Please plan to attend a program in the Donohue Rare Book Room on March 24^th with USF Associate Professor of Sociology, Stephanie Sears, who will be speaking on Imagining Black Womanhood.  In her recent publication, Imagining Black Womanhood: The Negotiation of Identity and Power within the Girls Empowerment Project, published in 2010 by the State University of New York Press, Professor Sears examines how Black women and girls seek to change both how they perceive and identify themselves as well as how larger society views them within the context of an Afrocentric womanist after-school program. Her book provides a unique opportunity to observe the ways that an organization’s context mediated stereotypes of Black womanhood and structured how women and girls worked with and against each other to construct authentic and respectable Black femininities.

The program begins at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 24^th in the Donohue Rare Book Room. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room

Hello poets and friends of poets!

As we announced in this post a couple weeks ago, we are accepting submissions from students, staff, and faculty poets who would like to read their original work in the 3rd annual Gleeson Poetry Reading and Celebration.

**The date of the reading has changed: it is now Wednesday April 27, 2011 from 5-6:30 p.m., so please make sure you will be available on this date and time if you send us a sample of your work**

Also, we have extended the deadline to submit to March 23, 2011, so you have a few extra days to get your packet ready!

We still have a lot of space left on the itinerary and would love to hear from you!

Please see our original post for the full guidelines.

The Donohue Rare Book Room is pleased to exhibit two recent acquisitions:  Moth and Bonelight and a facsimile edition of the Szyk Haggadah.

Moth and Bonelight with poems by Steven Brown and photographs by Jerry Uelsmann, is an important addition to the Rare Book Room’s growing collection of fine press books with an emphasis on photography. Uelsmann is an American photographer and master printer whose work is known for its surrealistic imagery that he creates from multiple negatives and extensive darkroom production.  On exhibition are the complete platinum prints included in the portfolio, with corresponding poems by Steven Brown. The volume complements additional photographica held in the Donohue Rare Book Room.

The Haggadah is a text about the freeing of the Israelites from ancient Egypt that is read aloud during the Passover Seder. The copy on display is a facsimile of the 1940 edition, considered to be Arthur Szyk’s magnum opus. Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was born in Poland under Russian rule. In 1940 he emigrated to England and then the United States.  He was a renowned graphic artist and book illustrator during the interwar period and gained popularity through his war caricatures, especially those of the leaders of the Axis powers. After the war, he continued to devote himself to justice issues, including supporting the creation of Israel. Szyk’s work is characterized by its social and political commitment, and by its adoption of the tradition of illuminated manuscript production.

On April 14 at noon in the Rare Book Room, Irvin Ungar, proprietor of Historicana and authority on the work of Arthur Szyk will give an illustrated lecture on the Szyk Haggadah. The program is free and open to the public.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room