Literary Branch Events
PAST EVENTS
Transforming Paradise Panel Discussion
Video credit: Stephen Adams
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You remember the late great John Broesamle as a noted champion of Ojai's natural environment; an early and highly significant president of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy; and the founding president of the Ojai Valley Defense Fund. But did you know John was also a noted historian and a prolific author? The Literary Branch hosted a panel discussion about his last book, "Transforming Paradise: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thousands of Unemployed Americans Created Today's Yosemite National Park." The book was published posthumously earlier this year, after John's death at 82 in 2023. Joining Literary Branch chair Mark Lewis on the Jan. 11 panel was John's widow and fellow Ojai environmental activist Kathy Broesamle; their daughter, Carolyn Vondriska; and Nona Rafferty, daughter of one of the Civilian Conservation Corps members whom John profiles in the book.
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Songprints: The Musical Experience of Five Shoshone Women
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ATTICA 50 Years Later
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The Literary Branch presented a talk by Judith Vander about the "amazing journey" she experienced as she researched and wrote her book Songprints: The Musical Experience of Five Shoshone Women.
The book, published by the University of Illinois Press in 1988, explores the musical lives of Native American women as they navigate a century of cultural change and constancy among the Shoshone of Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. At the Art Center on June 24, Vander will tell us how she captured the distinct personalities of five generations of Shoshone women as they describe their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes toward their music. "My presentation is about the entire experience of learning about their culture and music; working with five women from a 60-year-old down to an 18-year-old; how the role of women has changed dramatically over that time period," Vander says. "I was able to write the book in their words, how they described the meaning of their songs and what, for them, made a good, beautiful song." See video for the talk with Judith Vander. |
Fifty years ago the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history erupted at the Attica Correctional Facility near Buffalo, N.Y. Longtime Ojai attorney Len Klaif began his career by representing one of the inmates charged in connection with the inmate uprising, which claimed the lives of 43 people. (Most of the victims were shot by state police and Attica guards when they retook the prison.) Klaif will join Literary Branch chair Mark Lewis to discuss the uprising, the court proceedings that followed, and prison conditions and racial justice.
When the Attica uprising took place in September 1971, Klaif was just starting his senior year of law school at the University of Iowa. After getting his degree, he returned to Buffalo, where he had lived while an undergraduate, and was sworn in as a member of the New York Bar. The next day he was appointed to represent one of the inmates charged in the uprising. Over the next three years, Klaif spent countless hours working with the Attica Defense team, until Governor Hugh Carey granted pardons to those charged, ending the prosecutions. Klaif and Lewis also will discuss some of the books that have been written about Attica, including “A Time to Die” by Tom Wicker. See video above for full interview. |