Bedrosian Bookclub Podcast

This is the last episode of the Bedrosian Bookclub in this incarnation, it's been a blast.

We discuss the importance of The 1619 Project, the book, the project, and it's impact on our political discourse. Why should we pay attention to history, how does the historical narrative of a country affect the way we face the future?

Aubrey Hicks is joined by Yesenia Hunter, LaVonna Lewis, Jen Bravo, and David Sloane in a conversation on the meaning and joy in the The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.

Follow Aubrey on Twitter @AubreyHi for a new book club announcement soon! Catch up on past episodes in the meantime!

Thanks to all the listeners, to all our guests (past and present), and to all the authors who help us think about the world we find ourselves awed by every day.

Three votes for Carribean Fragoza’s Eat the Mouth that Feeds You to be something every high school senior is exposed to. This debut collection of short stories is genius, this is late 20th early 21st century Southern California. This is Chicanx, this is Latinx, this is SoCal, this is women, this is body horror, magic realism all in 120 pages.

Ten stories about place and placemaking, about community and how we lift each other up, or tear each other apart. A must read!

“This collection of visceral, often bone-chilling stories centers the liminal world of Latinos in Southern California while fraying reality at its edges. Full of horror and wonder.”—Kirkus Reviews

Now, in the tail end of 2021, discourse about restorative justice and public safety lack imagination. We tend to “do what we’ve always done.”

NYU Historian Nicole Eustace brings us the story of the search for justice following the 1722 murder of a Native American man at the hands of two White men. Covered With Night is a detailed history of how the Pennyslvania colony leaders had to learn to restore the peace – or face war – with the Five Nations. in particular, we bear witness to how the colonists never truly understood the peoples of the Haudenosaunee Confederation.

In this month’s book club, we read a deep history of the fallout of a murder in the Penn colony. In this history, we learn that our laws have been around shorter than we care to remember and see alternative ways of coming to justice that have existed and thrived. A powerful tail of how we, as peoples, can live together with more equity and justice – how restorative justice has worked in the world, how it could again. If only we can listen and learn.

Ostensibly, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, is about a young man who finds a manuscript in a dead man’s apartment. This experimental novel, released in 2000, takes a cinematic approach to the novel – creating a novel experience in time and space.

The dead man, Zampano, was an elderly blind man writing an academic critique of The Navidson Record; a documentary about a family moving into a home in Virginia, which happens to be bigger on the inside. At the center of Danielewski’s work is the question, “What is real?”

How do humans interact with the space they inhabit? How do they interact with the stories around them?

Featuring: Zenya Prowell, Stacy Patterson, Lisa Schweitzer, and Jen Bravo

In Not a Nation of Immigrants, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz strives to look at the ever morphing population of the United States, to uncover the why and how of the mythology that pervades political discourse on American history.

In part, Dunbar-Ortiz recognizes that the looming problems of climate change, polarization, and authoritarianism cannot be fought while sweeping the parts of our history we don't like under the rug. What does our history mean about who we are?

Some of us are immigrants, some of us are descendants of colonizers, some of us are descendants of indigenous peoples, some of us are arrivants brought here through violence - either refugees or descendants of enslaved peoples. Compound these complex ancestries with the fact that many immigrants conform to the values of White Supremacy (become settlers) in order to assimilate.

What can we learn from facing our complex history as told through the vast perspectives that make up our people?

An interview with author of Unconventional Combat, Michael A. Messner.

Messner's latest book is an intimate look at 6 historically excluded veterans and their post military careers as activists in intersectional peace movements.

Explore the ways these veterans are taking their situated knowledge to create a better future.

A "canceled" influencer. A lonely man looking for attention. White men adrift in hoards, no memory of the violence or good they've done. Enter The Atmosphere, a new retreat where men can detox from social media and learn to become human again. A cult.

This first novel from Alex McElroy is a doozy; capturing the manic craziness of the last decade, the sprint for the next cool thing, the quick turn from darling to pariah, the frenetic way we flit from one catastrophe to another.  

Join us as host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla, Lisa Schweitzer, and Donnajean Ward to argue over McElroy’s The Atmospherians.

The Brutish Museums by Dan Hicks is a necrography wherein each stolen item from Benin City is an ongoing event: each event a story of colonial violence told and retold through daily viewings by tourists and school children.

It is also a "calling in" for museum curators to work toward a future of restitution; a future of museums free of stolen objects, cultures, and histories.

Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Jen Bravo, David Sloane, and Donnajean Ward.

For links and more visit our site.

This month we're thinking about history, collections, and stories. How do stories evolve over time, how do stories shape history, how do they make their way through time and space?

Carlos Ruiz Zafón's novel The Shadow of the Wind is one of the best-sellingist books of all time. A story within a story, young Daniel finds a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, in the mysterious Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This simple event begins a lifetime of searching for the book's author, Julián Carax.

Can stories pass the boundaries of time and space? How does a story move through history? How can a story temper or inflame  memory?

Host Aubrey Hicks is joined by Caroline Bhalla and Carla Della Gatta to discuss the novel on its 20th anniversary.

For links and more, check out the showpage.

The Fact of a Body by *Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is a true crime memoir. After encountering the child murderer Ricky Langley, Alexandria's desire to work as a lawyer to fight against the death penalty is up-ended. They spend several years investigating Ricky's story as a way to confront the story of their own child abuse. This is a deeply moving book, and a relatively easy read given the morose topic - a testament to the author's skill.

Our conversation ranges from the effects of trauma on individuals and communities to the genre itself. If you haven't read it yet, beware that we assume you've read it, spoiler alert!

Featuring Jeffery A. Jenkins (@jaj7d ‏), Lisa Schweitzer (@drschweitzer), Brettany K. Shannon (@brettanyshannon), and Deborah Winters

*Please note that since recording in 2017, the author has designated a preferred pronoun of they/them/theirs; they are misgendered in the recording.

Follow us on Twitter! @BedrosianCenter

Special thanks to Flatiron Books for sending us review copies!

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club discussion of The Fact of a Body click the arrow in the player on this post. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, or Google Play

https://bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/the-fact-of-a-body