NEW GUEST SPEAKER

I had coffee yesterday with Jonathan Coleman, author of "Long Way to Go: Black and White in America". He has agreed to be one of our guest speakers for the show. This is very exciting for us! Not only will we be producing an important theatrical work, but it looks like we may be able to reach out to the community to open a dialogue about race in general...

About Jonathan Coleman's book:

Amazon.com
Jonathan Coleman uses the city of Milwaukee--one of the most segregated in the country--as the lens through which to consider race in America. Black Milwaukeeans suffer an unemployment rate of about 20 percent, the result of the city's losing 60,000 jobs between 1979 and 1983 as it changed from a manufacturing to a service economy. The great success of Long Way to Go is that it shows us the human faces that lie behind the statistics, people like Georgette and Maron Alexander. After losing his high-paying manufacturing job, Maron Alexander found work paying $6 an hour, while his wife makes $5.50 an hour as a cook. They manage to feed their children and are sending their oldest daughter to college, but, at times, Maron Alexander can't help thinking that with his service insurance policy, his family would be better off if he were dead.

From Library Journal
Coleman's new book is a stunner. The former journalist and television news producer tackles the prickly topic of racism in the United States, particularly through the prism of both black and white citizens of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Coleman's narrative technique is superb, mixing investigative reporting with the storytelling style of the late Charles Kurault; the reader will become steadily engrossed while meeting people drawn from all walks of life as they spin their tales of how they view the specter of racism in America. While Coleman is sympathetic to most of the African American community members he meets, he intellectually distances himself from some of their ideas that he sees as ill-founded or self-serving. A brilliant work that approaches racism in America through the eyes, mouths, and hearts of those who have lived through it on the front lines. Highly recommended for all libraries.