Reading Her Own Works -- Vivi Hlavsa -- May 20, 2010

Poetry Reading with Vivi Hlavsa

Thursday, May 20,
4:00pm, Reference Room

Stone Ridge Library

Join us for a gathering of Vivi reading her own works. 

Before she retired, Dr. Virginia Hlavsa taught English at Queens College and tutored young adults with learning disabilities. She has three books of poetry, many articles, a 1991 book, Faulkner and the Thoroughly Modern Novel, and she edited a special edition of Women’s Studies on the subject of “Faulkner and Women.” Currently, ViVi runs trips and leads discussions on books, films and social issues for various organizations.

Open Studio: Doris Licht

AAUW member Doris Licht is opening her studio next weekend, 11am - 5 pm. Be sure to drop by, say hello, and check out her great work. Maybe even start your holiday shopping!

Click on the image to read the directions. Doris is #11 on the Woodstock Studio Tour, but you don't have to take the tour to stop by.

From Judith Karpova--

Dear Friends,

My very dear Iraqi friend Namaá Alward, who was in Baghdad with the Human Shields in February and March of 2003, is coming to the United States as a lead singer in a concert at the Cooper Union Great Hall on March 1st.

The concert commemorates the death of Rachel Corrie and the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of her country.

Namaá is an actress and singer, born in 1953. At 18 years old, she won a national prize as the best actress in Iraq.

She was engaged in politics in the communist party.

"There were no other parties or method of expression." she told me. "Very few could maneuver to stay without any announced commitment, to be able to be neutral. And I was an actress, I had to be clear about which camp I was in, about which commitment I had, so being leftist, you are automatically called communist. So I was a member, but a naughty one, and I still am, until today, I just follow my intuition. I don't accept authority and I will never accept it, and any kind of authoritarianism provokes me — this is why I don't accept religion, because you have to follow a path written and decided beforehand for you. This makes me a puppet following the one who moves me. So this is why I was naughty also when I was a communist.

"So I exposed myself and people around me to danger, because it was not allowed to anything but Baathist and follow the god, Saddam Hussein."

She was forced to flee Iraq to escape the Saddam Hussein regime. She found sanctuary in Norway, where she works with political refugees and has won many prizes for her work in theater and film.

In February of 2003 she risked being apprehended by the regime and returned to support the Human Shield project and to see her family before the war.

Last year she came to the US to participate in a similar concert, and she is returning again this year. Her singing is intricate, emotional and pure. I urge everyone who has a chance, to go to Cooper Union and see her and the other world-class musicians and performers in this venue: The Rest is Silence.

Judith Karpova

Women Business Owners -Want to make a cabinet for the Feds?

An AAUW colleague from D.C. who, like me, owns her own business, sent this link to a Washington Post story:

It seems that in 1994 Congress told the Small Business Administration to increase the number of federal small business contracts going to women-owned firms. The goal they set? A modest 5%.

Now, fourteen years later, and only because the DC Circuit Court ruled that the government was unreasonably delaying enactment, the SBA is finally promulgating rules about how that will be done.

Set-Asides On Women's Contracts Criticized - washingtonpost.com: "In proposed rules issued two weeks ago, the federal agency identified just four industries in which it said women-owned small businesses are underrepresented and thereby eligible for set-asides: intelligence; engraving and metalworking; furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and a limited category of motor vehicle dealers."

Four industries! But, according to the Washington Post, here are the facts.

"Women-run companies represent about 30 percent of all privately held firms nationally, but in 2006, the latest year for which data is available, they made up just 3.4 percent of government contracts, according to various surveys."

This is a story to watch and offer our comments...because equity is still an issue.

Thanks to Patty Hankins for the link and the US Women's Chamber of Commerce for suing the SBA for its failure to publish the regs necessary to implement the set-aside program.

Photo by Kelly Sue

Classics in Religion Book Group

Kingston Library

Every Wednesday Morning

10:30 – 11:30 open to all

December 5 and 12, 2007

Agatha Christie's

Star Over Bethlehem
A Christmas Thriller

On two Wednesdays prior to the Christmas holiday we will read the famous mystery-writer's rendition of the Christmas Eve Story. Lucifer/Satan visits Mary to persuade her to kill the illegitimate child. He shows her the future, including the crucifixion, and tells her that her son will be tried and executed as a thief. Christie, an Anglican, offers a theological and spiritual quest in her own brilliant style.

Leader: Rev. Garnette Arledge

Rev. Arledge is a retired chaplain of the hospice program and co-President of the Kingston AAUW. A Woodstock resident, she is author of On Angel's Eve, a book title inspired by this Christie short story. The book is based on Arledge's Hospice work and the Hospice Volunteer training manual she wrote for spiritual and multi-cultural patient-centered compassionate care.