Saturday Sharing (My Finds Are Yours)

Today's edition of Saturday Sharing features links to a site that offers books you can check out and return virtually, a place where poets can engage in "community publishing", a global initiative to bring together 100,000 poets for change, and more. Enjoy!

✦ April marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. The Smithsonian offers online a trove of fascinating resources commemorating the occasion.

✦ At the new allwritethen, every poet has a voice and a say in "community publishing". The 40 poems voted "Most Popular" are to be published in a semiannual print issue.

✦ ArtSanctuary, founded in 1998 by Lorene Cary, brings established and aspiring African-American writers, performers, and artists to North Philadelphia for lectures, performances, and educational presentations. In addition to its annual Celebration of Black Writing, the organization offers, among other initiatives, the Hip H'Opera project, which takes artists and music workshops to inner-city schoolchildren and their teachers, and Act 48 workshops for the classroom.

ArtSanctuary on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube

ArtSanctuary Blog

✦ More than 1 million free e-book titles are available to read without restriction at Open Library, a project of the nonprofit Internet Archive that receives both public and private funding. Account holders may borrow up to five e-books at a time from the Lending Library; a "Return Cart" shows what's been put back on the virtual shelf. To access, readers may choose to borrow an in-browser version that uses Internet Archive's BookReader web application, or a PDF or ePub version, the later managed by Adobe Digital Editions software. They may be use laptops, library computers, and the iPad or other tablet devices.

Recently, a group of libraries entered into a cooperative venture to make a huge collection of mostly 20th Century books available for lending at Open Library. That initiative is expected to result in increased e-book use and could become a revenue stream for publishers. Last fall, Open Library announced the release of books for the "print-disabled community" in a format called "Daisy".

Open Library aims to provide a page on the Web for every book ever published. Through a wiki interface, readers may contribute information about books or make corrections to existing book pages.

Open Library FAQs

Open Library Blog

✦ Poets Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion have launched a project — 100 Thousand Poets for Change — to bring together 100,000 poets from around the world to inspire and encourage social and political change. The effort will culminate in a global event on Saturday, September 24. Those interested in organizing or participating in their own local event may sign up on FaceBook. Already in place are plans for 85 cities representing 20 countries. According to Rothenberg, "The idea is to get people out of the house, get them to meet their neighbors in ever-growing times of alienation, and do something good at the local community level while celebrating the arts."

Rothenberg is editor of the online Big Bridge magazine; Carrion is assistant editor and visual designer.

100 Thousand Poets for Change Blog

✦ Below is a slide show of "Where Children Sleep", photographs by James Mollison. Mollison traveled around the world (from England and the United States to Brazil, Lesotho, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, Israel, Kenya, the West Bank, and China) to make portraits of children and pair them with photographs of the places they sleep. These are arresting, thought-provoking images, none more so than the one of "Joey" of Kentucky. The photographs are published in Where Children Sleep (Chris Boot Ltd., London, 2010). (My thanks to PBS NewsHour Art Beat, where I first saw the slide show.)

James Mollison Images at Flatland Gallery

Where Children Sleep at Issuu (The book is available to read here.)

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