Lisa Tracy '67 book reading and signing

Join Lisa Tracy '67, author of Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time, at the Oberlin Bookstore for a book reading, signing and refreshments, on Saturday, September 25, from 1:30-3pm.

After their mother’s death, Lisa Tracy and her sister Jeanne were left with several households’ worth of belongings. After 10 years of paying storage fees, the sisters reluctantly decided to take them to auction. The result is a captivating personal memoir that captures why Americans are so obsessed with our things—and why we find it so difficult to let go.

In Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family’s Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time (A Bantam Hardcover; March 23, 2010), Lisa Tracy invites us into the rich history of a military family characterized by duty, hardship, honor, and devotion—qualities embodied in the very items she chronicles. Here she shares with us a collection unlike any other: silver gewgaws, mismatched cake plates, silk tapestries, dueling pistols that once belonged to Aaron Burr (no, not those pistols), a stately storage chest from Boxer Rebellion–era China, even a chair in which George Washington may or may not have sat. Dating back to the American Revolution, the furniture and other artifacts Tracy lovingly describes were collected over the course of centuries by ancestors posted all over the globe, cherished and passed down to her generation as an emblem of who her forebears were, what they had done, and where they had been.

A paean to the pack rat in us all, Objects of Our Affection offers an offbeat and intriguing mix of cultural anthropology, Antiques Roadshow Americana, and military history. In this engaging and deeply moving book, Tracy chronicles the wondrous interior life of those possessions and discovers that the roots of Americans’ passion for acquisition often lie not in shallow materialism but in our innermost desire to possess the most treasured commodity of all: a connection to our past.

Oberlin Bookstore
37 West College Street
Oberlin, OH 44074
440.774.7722

Alumna Author Megan Snyder-Camp '99

Megan Snyder-Camp '99 will be reading from her first book of poetry, The Forest of Sure Things, at Visible Voice Books on Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm. The Forest of Sure Things, a finalist for the Yale Younger Poets Prize, tells the story of a family whose daughter is the first child born in a hundred years in a remote Northwest village, and then traces the family's unraveling after the loss of their second child.

For more information, check out her website: www.snydercamp.com.

Come join us for a glass of wine on the patio following the reading!

Visible Voice Books
1023 Kenilworth
Cleveland, OH 44113
216.615.7571

Lisa Tracy '67 Book reading and signing

Join Lisa Tracy '67, author of Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time, at the Oberlin Bookstore for a book reading, signing and refreshments, on Saturday, September 25, from 1:30-3pm.

After their mother’s death, Lisa Tracy and her sister Jeanne were left with several households’ worth of belongings. After 10 years of paying storage fees, the sisters reluctantly decided to take them to auction. The result is a captivating personal memoir that captures why Americans are so obsessed with our things—and why we find it so difficult to let go.

In Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family’s Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time (A Bantam Hardcover; March 23, 2010), Lisa Tracy invites us into the rich history of a military family characterized by duty, hardship, honor, and devotion—qualities embodied in the very items she chronicles. Here she shares with us a collection unlike any other: silver gewgaws, mismatched cake plates, silk tapestries, dueling pistols that once belonged to Aaron Burr (no, not those pistols), a stately storage chest from Boxer Rebellion–era China, even a chair in which George Washington may or may not have sat. Dating back to the American Revolution, the furniture and other artifacts Tracy lovingly describes were collected over the course of centuries by ancestors posted all over the globe, cherished and passed down to her generation as an emblem of who her forebears were, what they had done, and where they had been.

A paean to the pack rat in us all, Objects of Our Affection offers an offbeat and intriguing mix of cultural anthropology, Antiques Roadshow Americana, and military history. In this engaging and deeply moving book, Tracy chronicles the wondrous interior life of those possessions and discovers that the roots of Americans’ passion for acquisition often lie not in shallow materialism but in our innermost desire to possess the most treasured commodity of all: a connection to our past.

