Poverty

[close] Join author Richard Biggs as he discusses his new book There Is No Hope Here, a story about poverty in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky and a woman's remarkable effort to help.

[close] A place to discuss all the unique aspects of Deaf culture as highlighted in the thriller Silent Fear (A novel inspired by true crimes) by Lance & James Morcan. This group can also be an intersection of sorts where Deaf and hearing people can engage and learn from each other.

[close] Punk Hostage Press is a not-for-profit book publishing imprint that also acts as a an outreach program to connect writers and contemporary literature with people who are in programs and institutions who have a vital connection to writing and foster a literary arts bridge that has an impact at a community level.

[close] “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Lilla Watson Peace Corps and International Development is problematic, and as a returned volunteer, I have been wanting for some time to critically re-examine my overseas experience, to think through its explicit and implicit power dynamics. How do issues of race, class, gender, colonialism, and geopolitics inform the "do-gooder" mentality of volunteer and paid international development work, and what does that mean for its impact on volunteers, host communities, and others? Change begins with learning, and that is why I wanted to start this group where we could read, discuss, and share centered on thought-provoking books that bring a more critical perspective to Peace Corps and ID organizations. One goal is to create a syllabus to be shared with future or returned Peace Corps Volunteers as well as others, something akin to Ibram X. Kendi's anti-racist syllabus for Ralph Northam. What would we imagine for Peace Corps and ID organizations if we incorporated a true grappling with our place in the world, this work, its dynamics, and discourses of improvement?