SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH
Lithic Book Club: There There by Tommy Orange
(book discussion) | 2pm
Join us for our first Lithic Book Club Discussion of 2020! We will be discussing There There by Tommy Orange and have copies available at Lithic.
ABOUT THERE THERE — There There is the first novel by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange. Published in 2018, it opens with an essay by Orange as a prologue, and then proceeds to follow a large cast of Native Americans living in the area of Oakland, California, as they struggle with a wide array of challenges ranging from depression and alcoholism, to unemployment, fetal alcohol syndrome, and the challenges of living with an ethnic identity of being “ambiguously nonwhite.” All coalesce at a community pow wow and its attempted robbery.
The book explores the themes of Native peoples living in urban spaces (Urban Indians), and issues of ambivalence and complexity related to Natives’ struggles with identity and authenticity. There There was favorably received, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. The book was also awarded a Gold Medal for First Fiction by the California Book Awards.
ABOUT TOMMY ORANGE — Tommy Orange is a novelist and a writer from Oakland, California, United States. His first book There There was one of the finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Orange was also the recipient of 2019 American Book Awards. Orange is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He attended Institute of American Indian Arts and earned the Masters in Fine Arts. He was born and raised in Oakland, California and currently resides in Murphys, California, where he lives with his wife and son.
SATURDAY, MARCH 7TH
Lithic Book Club: Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
(book discussion) | 2pm
ABOUT FLIGHTS — Flights is a fragmentary novel by the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk. It was originally published in Polish as Bieguni. The book was translated into English by Jennifer Croft. The original Polish title refers to runaways (runners, beguny), a sect of Old Believers, who believe that being in constant motion is a trick to avoid evil.
Set between the 17th and 21st centuries, the novel is a “philosophical rumination on modern-day travel”. It is structured as a series of vignettes, some fictional, and some based on fact – among them that of the Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen’s discovery of the achilles tendon, and the story of Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, the sister of the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, transporting his heart back to Warsaw.
ABOUT OLGA TOKARCZUK — Olga Tokarczuk is a Polish writer, activist, and public intellectual who has been described in Poland as one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful authors of her generation. In 2018, she won the Man Booker International Prize for her novel Flights (translated by Jennifer Croft). In 2019, she was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Tokarczuk is particularly noted for the mythical tone of her writing. She trained as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw and published a collection of poems, several novels, as well as other books with shorter prose works. Flights won the Nike Award, Poland’s top literary prize, in 2008. She attended the 2010 Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss her book Primeval and Other Times and other work. With her novel Księgi Jakubowe (The Books of Jacob), Tokarczuk won the Nike Award again in 2015. In the same year, Tokarczuk received the German-Polish International Bridge Prize, a recognition extended to persons especially accomplished in the promotion of peace, democratic development and mutual understanding among the people and nations of Europe.
THURSDAY, MARCH 12TH
How Poetry Moves in the World: A Theatrical Experience with former Colorado Poet Laureate, David Mason & Friends
(poetry/theatrical) | 7pm
Join us for a unique theatrical experience about how poetry migrates, and how we always live in the land of poetry and imagination — whether we realize it or not.
Written and narrated by special guest, David Mason, this special performance will feature music by John Anglim and Shawnee Rayne*, with supporting roles by George Sibley of Gunnison, Ridgway’s Kierstin Bridger,* Danny Rosen of Lithic Books, and Wendy Videlock of Palisade..
This event has two showings:
Thursday, March 12th at 7pm
Lithic Bookstore & Gallery
138 S Park Square #2020
Fruita, Colorado
*(Please note, Shawnee Rayne will perform Thurs night only, and Kierstin Bridger Wed night only)
ABOUT DAVID MASON — David Mason served as Colorado Poet Laureate from 2010 to 2014. His many books include The Country I Remember, Arrivals, Sea Salt: Poems of a Decade, The Poetry of Life and the Life of Poetry, Ludlow: A Verse Novel, The Sound: New and Selected Poems, Voices, Places: Essays, and Davey McGravy: Tales to be Read Aloud to Children and Adult Children. Mason has also written the libretti for operas by composers Lori Laitman and Tom Cipullo, all of them available on CD from Naxos. His poems, essays, translations and reviews have appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, Harper’s, The Hudson Review, Poetry, The Sewanee Review, The American Scholar, The Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Image. A Professor of English at The Colorado College, Mason has also worked as an estate caretaker in New York and a crab fisherman in Alaska. In 1997 he was a Fulbright Fellow to Greece, where he has lived and taught periodically over forty years. He is also a corresponding member of the Hellenic Authors Society. He has lectured in Mexico, Scotland, Ireland and Australia in addition to many parts of the United States. A native of Washington State, Mason divides his time between Colorado and Tasmania, where his home looks out on World Heritage wilderness and the Southern Ocean.
FRIDAY, MARCH 13TH
Celebrating 127 Years of Women’s Right to Vote in Colorado: A Presentation by Priscilla Walker
(women’s rights/presentation) | 7pm
There are events all over the country this year celebrating the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Nineteenth Amendment, which was ratified in August 1920, reads:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Yet, women in Colorado have had the right to vote since 1893. Learn how and why Colorado women got the vote in this special presentation, “Celebrating 127 Years of Women’s Right to Vote in Colorado” with Priscilla Walker.
ABOUT — Although the 19th Amendment granting women equal voting rights was ratified by 3/4 of the states in August 1920, Colorado women started voting in 1893, 26 years earlier! This presentation highlights a dozen Colorado suffragettes who were inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame and their role in women’s suffrage. We will focus on why Colorado and other western states were ahead of the country in granting women’s voting rights.
ABOUT PRISCILLA WALKER — Priscilla Walker is a Colorado native and the founding chair of the Palisade Historical Society. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
This program is presented by the Fruita Historic Preservation Board and Palisade Historical Society in partnership with History Colorado and the Women’s Vote Centennial Colorado. For further information about this program, visit Facebook: Historical Photos of Women’s Suffrage
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18TH
Solar United Neighbors: Mesa County Solar CO-OP Presentation
(presentation) |6pm
Ever thought about going solar? Join us for a presentation about the Mesa County Solar CO-OP!
FRIDAY, MARCH 20TH
TYSON HAUSDOERFFER & JAY COLE
(poetry) |6pm
ABOUT TYSON HAUSDOERFFER — Tyson Hausdoerffer earned his PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, where he specialized in the study of classical and Renaissance literature through the lens of contemporary theory. He is currently the Director of the Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University, his alma mater, where he also teaches a wide range of subjects including philosophy, English, political science, history, and creative writing.
ABOUT JAY COLE — Raised in Boston, the poet and novelist Jay Cole studied at the University of Massachusetts. He teaches Composition, American Literature, Creative Writing and Professional Writing online at Quincy College, as well as Composition and Creative Writing at Colorado Mesa University.
Lithic Bookstore & Gallery
138 S. Park Square #202
Fruita, CO 81521
(970) 858-3636