Oberlin Bookstore
37 West College Street
Oberlin, OH 44074
440.774.7722

Faculty Author Lynn Powell

Lynn Powell, a visiting professor for the Creative Writing Program, is launching her new book, Framing Innocence, at a variety of events. It is out now in stores - a few weeks early! Many of you may well remember the events that Lynn writes about, as they happened between 1999-2000, right here in Oberlin

Ten years ago, amateur photographer and school bus driver Cynthia Stewart dropped off eleven rolls of film at a drugstore near her home in Oberlin, OH. The rolls contained photographs of her eight-year-old daughter Nora, including two of the child in the shower—photos that would cause the county prosecutor to arrest Cynthia, take her away in handcuffs, threaten to remove her daughter from her home, and charge her with crimes that carried the possibility of sixteen years in prison.

The disturbing case would ultimately attract national attention—including stories in USA Today and on NPR—and supporters including the famed photographer Sally Mann, Katha Pollitt, and the ACLU.

Written by poet Lynn Powell, a neighbor of Cynthia Stewart’s, this riveting and beautifully told story plumbs the perfect storm of events and people that threatened an ordinary family in a small American town - our very own Oberlin. Framing Innocence features a determined prosecutor; a fundamentalist Christian anti-porn crusader who is appointed as Cynthia’s daughter’s guardian; the local attorneys for whom the case would become a crucible; and the many neighbors—friends and strangers, Republican and Democrat— who come together to fight for sanity and for justice for Cynthia and her family.

Lynn Powell is the author of two books of poetry, Old & New Testaments and The Zones of Paradise, and has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.

The book launch will be Monday, September 13, at 7:30, in the First Church Fellowship Hall in Oberlin. Lynn will read an excerpt from the book, Cynthia Stewart will speak briefly about the book, and Nora, the child at the center of the case, will speak for the first time about her family's experience. (Nora is now a rising sophomore at Yale.) Books will be available for purchase and signing. Afterwards, there will be a reception/celebration at Black River Cafe, open to all.

There are also two Cleveland bookstore readings/signings soon afterward:

Thursday, September 16, 7 p.m. at Mac's Backs, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights

http://www.booksite.com/texis/scripts/community/eventcal.html?sid=5817

Thursday, September 23, 7 p.m. at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at Legacy Village.

In November, Lynn will also be appearing at the Oberlin Bookstore as part of Parents Weekend on Saturday, November 13. More details to follow.

Reclaim Lorain County

From Martha (Hurst) Bruner '61:

Do you want to help to make Lorain County a better place to live? Do you see needs that should be met but feel powerless to correct the problems?

Reclaim Lorain County is a group comprised of people from churches and other institutions in the county. Our purpose is to identify issues which can be corrected, gather information about those issues, and present the issues to candidates and public officials for the purpose of gaining their support in correcting them. We do not endorse candidates; we are non-partisan.

What can you do? You can become informed about the issues and contribute your presence and your ideas, so that Lorain County will become a better place to live and to work.

What has been done so far? We have conducted an extensive listening campaign to identify the needs of Lorain County. We prioritized those needs and formed three task forces: jobs, city maintenance, and violence. The task forces are currently gathering information on these topics. We will use this information to identify issues which can be addressed and corrected.

What is coming up? On Sept. 7, at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 320 Middle Ave., Elyria, at 7:00 P.M. we will meet to plan the Action Assembly for Oct. 26.

On Oct. 26, at 7:00 P.M. at St. Mary's Church we will hold an accountability Action Assembly. State, county and local politicians will be invited to attend. We will present the issues which we feel need to be addressed. Politicians will be invited to respond, giving their plans as to how they would deal with the issues presented by the three task forces. Our goal is to have 400 citizens in attendance.

Following the Action Assembly, we will have a voter-turnout campaign for the November election, encouraging voters to express their informed wishes. By working together and by being informed, we can alert our leaders as to what can and must be accomplished. We can elect leaders who are committed to reclaiming Lorain County.

Reserve the dates of Sept. 7 and Oct 26 (both at 7, both on Tues. and both at St. Mary's). Commit to being at both meetings to help plan the Action Assembly on the 7th and to hear the candidates on the 26th. This is your chance to make a difference. Be there and take advantage of this opportunity to help RECLAIM LORAIN COUNTY!

Contact Marty Bruner at 440-322-9749 or Judith Padua