Event: GLBT-RT Midwinter 2010 Social

Event: GLBT-RT Social and Freedom to Read Foundation Author Event

Start: 01/17/2010 – 6:00pm End: 01/17/2010 – 8:45pm (ish)

Location: Community Church of Boston 565 Boylston St. (above the Globe Restaurant) Boston, MA 02116 617 266-6710 http://www.communitychurchofboston.org

Contact/Questions: Michael P. Dello Iacono [email protected] 617-432-6926 (office) 978-394-5567 (cell)

Please join ALA’s GLBT Roundtable and the Freedom to Read Foundation at the Community Church of Boston during Midwinter 2010 to socialize with other GLBT librarians, hear a reading from award-winning writers Lesléa Newman (author of Heather Has Two Mommies) and Michael Willhoite (Daddy’s Roommate), and help support a wonderful and vibrant congregation. This event is free and open to all, but donations are most welcome. The Community Church has a very small resource library that is in desperate need of useful and current titles for LGBT youth. Please bring a book with you to donate; it will be very much appreciated by the Church, and a fine way to say thank you for letting us use their space.

All monetary donations will benefit the Freedom to Read Foundation

All GLBT book donations will be added to the Church’s resource library (and cataloged by volunteers!)

Accessibility: Located in Copley Square, the Church is easily accessible by public transportation (www.mbta.com). Take the Green Line subway to the Copley stop; the church is half a block away. There are also many bus routes both from area hotels and from the Boston Convention & Exhibit Center. There is extremely limited parking in the area, driving is not recommended.

Link to Google map of CCB

There are two “step-up” bathrooms in the facility (not wheelchair accessible).

About the Church: The Community Church of Boston is a community united for the study and practice of universal religion, seeking to apply ethical ideals to individual life and democratic and cooperative principles to all forms of social and economic life. The Church provides support for justice in the form of sharing building space with progressive and peace focused organizations, including BAGLY (Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth), BYOP (Boston Area Youth Organizing Project), and The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC).

About Leslea Newman: Lesléa Newman is the author of 57 books for adults and children, including the children's classic, HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES as well as other books about LGBT families including the board books, MAMA, MOMMY, AND ME, and DADDY, PAPA, AND ME. Other titles include the middle grade novel HACHIKO WAITS, the picture book THE BOY WHO CRIED FABULOUS, the poetry collection NOBODY'S MOTHER, and the novel, THE RELUCTANT DAUGHTER. Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, and a Parents' Choice Silver Medal. From 2008 - 2010 she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. In 2010, Abrams Books for Young Readers will publish JUST LIKE MAMA and MISS TUTU'S STAR.

Photo by Mary Vazquez.

About Michael Willhoite (from author’s blog) I'm an artist and writer, based in Cranston, Rhode Island. My art has taken many forms, primarily book illustration and poster design. I am a widely published caricaturist and cartoonist, and have written and/or illustrated six children's books. (Two more are in development.) For a dozen years I worked as a medical illustrator for the US Navy. Except for technical illustration, there's very little in art that I haven't tried. In fine art I am working on two different sets of paintings. The first is a series of nightscapes of Venice, a city which first stole my heart in 1993. The second theme is "The Earth Reclaimed," a series of what I can only describe as botanical fantasias. I also design needlepoint canvases.

About the Freedom to Read Foundation: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees all individuals the right to express their ideas without governmental interference, and to read and listen to the ideas of others. The Freedom to Read Foundation was established to promote and defend this right; to foster libraries and institutions wherein every individual’s First Amendment freedoms are fulfilled; and to support the right of libraries to include in their collections and make available any work which they may legally acquire.

About the GLBT-RT: The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table of the American Library Association is committed to serving the information needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered professional library community, and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered information and access needs of individuals at large. We are committed to encouraging and supporting the free and necessary access to all information, as reflected by the missions of the American Library Association and democratic institutions.