Articles on PR for People

Books On Fire

Totalitarian regimes often target books as a threat to their ability to maintain control over the masses. Could the Nazi book burnings of 1933 happen in America? Take a look around, libraries have already begun to ban and banish books. Books on Fire connects the dots by showing us how recent incidents involving public libraries could signal the beginning of a dangerous trend.


NOTES FROM THE WORKING-CLASS: Trash or Truth?

Some uber-wealthy white conservatives believe that the working-classes do not have money because they are moral failures and inferior. They believe the working-classes in the city and in rural areas are stupid. And finally, they worry that one day the masses will rise up against them. That might very well happen if America cannot develop a shared sense of purpose and come together as one people under a strong leader who has integrity. 


THE ROAD TO COURAGE JULIETA ALTAMIRANO CROSBY

In November 2019 Julieta Altamirano-Crosby won a position as a council member for the city of Lynnwood. She is the first Latina to hold that office in Snohomish County. 


For the People | Para la Gente

Many libraries across America offer books and many other digital resources in Spanish. In our own backyard, the Seattle Public Library offers everything from a fine collection of books in Spanish to weekly conversational classes for people to practice Spanish. This month, we focus on the Seattle Public Library’s wealth of Spanish language materials, offered for free as a service to the community. 


January 2020 Connector Magazine

In this issue of the Connector, we feature an extraordinary woman who has made her mark on America. As a child growing up in a small town in Mexico, Julieta Altamirano-Crosby traveled an hour each way to school to get a better education. Traveling on the road from the small town of El Ocotito to the large city of Chilpancingo became a metaphor for her life’s journey. Today she is the governor-appointed commissioner on Hispanic Affairs, serving three counties in Washington state. She’s President and Founder of the WAGRO Foundation and works to break down barriers to education for Latinos. And in November 2019, Julieta won a position as a council member for the city of Lynnwood. She is the first Latina to hold that office in Snohomish County. The podcast that accompanies our article about Julieta Altamirano-Crosby is available in both English and Spanish

 

                                                                                            


NOTES FROM THE WORKING-CLASS: The Last Star

Downtown Seattle is about to lose its Macy’s. The Macy’s building on Third Avenue and Pine Street was first occupied by the iconic Bon Marché that opened in 1890 to serve the working-class. Through a complex series of corporate mergers & acquisitions, the Bon Marché morphed into Bon-Macy’s and eventually became Macy’s flagship store in Seattle. When Macy’s closes its doors on February 28, 2020, the end of this era will signal the death knell for the way the working-class used to shop.


NOTES FROM THE WORKING CLASS: The Bowery Among Us

Betwixt and between New York City and Seattle, the former sites of Skid Rows are quickly becoming occupied by luxury homebuyers and high-end office buildings. Even though the poor have been forced out, they have not gone away. Skid Row has metastasized everywhere. There are more homeless than ever, but they have splintered off into small clusters. They live in the most harsh and frightful way: tucked under blankets, tarps and sleeping bags, in between alleys and in the empty spaces of retail parking lots, loading docks, storefronts, and on the greenbelts along side freeways. This Holiday Season please give to the shelter or mission in your neighborhood.


The Tulsa City-County Library System | Honoring the Twenty-first Century

This month, we profile the Tulsa City-County Library system in Oklahoma. The library’s many outstanding programs, ethnic research resources, and forward thinking services enrich life and learning for Oklahomans in the Twenty-first Century. The library also embodies the true meaning of the term Sankofa: We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today.


December 2019 Magazine

Time and money are two valuable assets. With money, we can make money and lose money, and then we can make money all over again. On the other hand, time is one asset that when we give it away, it’s gone. You can’t take back the time you have given away. Yet according to award-winning author and documentary filmmaker John de Graaf, you can, indeed, take back your time. 

 


The Sumner Library | Serving Immigrants

One of the forty-one libraries in the Hennepin Library System, the Sumner Library is a Carnegie Library that dates back to 1915. Built in a Tudor Revival Style of architecture, the famed brick L-shaped library features coved ceilings and a central tower.  The Library is named for Charles Sumner, who was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and a passionate abolitionist. This Minneapolis library has had a long history of serving immigrants. In the early Twentieth Century, the library was a hub for Jewish immigrants.