[close] Once a child laborer who trekked with his impoverished family from Mexico to the fields of California to pick strawberries and cucumbers, Jose M. Hernandez recently traveled into space as an astronaut on the Discovery space shuttle. His story honors both the desperate struggle of immigrants and the greatness of which they are capable. These words and this movie are my attempt to honor him. [close]

[close] The story of the young sociologist who studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside captured the world's attention when it was first described in Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrance into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment. When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. A first-year grad student hoping to impress his professors with his boldness, he never imagined that as a result of the assignment he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of a decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there. Over the next seven years, Venkatesh got to know the neighborhood dealers, crackheads, squatters, prostitutes, pimps, activists, cops, organizers, and officials. From his privileg [close]

[close] Performed by the Community College of Vermont, Spring 2009 Intro to Film class, based on BIG AMERICAN TRIP, by Christian Peet. Manifesting the vision of BIG AMERICAN TRIP, a diverse group of activists, actors, artists, musicians, writers, and concerned individuals from all over the US have collaborated with the author to create a polyvocal series of video readings / interpretations based on the book. Assuming the form of postcards authored by an "alien" of unknown nationality, ethnicity, and gender, addressing a variety of people and organizations (political figures, multinational corporations, people in public toilets, et al), BIG AMERICAN TRIP is a startling document of fear and loneliness in the 21st century U.S. Whether deconstructing road signs, a failed relationship, or the state of contemporary poetry, the voice(s) behind these texts is/are at once familiar and strange, determined to be free, and desperate to communicate with anyone who has ever felt at odds with the Language of a Nation. [close]

[close] Peter Carey's His Illegal SelfA short trailer for His Illegal Self, the latest novel from two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey. For more information please visit http://www.petercareybooks.com or http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/displ... http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/displ... ...From:knopfgroupViews:1162 0ratingsTime:01:34More inEntertainment [close]

[close] Rinku Sen talks with the Progressive Book Club about her new book, "The Accidental American", which deals with immigration in a Post-9/11 world through the story of Fekkak Mamdouh. Sen goes through the common falsities in the immigration debate, and the changes she would like to see. [close]

[close] Fekkak Mamdouh, co-author of The Accidental American and co-founder of Restaurant Opportunities Center United, sits down with the Progressive Book Club in his Manhattan office. He talks to us about his experience as an immigrant working in restaurants, the post 9/11 climate, and his organization, which fights for the rights of restaurant workers all across America. [close]

[close] Progressive Book Club asks Rinku Sen, the co-author of the Accidental American, about the books she loves. Rinku's picks: Edward P. Jones "The Known World", M.G. Vassanji "The In-Between World of Vikram Lall" [close]