Books
Sen. Avel Gordly
Appears Feb. 27 for
‘Power of words’
“R
emembering the Power of
Words,” former State Sen. Avel
Gordly’s memoir, recounts the
personal and professional journey taken by
the first African American elected to the
Oregon State Senate.
Gordly will be holding
a book signing at 2:30
p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 27
at the Oregon Historical
Society, 1200 SW Park
Ave.
The book is the first in
a planned series “Women
and Politics in the Pacific
Northwest.”
Gordly
served in the state senate
from 1991 to 2008. She’s
received
numerous
awards from the commu-
nity that she served
including the Black
United
Front,
the
American
Friends
Service Committee, the
Urban League of Portland, and the House of
Umoja.
In “Power of Words” she shares the chal-
lenges and struggles she faced growing up
Black in Portland in the 1950s and 1960s, as
well as her determination to attend college,
the dedication to activism that took her from
Portland to Africa, and her eventual deci-
sion to run for a seat in the state legislature.
That words have power is a constant
undercurrent in Gordly’s account and a truth
she learned early in life. “Growing up, find-
ing my own voice,” she
writes, “was tied up with
denying my voice or hav-
ing it forcefully rejected
and in all of that the mem-
ory of my father is very
strong. To this day—and I
am today a very experi-
enced public speaker—
preparation to speak takes
a great deal of energy.”
That this memoir has its
origins as an oral history
is fitting since Gordly has
used her voice, out loud,
to teach and inspire others
for many years.
Additional appearances
include:
March 9, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble at the
Lloyd Center in Portland
March 27, 12:30 p.m., Highland Christian
Center Bookstore, 7600 NE Glisan
April 4, 7:30 p.m., Powell’s City of Books
in Portland
Portland Researcher
Chronicles New Approach
to Eating disorders
W
hile there is much concern
about childhood obesity in this
country, there are also many
children who suffer from the opposite
condition – food intake disorders.
In her new book
“Give Food a Chance:
A new view on child-
hood eating disorders”
Portland-based doctor
and Reed College grad-
uate Dr. Julie O’Toole,
MD, MPH, draws from
over a decade of clini-
cal experience treating
eating disorders in chil-
dren and young adults.
O’Toole rejects former
theories that claim such
disorders are caused by
poor parenting, issues
of control, rejection of
adulthood or society’s
oppression of women.
Instead, the author says that anorexia, in
particular, is a chronic, highly heritable
brain disorder.
O’Toole works at the Kartini Clinic in
Portland, which led her to her new
approaches for these common and
destructive disorders.
“I initially wrote ‘Give Food a
Chance’ as a detailed guide for clinicians
who care for children with eating disor-
ders,” O’Toole said in a typed release. “It
seemed to me at the time
that a technical book
written for doctors and
nurse
practitioners
would best serve to
spread the message of a
new treatment para-
digm. On reading it, my
son Morgan suggested
that my audience was all
wrong. Write for those
who care the most, he
told me, write for par-
ents. Parents, he sug-
gested, will care most
passionately about the
details, will be most
motivated to spread the
word. Speak to them
and they will speak to the doctors. Speak
to them and the children will best be
served.”
http://www.perfscipress.com/give-
food-a-chance/
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Page 16 The Portland Skanner February 23, 2011