Porter joins other county libraries in raising dialogue about social change

As communities across the nation grapple with the social implications of the shootings in Orlando, Baton Rouge, Minnesota and Dallas in the past month, libraries are stepping up to offer resources and support. Locally, Westlake Porter Public Library is joining with the eight other Cuyahoga County library systems in supporting community dialogue and offering resources and support in the aftermath of these events.

Issues of race, prejudice, inequity and violence are challenging topics, but they must be addressed in open, safe and productive conversations if we wish to move forward as a nation. As President Obama stated in his July 12 speech in Dallas, “If we cannot even talk about these things, if we cannot talk honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with those who look different than us or bring a different perspective, then we will never break this dangerous cycle.”

Porter Library and Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, East Cleveland Public Library, Euclid Public Library, Lakewood Public Library, Rocky River Public Library and Shaker Heights Public Library are seeking to support community dialogue around these critical issues and offer resources that can advance learning and understanding. Like all public libraries, Porter offers a variety of print and online books that families, community organizations and those wanting to make a difference can use to address these critical civil rights, justice and race issues.

For more information, visit Westlake Porter Public Library’s website: westlakelibrary.org, or online catalog: catalog.westlakelibrary.org, or call 440-871-2600.

Titles available at the library on this topic:

Adults

  • "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" by Bryan Stevenson
  • "Native Son" by Richard Wright
  • "The Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B Du Bois
  • "The Measure of a Man" by Sidney Poitier
  • "Strength to Love" by Martin Luther King Jr.
  • "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
  • "United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good" by Cory Booker
  • "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
  • "Waking from the Dream: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Shadow of Martin Luther King Jr." by David Chappell
  • "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
  • "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin
  • "Of Poetry and Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin" by Philip Cushway and Michael Warr
  • "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
  • "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi
  • "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • "Welcome to Braggsville" by T. Geronimo Johnson
  • "Citizen: An American Lyric" by Claudia Rankine
  • "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Teen

  • "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon
  • "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
  • "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers
  • "Lies We Tell Ourselves" by Robin Talley
  • "Revolution" by Deborah Wiles
  • "The Rock and the River" by Kekla Magoon
  • "We Troubled the Waters: Poems" by Ntozake Shange

Children

  • "We March" by Shane Evans
  • "Child of the Civil Rights Movement" by Paula Young Shelton
  • "Let's Talk About Race" by Julius Lester
  • "Each Kindness" by Jacqueline Woodson
  • "The Blacker the Berry: Poems" by Joyce Carol Thomas
  • "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson
  • "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • "A Sweet Smell of Roses" by Angela Johnson
  • "Henry's Freedom Box" by Ellen Levine
  • "Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine

Elaine Willis

Elaine Willis is the Public Relations Associate at Westlake Porter Public Library.

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Volume 8, Issue 15, Posted 9:14 AM, 08.02.2016