The Native American People Need Books

From: Al Franken <heythere@alfranken.com>
Date: April 25, 2019
Dear Friends,

I’ve been working on a project that I’d like your help with: providing books for a school library on an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota. The school is the brand-new Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School at the Leech Lake Reservation.

You can learn all about the school and how you can help on my new website, AlFranken.com.
For years as a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, I fought for funding to replace the old, disgracefully dilapidated and unsafe physical plant. There were rodents, sewage back-up, and the walls and roof leaked so badly that students wrapped themselves in blankets over their coats in the cold northern Minnesota winters. As one of the students told me, “It was as if the federal government was telling us we weren’t worth anything.”

When I first toured the old school years ago, I was particularly struck with the school’s library. It was in a room the size of a closet and contained two small bookshelves. I toured the new school this past August when I spoke at the ribbon cutting. It’s an impressive structure, with geothermal heating, spacious classrooms, and video conferencing technology. The library has the capacity for up to 20,000 books!  And that’s why the library will serve the entire community, from preschoolers to the tribal elders and everyone in between.

We want all kinds of books. Classics that every child in America should read, from Dr. Seuss to Mark Twain. I also wanted the library to have a meaningful collection of books about the history and culture of Native People. There is a very special person at the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School working with me - Laurie Jo Villwock, the school’s librarian. With the help of Native authors, educators, and librarians, Laurie has been pulling together literature and non-fiction about the American Indian experience. I also reached out to tribes around the country, and, so far, we have received more than a hundred books about Native history and culture.

There is a link to the list on the website, and we have a format that makes it easy – like a wedding registry. You can donate one or more of the books on the list. Click to find a book that you love and want a student to discover. And if your favorite book has already been chosen, click on another. Or, if you REALLY want to share a particular books and don’t see it on the list, email Laurie.

This email is going to a lot of people, so there’s a chance that when you click on the list, all or almost all, of the books will already have been donated. And if you have a problem selecting, please try again, because the school librarian will be updating the list throughout the school year.

If you would prefer to make a financial donation to the school, you can also do that through my website. 

And thanks!
Al
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Climate Change and School Segregation

For the sake of the future of our world-wide civilizations, world peace, the preservation and protection of the environment, and our American Democracy (or whatever type of government that enables equality, and the optimum potential for all people); we must work together with intelligent, rational thought to synthesize the best ideas, efforts, and actions to save our home (planet earth) from the real threat of uninhabitability. Therefore education for every child is paramount.  jha

The following article describes the extreme difficulties in public education due to obstacles of race relations, economics, and test score levels. If there could ever be a breakthrough into the potential of the human mind; it has to be through a good public education system. A system blind to any and all obstacles. Jha

san-francisco-school-segregation

“In San Francisco, a Hard Lesson on  Integration, NYT, April 26, 2019, By Dana Goldstein
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/san-francisco-school-segregation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Parents want their children to attend schools close to home.
Fact: “Good” and “bad” parents will always exist; like teachers and other professionals.
The movement of children across the district has success and failure; but no mention of the movement of teachers and administrators. jha

Abstract Expressionist Phillip Guston

Guston was still in his early teens when his Los Angeles public high school art teacher, the improbably named Frederick John de St. Vrain Schwankovsky, introduced him to mystics P. D. Ouspensky and J. Krishnamurti as well as to modernists Pablo Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico, all of whom were equally exotic to Americans of that era.

Following his expulsion from school for coauthoring a satire of the English Department with Pollock, Guston worked at a bookstore and as a film extra, among various odd jobs.

https://www.britannica.com/art/Abstract-Expressionism

“If This Be Not I“ 1945

 

The Chicago Botanical Garden

                  I needed a break today;
              A wellness day was the way.

The Chicago Botanical Garden was mine to take;
          A brisk walk and some photos to make.

There seems nothing quite like the gaze into nature;

            especially when it returns the favor. 

                                    jha

My American Flag Art

The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC)

 I hope some of you can benefit from various methods I use to inform my art.
My focus today was:
1. A three channel digital video installation” about the erosion of the merger between two groups of countries, one group wanting independence from colonization; and another group of countries connected by the same religion. (Informs my need to represent a socio-political reference in my paintings.)
2. Mezzotints of Hamanishi Katsunori. (His images inform my jewelry)
3. And from catalogues in the Ryerson&Burnham Library, abstract prints and paintings by Helen Frankenthaler. (Informs my Painting; Abstract Expressionism is the greatest mystery to me, and therefore the most challenging.)

The Art Institute of Chicago

My goal this year is to visit the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) more often. Every Visit reveals something new. My solo experience allows me to have a relaxed focus on the details in one piece and read the descriptions. I like to spend the whole day for a total emersion. It is important to determine a specific focus for each visit. 

My theme for today was the texture and application of the painted surface. And the resulting tonal gradations of color. I have discovered the abstract expressionism within realist paintings. Without a focus of what you want to accomplish, it is very easy to become overwhelmed with the totality of a visual bombardment to the senses.

The AIC is a world class museum exposing millions of people from all interests and backgrounds. My membership each year makes my experience so much more enjoyable, expansive, and affordable. This place feels like a home away from home. Learning about the world through art is easy and fun.