Friday Link Roundup
September 20, 2013
Here's some recommended reading around the web from this past week:
—Richard Blanco delivered the manuscript for his memoir, For All of Us, One Today, last month. We're fast-tracking it, so it comes out in November.
—In other Richard Blanco news, his Inaugural poem "One Today" is being turned into a children's book with Dav Pilkey as the illustrator.
—Details named Chris Stedman one of five "next-gen gurus who are distrupting religion's status quo."
—Last week's devastating molasses spill in Hawai'i killed thousands of fish, but there is some "good" news. Grieg Steward, associate professor of oceanography at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa says, "a molasses spill can be cleaned up faster by natural processes, not only because molasses dissolves in water, but because so many bacteria can digest sugars. Only specialized types of bacteria can break down oil."
—A fire that raged in forest land in and around Yosemite National Park has left a barren moonscape in the Sierra Nevada mountains that experts say is larger than any burned in centuries.
—A Kickstarter campaign launched this month to raise funds to complete the Sonia Sanchez documentary, BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez.
—This past weekend, Randall Kerrick, a black man, was shot 10 times and killed by police. This tragic event was set in motion, because he had been seeking assistance after a car accident, went to a nearby house where a white woman opened her front, and fearing a robbery, shut it and called 911. Over on Salon, Neil Drumming asks if racism is in our brains. (For more on this topic, see the Beacon book Are We Born Racist?)
—Kate Bornstein is one of 10 nominees for Out magazine’s “Out100: Readers' Choice Award 2013,” recognizing nominees for their work and impact around a social cause.
—The University of California Press blog marks the second anniversary of the Occupy movement with an excerpt from Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse
—BuzzFeed has 15 Types of Readers, as Told by Cats and Dogs (We think we're the emotionally invested reader and the reader who wants to expand her horizons.)
—Just in time for Banned Books Week, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man gets banned from school libraries in Randolph County, North Carolina.
—Also, Banned Books Week starts September 22!