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2 COGNOTES ALAANNUAL.ORG/MOBILE–APP|#ALAAC18 MAY PREVIEW
Journalist, Essayist Robert Fieseler To Speak at Annual Conference June 23
Robert Fieseler Auditorium Speaker Series
Saturday 6/23, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Sponsored by W.W. Norton
Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist and essayist who graduated co-valedictorian from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and received the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship and the Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing. When the editor-in-chief of Liveright Publishing approached Fieseler to write a book about the 1973 arson of a gay nightclub, Fieseler enthusiastically welcomed the challenge despite thus far only writing short pieces. “I always had a dream to write a book that mattered, that dealt with civil rights, gay rights, and human rights. One email changed my life and it was like placing a hand into a glove,” Fieseler said. His session will take place Saturday, June 23, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans.
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation, available in June 2018, is an essential work of American civil rights history. It mesmerizingly reconstructs the fire that devasted New Orleans’s subterranean gay community. The book chronicles the tragic event that claimed the lives of 31 men and one woman at a New Orleans bar, the largest mass murder of gays until the Pulse tragedy in 2016. Relying on unprecedented access to survivors and archives, Fieseler creates an indelible portrait of a closeted, blue-collar, gay world. The aftermath of the fire, which saw families ashamed to claim their loved ones, the city impervious to the survivors’ needs, and almost zero media coverage, is considered an even more woeful part of the story.
His work has appeared in the Big Round-table, the Brooklyn Ink, and The Week.
His appearance at the conference is sponsored by W.W. Norton.
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Grammy-nominated Musician Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews to Perform
Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews is an author, philanthropist, and a Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist who leads the band Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. He has performed and shared the stage with countless musicians, including U2, Lenny Kravitz, Eric Clapton, and Madonna. He performed at the White House event “Red, White & Blues” and recently made a cameo on the longest-running American sitcom, The Simpsons.
Andrews is the author of Trombone Shorty—winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Award and the Caldecott Honor. His latest picture book is another unforgettable love letter to his hometown of New Orleans. The 5 O’Clock Band, illustrated by Coretta Scott King Book Award and Caldecott Honor winner Bryan Collier, is about a young musician who benefits from NOLA-bred wisdom as he hits the streets of New Orleans to find answers and inspiration.
Andrews is the recipient of the prestigious Heinz Award in recognition of his community service with the Trombone Shorty Foundation—committed to preserving the musical heritage of New Orleans while providing music education and mentorship to underserved young musicians. His performance is sponsored by ABRAMS The Art of Books.
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Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews
Annual Conference Welcome Celebration
Friday 6/22, 4:00 p.m.
Sponsored by ABRAMS The Art of Books
ALA President Jim Neal Welcomes Tracy K. Smith and Jose Antonio Vargas to ALA President’s Program
Tracy K. Smith Jose Antonio Vargas ALA Awards Presentation & President’s Program
Sunday 6/24, 3:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Tracy K. Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Ordinary Light and four books of poetry. Her collection Life on Mars won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and was selected as a New York Times Notable Book. Duende won the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets and an Essence Literary Award, and The Body’s Question was the winner of the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. The Root has noted that Smith’s recently released poetry collection – her fourth – Wade in the Water is sure to be on everyone’s awards and best-of lists.
In June 2017, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden reappointed Smith the twenty-second United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Smith is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities and director of Princeton University’s Program in Creative Writing. She was recently named successor to Michael Cadden as chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts, effective July 2019. Her session is sponsored by Graywolf Press/Macmillan.
ALA President Jim Neal also welcomes Jose Antonio Vargas, journalist, filmmaker, and CEO of Define American, a nonprofit media and culture organization that uses the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America. Vargas will discuss his first book, a provocative memoir, that is both personal and universal. Available Fall 2018, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen is both an urgent and personal letter to his country and a window into Vargas’s American experience. It is a transformative argument about migration and citizenship and an intimate, searing exploration of what it means to be “home” when the country you live in doesn’t consider you one of its own.
Vargas was born in the Philippines and brought to the United States illegally as a twelve-year-old. He hid in plain sight for years, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country while lying about where he came from and how he got here. After publicly admitting his undocumented status, risking his career and personal safety, Vargas challenged the definition of what it means to be an American. He has advocated for the human rights of immigrants and migrants during the largest global movement of people in modern history.
Vargas was part of The Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. He revealed his undocumented immigration status in a 2011 essay in the New York Times Magazine and later produced and directed his autobiographical documentary, “Documented,” which aired on CNN. He later produced and directed “White People,” which aired on MTV.
His appearance at the conference is sponsored by HarperCollins.
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