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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 2021)
Thursday, February 11, 2021 GO! magazine — A&E in Northeast Oregon 6 the BOOK NOOK ■ Reading by poet Megan Alpert ■ Join the Brown Bag Book Club LA GRANDE — Megan Alpert, poet and journalist, will read at the next ACE Writing Project gathering, a virtual event beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17. Alpert’s 2020 poetry collection, “The Animal at Your Side,” won the Airlie Prize and was a fi nalist for the National Poetry Series. Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Crab Orchard Review, Quarterly West, Cincinnati Review, Denver Quarterly and many oth- ers. As a journalist, she has reported for The Atlantic, Smithsonian, The Guardian and Foreign Policy. According to Shaindel Beers, author of “Secure Your Own Mask,” “‘The Animal at Your Side’ spans worlds — Eastern Europe, China, Ecuador, folktale, and myth — all of these worlds equally sinister and haunting. In poems where we feel ‘the whirr-click of war beginning . . .’ the poet learns that the best way to survive is to become ‘the same color as rocks, water, / anything I walked past, / see-through.’ This is Megan Alpert’s gift to us — radical empathy — so we can shape-shift through these worlds as she has.” Wednesday’s free event will conclude with a community open mic. Sign- up begins at 6:45 p.m. (maximum 10 readers, each with a fi ve-minute reading limit). To access the Zoom gathering, register at www.artcentereast.org/calen- dar/ then scroll down and choose the Feb. 17 Writing Project. The ACE Writing Project is held the third Wednesday of the month and facilitated by Nancy Knowles and Amelia Ettinger. seat at 50% capacity • 541-575-1970 2 - 10oz Rib Eye, soup or salad, roll and of potato; comes with an appetizer Add on a lobster tail or sauteed or breaded shrimp for $14 each Valentine’s Dinner February 13th and 14th, 4-8PM Reservations recommended as we have to seat at 50% capacity • 541-575-1970 2 - 10oz Rib Eye, soup or salad, roll and choice of potato; comes with an appetizer and a dessert to share - $50 Add on a lobster tail or sauteed or breaded shrimp for $14 each Grubsteak Mining Co. Restaurant 149 E Main St., John Day & Lounge 541-575-1970 JOSEPH — The Feb. 23 Brown Bag hosted by the Josephy Center will be a gathering of the Black History Month Book Group. Beginning at noon, the virtual book group will discuss “Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory” by R. Gregory Nokes. “Breaking Chains” tells the story of the only slavery case adjudicated in Oregon’s pre-Civil War courts: Holmes v. Ford. Through the lens of this landmark case, Nokes explores the historical context of racism in Oregon and the West, reminding readers that there actually were slaves in Ore- gon. Join the discussion via the Zoom link at www.josephy. org/event/black-history-month-book-group-brown-bag. Copies of the book are on sale at the Josephy Center, ($19.95 less a 20% book group discount, so $14 for a book you will want in your library). Buy the book online at www.josephy.org/product/breaking-chains-slavery-on-trial- in-the-oregon-territory. ATTENTION READERS GO! editors are seeking book reviews written by local readers and information on book clubs and other literary happenings in Northeast Oregon. Send submissions and ideas to lkelly@lagrandeobserver.com. GENRE BOOK CLUB Cook Memorial Library’s Genre Book Club meets on- line Thursday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. This month members will discuss dystopian and post- apocalyptic fiction they’ve read. The club is free and open to all adults. Join anytime. Email rpeackock@ cookmemoriallibrary.org for the meeting login.