It has been exciting to put together the CSU speaker series, Literacies of Contemporary Civic Life, that is unfolding over the semester.

As I mention in the introduction to this series, I am hoping attendees (and viewers) will consider the dialogue that unfolds across these five different speakers. What intersections can we imagine in the work we do with and for young people across the U.S. today? Kicking off our CSU speaker series this week, Buffy Hamilton’s presentation “Metanarratives of Literacy Practices: Libraries as Sponsors of Literacies” helped us challenge our notions of what’s possible in libraries and how these spaces should be thought of critically as “Sponsors of Literacies” – building off of research by Deborah Brandt. It’s been a true pleasure getting to learn from Buffy (even if it means she’s been stranded in Fort Collins longer than she planned due to an insane season of weather). If you aren’t already reading The Unquiet Librarian, what’s wrong with you?

Buffy graciously allowed us to record her talk and she has shared her slides via Slideshare. Both the video and the slides are embedded below. A quick note that next week’s talk will feature three classroom teachers , Mark Gomez, Patricia Hanson, and Katie Rainge-Briggs who all co-founded the Schools for Community Action at the August Hawkins Learning Complex in South Central Los Angeles. Their talk is titled “Schools for Community Action: Addressing the Lived Realities of Inner-City Youth.” I can promise another engaging talk. For local folks, we’ll be in Clark A 205 on Tuesday at 5:30. Bring a friend!