National Coming Out Day was established on Oct. 11, 1988, to commemorate the National Gay & Lesbian March on Washington one year earlier. As I recall, that march was more like a street party for the simple fact that we filled the streets of Washington, DC so that walking anywhere was impossible. We celebrated as strong, vibrant survivors, and the excitement stayed with us as we returned home to continue the fight for rights and recognition.

Pale Rider: the Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it changed the world, by Laura Spinney (NY: Public Affairs, 2017)

Reviewed by Jan Hardy, Library Specialist

Laura Spinney posits the Spanish flu as the most dramatic event of the twentieth century, even over the two world wars. The pandemic swept every country, and probably “resculpted human populations more radically than anything since the Black Death.”

Reaching to catalog Tiffany Midge’s book, I was shocked at the parody of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" until I realized Midge was Native American. My reaction proves what Geary Hobson says in his introduction, that white readers assume a writer is white until we learn otherwise, and that whites are largely ignorant of the rich culture of Native humor.

With the killing of unarmed African American men and women in the news so often, it seems the hashtag and movement of Black Lives Matter just evolved. This memoir shows us the events in the life of Patrisse Khan-Cullors that inspired her, along with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, to take action, organize and protest the killings.