door
Get your tickets here!
*21 and over only
Includes sampling of all Candidates Cocktails, Tasty Snacks, Your All-Powerful VOTE & FUN!
Raffle & Ticket Proceeds to fund
Literacyworks Programs in the North Bay
Go to http://www.literacyworks.org/events for more information.
The 2018 Literacyworks Lectures is getting even better! We now have a collaboration with Copperfield’s Books to bring nationally recognized authors to the North Bay. The new lecture series, Literacyworks and Copperfield’s Books Presents, is a fundraiser for the Literacyworks Center, a project that assists underserved, low income, low literacy adult students in solving the many educational, personal and logistical challenges they face to stay in school and succeed in work.
It is the goal of the Literacyworks and Copperfield’s Books Presents series to promote thoughtful consideration and civil discourse on the importance of literacy and lifelong education in all its various forms. Our focus is how literacy and lifelong education transform lives. We ask our featured speakers to speak on their recently published books and incorporate the importance of education in life’s challenges. We hope that engaging our community through distinguished speaker events will provoke, further, and improve actions taken in our society to support and participate in lifelong learning.
Literacyworks and Copperfield’s Books Presents lectures will be held either on the Petaluma Campus of the Santa Rosa Junior College in the Carole L. Ellis Auditorium or other venues dependent upon capacity needed. We are anticipating 8 or more speakers throughout the year. Speakers scheduled to date are:
Steven Pinker (Monday, March 12, 2018, Copperfield’s Petaluma store) is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations and writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time and The Atlantic. His current book is “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress".
Isabelle Allende (in Conversation with Michael Krasny April 2018, Carole Ellis Auditorium, SRJC Petaluma Campus) is a Chilean author who has written 22 books (all written in her native Spanish and translated into 35 languages) and has sold nearly 70 million copies. Michael Krasny is the host of KQED’s “Forum” program as well as a renowned author and educator.
Greg Sarris (May 2018, Carole Ellis Auditorium, SRJC Petaluma Campus) is an author, screenwriter, producer, scholar, professor and Tribal Chairman of the Graton Rancheria. His most recent book, which will be featured at the lecture, is “How a Mountain Was Made: Stories.”
Ken Auletta (June 2018, Carole Ellis Auditorium, SRJC Petaluma Campus) has written Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine since 1992. He is the author of eleven books, including five national bestsellers. His latest book, “FRENEMIES: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (And Everything Else)” will be featured at the event.
Go to http://www.literacyworks.org/events for the latest speaker list.
As the holiday season closes the year, the presents are offered, the warm friendships renewed, meals together and traditions continued; I am brought to reflect upon the things we have done this year and the thing still to be done. As the last guest leaves the house on New Years Eve and the fire was beginning to flicker, I stepped out into the cool brilliance of a winter night with a great moon creating shadows in the meadow.
We have the opportunity in this life to make a difference, to reach out to offer a hand, a smile for someone who needs one, a chance for someone who hasn’t had one. At a recent workshop with our students, a mother had brought her 2 year old. The child was interested in the strawberries we offered and she carefully moved across the room to get another, each time checking with her mother for permission. As the individuals shared their stories, as we do at most workshops, the mother offered a perspective to the single members of the group. She said, "I have four children. I was in college a few times before, but each time I became pregnant I had to drop out. For those of you who can, stay in school and finish before you start a family. It will increase your chances and your children’s as well. Another student said she had studied accounting a long time ago in Mexico and now she wants to become a CPA. We discussed what that would take and how long it would take. I realized my personal accountant would be a perfect mentor for this student and in this new year it will happen.
Each of us has so much to offer, insights to share and practical advice and experience to offer. We at Literacyworks Center invite you to join us in changing lives one at a time. Please contact us with ideas, questions and suggestions, if you have some time. Happy New Year to each of you.
Chris Schultz
Literacyworks Center Director
