Woodland Reads 2008 begins tomorrow

From the Next Chapter - WOODLAND READS 2008 runs from February 14 through 17:

This year's Woodland Reads program has, as its focus, the book MABEL MCKAY: Weaving the Dream by Greg Sarris.

Woodlanders in League for Literacy (WILL) inaugurated the program in 2002 with The Circuit by Francisco Jiminez and have followed up with a highly successful list of author-related events featuring: Epitaph for a Peach by David Mas Masumoto, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig. The idea is to have as many people as possible read the author¹s work before his arrival so that our whole community is on the same page with that author when he arrives.

Greg Sarris (Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, author and screenwriter) will visit both local high schools and Woodland Community College, speak at a luncheon at the college, speak at Yolo County Museum, and read and sign his books at The Next Chapter. After two days of events with the author, this year's program continues with weaving exhibits and demonstrations at the Yolo County Historical Museum in Woodland, out at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, and over in Winters, at the Winters Participation Gallery.

This gives members of the community several chances to meet the author and to earn about native basket weaving... it's both entertaining and educational.

FEB 14 Thursday - (with the author)
10 am - Classroom Talk at Pioneer High School
12 pm - Author Luncheon & Talk at Woodland Community College, 2300 East Gibson Road in the Community Room, tickets are $20 (available now at The Next Chapter)
2 pm - Classroom Talk at Pioneer High School
4 pm - Classroom Talk at Woodland Community College
7 pm - Author Reading & Book Signing at the Next Chapter Bookstore, 622 Main Street

FEB 15 Friday (with the author)
8 am - Classroom Talk at Woodland High School
10 am - Classroom Talk at Woodland High School
2 pm - Museum Talk at Yolo County Historical Museum (Gibson House) 512 Gibson Road

FEB 16 Saturday
9 am to 2 pm - Native Basket Weaving Demonstrationat the Cache Creek Nature Preserve, 34199 County Road 20
5 to 8 pm - Native Basket Weaving Demonstration at the Winters Participation Gallery, 18 Main Street, Winters, for class information on Four Native American Basketry Techniques by Kathy Wallace, call (530)-795-2009

FEB 17 Sunday
2 pm - Native Basket Exhibition Reception & Openingat Yolo County Historical Museum (Gibson House) 512 Gibson Road

The Book (available at the Next Chapter) - MABEL MCKAY: WEAVING THE DREAM

A world-renowned Pomo basket weaver and medicine woman, Mabel McKay expressed her genius through her celebrated baskets, her Dreams, her cures, and the stories with which she kept her culture alive. She spent her life teaching others how the spirit speaks through the Dream, how the spirit heals, and how the spirit demands to be heard.

Greg Sarris weaves together stories from Mabel McKay¹s life with an account of how he tried, and she resisted, telling her story straight‹the white people¹s way. Sarris, an Indian of mixed-blood heritage, finds his own story in his search for Mabel McKay¹s. Beautifully narrated, Weaving the Dream initiates the reader into Pomo culture and demonstrates how a woman who worked most of her life in a cannery could become a great healer and an artist whose baskets were collected by the Smithsonian. Hearing Mabel McKay¹s life story, we see that distinctions between material and spiritual and between mundane and magical disappear. What remains is a timeless way of healing, of making art, and of being in the world.

The Author: GREG SARRIS was born in 1952 in Santa Rosa, California. Part American Indian, Filipino, and Jewish, Greg Sarris was adopted at birth and raised in both Indian and white families. He attended local schools through Santa Rosa Junior College, and received a B.A. in 1978 from UCLA. He worked in Hollywood as a model and actor before going to graduate school. He earned a Ph.D. in modern thought and literature at Stanford University in 1988. Also, he was a professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles; and a full professor at UCLA for ten years. Greg Sarris is presently a college professor, author, screenwriter, and the Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Sonoma State University.

Greg Sarris writings: Watermelon Nights (1998), Grand Avenue (1994, this collection also became a Robert Redford-produced HBO teleplay), The Sound of Rattles and Clappers: a Collection of New California Indian Writing (1994), Keeping Slug Woman Alive: A Holistic Approach to American Indian Texts (1993), Mabel McKay: Weaving the Dream (1994), and Approaches to Teaching the Works of Louise Erdrich (2004)

WOODLAND READS 2008 is brought to you by Woodlanders in League for Literacy with help from the Rumsey Tribe and Cache Creek Casino Resort, Friends of the Woodland Library, NVB Bank, Yolo County Historical Museum, Woodland Community College, Cache Creek Nature Preserve, Woodland Joint Unified School District and The Next Chapter.

Questions, call The Next Chapter at (530) 668-4620, or stop by the bookstore at 622 Main Street.