Category Archives: Branch Events

Author Series

FAL/ AAUW
Author Series

Mark Greenside at Alameda Author Series 4

Mark Greenside

on his book (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living

March 11, 2020 in the Stafford Room, Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak Street

Reservations requested:

https://markgreenside-aauw2020.eventbrite.com

Details:

The fourth annual Alameda Authors Series, sponsored by, AAUW Alameda and the Friends of the Alameda Free Library, continues with best-selling author and chronicler of life in France,  Mark Greenside.

Mr. Greenside will speak about (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living, a memoir that details Greenside’s daily adventures in his adopted French home, where the simplest tasks are never straightforward but always end in a great story. 

Praise for (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living 

— David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen and L’appart
Learning how to shop, drive, and eat in France have their own sets of rules, and (not quite) Mastering the Art of French Living tackles them with a soupçon of humor. From buying a lamp to mastering mollusks (oysters), and learning the right—and wrong ways—things are done in France, Mark Greenside perseveres . . . and succeeds.

Julie Barlow, author of The Bonjour Effect, The Story of Spanish, The Story of French, and Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong
Failure to speak French has never been so funny! Greenside may never master the gender of French nouns, but he sees straight through the French. A smart, delicious memoir of life off the beaten track in France.

Susan Herrmann Loomis, author of On Rue Tatin, and proprietor of the cooking school On Rue Tatin in Normandy and Paris
Mark Greenside recounts hilarious experiences only a foreigner can have in France, for they’re the ordinary things of French life that go unnoticed by the locals yet the funniest of things for someone from the ‘outside’!

William Alexander, author of Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me, and Nearly Broke My Heart
Surely the funniest American to land in France since Jerry Lewis, Greenside ‘masters’ the baffling rules of French life in principle, while mangling them—to hilarious effect—in practice. A delightful pas de deux of humor and wisdom.” 

 About the author:

Mark Greenside holds B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He has been a civil rights activist, Vietnam War protestor, anti-draft counselor, Vista Volunteer, union leader, and college professor. His stories have appeared in The Sun, The Literary Review, Cimarron Review, The Nebraska Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, The New Laurel Review, Crosscurrents, Five Fingers Review, and The Long Story, as well as other journals and magazines, and he is the author of the short story collection, I Saw a Man Hit His Wife. He presently lives in Alameda, California, where he continues to teach and be politically active, and Brittany, France, where he still can’t do anything without asking for help.

Author Series

FAL/ AAUW
Author Series

Jeneé Darden at Alameda Author Series 4

Jeneé Darden

on her collection of poetry and essays When a Purple Rose Blooms

February 12, 2020 in the Stafford Room, Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak Street Reservations requested: 

https://jeneedarden-aauw2020.eventbrite.com

Details:

The fourth annual Alameda Authors Series, sponsored by, AAUW Alameda and the Friends of the Alameda Free Library, returns with award winning journalist and book author Jeneé Darden.

Ms. Darden will speak about her book, When a Purple Rose Blooms, a collection of poetry and essays that reflect her journey through Black womanhood. With heart and humor, Darden engages us in conversations about race, love, sex, and mental health. Like a rose, being a Black woman in this society comes with its thorns and beauty. Darden brings that complexity to every page.

 Praise for When a Purple Rose Blooms:

When a Purple Rose Blooms is more than a series of essays and poems. Jeneé Darden’s debut collection is a homegrown Oakland spellbook, a womanist battle cry, a spiritual incantation of Black joy, self-love, and healing for contemporary African American sistren.”

Aya de León, author of Uptown Thief, The Boss, and The Accidental Mistress, and director of Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley

“A wealth of wisdom, humor, grit, warmth, and sensuality. When a Purple Rose Blooms candidly shows a Black woman’s quest to embrace her entire self while navigating contemporary America. Very few works spit fire and water like this one. Darden gets to the core of what it means to feel without apology, love radically, and get Queened up while honoring the Queen in others as well.”

Lyndsey Ellis, writer, editor, and award recipient of 2018 Barbara Deming Memorial Fund

“Jeneé Darden’s When a Purple Rose Blooms is a daring book of poems and essays, depicting family, pop culture, self-love, racism, and other issues, especially those that impact women. This truth-telling book heralds with allusions, historical references, blues, East Oakland, and inter-generational camaraderie, praise, and ‘God’s Image.’ These poems and essays tell us what’s happening, and display much intelligence.”

Lenard D. Moore, author of The Geography of Jazz, Associate Professor of English, University of Mount Olive

About the author:

Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker, mental health advocate and proud Oakland native. She covers stories about East Oakland at KALW News 91.7 FM and hosts the arts segment Sights & Sounds.  Jenee has reported for NPR, Time, The LA Times, Ebony and other outlets. She also hosts the blog and podcast Cocoa Fly. Her first book, When a Purple Rose Blooms, is a womanist collection of essays and poetry about her personal experiences with race, mental health and love as a Black woman. Jeneé holds a BA in ethnic studies from UC San Diego and a master’s in journalism from the University of Southern California.