This biography of Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa traces her journey from internment camps during WWII to becoming a renowned sculptor. The book explores her resilience, innovative wire sculptures, and dedications to arts education. Through personal stories, Chase illuminates how Asawa's identity, experiences, and vision helped her transform prejudice and hardship into creativity and public…
Aspiring artist Louisa becomes enchanted by three figures nestled in the corner of a famous painting. Intrigued, she embarks on a cross-country journey to uncover their story. Twenty-five years earlier, in a coastal town, four teenagers--misfits with bruised pasts--bonded over summer days on an abandoned pier, forging fierce loyalty and creative escape. Their friendship inspired…
Author Nicholas Smith examines the history, innovation, and societal impact of sneakers in American life through marketing, economic, and cultural trends. Smith weaves together a story of how the sneaker evolved over the course of a century. As production methods were revolutionized, the perception of this iconic footwear shifted as well, making them into must-have…
Alabama, 1973. When nurse Civil Townsend begins work at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, her goal is to care for her African American community. Among her patients are two poor, young Black girls, Erica and India. Civil learns that a terrible medical procedure has been inflicted on the girls without their consent and reports the…
When ten year old Mona experiences a sudden, brief loss of sight, her grandfather Henry decides to give her a gallery of artworks to visit in her mind as she faces potential permanent blindness. Through fifty-two weekly trips to museums in Paris, Mona receives an emotional art history education. Art lessons become tied to life…
This short collaboration celebrates sneaker culture through poetry. Consisting of two parts, part one is a micro saga-in verse about a quest to find sneakers but yields an even great discovery beyond shoes. Part two is a collection of prose poems, a kind of mixtape, which explores many aspects of sneaker culture from overarching artistic…
Author Natalie Dykstra recounts the story of Isabella Stewart Gardner's extraordinary life in this moving and illuminating biography. A Boston socialite, Gardner lived a life full of passion but one which was also marked by grief. Dykstra delivers compelling insight into Gardner's friendships, world travels, and her keen eye for collecting treasures all of which…
Elise Hooper's biography of Dorothea Lange follows her life from early successes running a portrait studio in San Francisco to her Depression-era work documenting America's suffering and injustice. As she pursues her art through personal and professional turmoil, Lange's camera becomes a powerful tool for empathy, reform, and truth-telling, even at great personal cost. This…
Blending memoir, cultural criticism, and history, author Irvin Weathersby Jr. challenges readers to examine American history and imagine more inclusive ways of honoring the past. The author intertwines the threads of his life and ancestry into the larger conversation about the stories told in these public spaces. Whose voices are uplifted and whose voices are…
Harlem Rhapsody follows Jessie Redmon Fauset, the literary editor of The Crisis magazine, as she helps ignite the Harlem Renaissance while navigating a secret affair with W.E.B. Du Bois. As the first Black woman to hold this editorial position, Jessie wastes no time uplifting those who will become some of the greatest voices of this…
George Takei recounts his childhood imprisonment in Japanese American internment camps during World War II in this richly illustrated graphic novel. The memoir explores resilience and patriotism while connecting past injustices to discrimination. Blending history with storytelling, the book urges readers to challenge prejudice in America. Themes in this discussion will tie into the exhibition…
Following a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daphne Fuller rekindles a tender relationship with her estranged stepfather Eddie Trott. Though many years have passed, their early and profound connection drives the desire to reconnect at this stage in their lives. Intertwined with the story of a horse named Whistler, Daphne and Eddie…