Sunday, March 21, 2010

Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age

Please join us this Thursday, March 25th at 7:00pm, to celebrate the release of Eve Shapiro's first book: Gender Circuits: Bodies and Identities in a Technological Age. We will toast its completion and hear excerpts from this new work exploring the intersections of gender and technology.

Read more about this event on our main website...

Hope to see you there!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Just In - Great New Small Press Titles

We just unpacked some more great new books from some of our favorite small presses, and we couldn't wait to share! Click on any of the titles below to get more information on the books, and to order directly from our website (you did know you could do that, right?). But of course, we'd rather see your smiling faces in the store, so come check them out soon.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Holyoke Fires Fundraiser

Food For Thought Books is having a 10% day on Saturday March 27th, during which 10% of our sales will go to the Lyman Street Relief Fund created by the Centro de Restauracion Emanuel and administered by New Alliance Bank in Holyoke, MA. We encourage others in the Amherst and Northampton communities to organize and host similar fundraisers to support our neighbors in Holyoke.

(Funds can also be sent directly to the Lyman Street Relief Fund at the New Alliance Bank. Checks should be made out to the “Lyman Street Relief Fund” and earmarked for account number 7070454149)

Over the last month and a half, Northampton residents and members of surrounding communities have shown tremendous solidarity with those affected by a string of arsons that took place in Northampton on the night of December 27, 2009 that left 8 people homeless and caused an estimated $850,000 of damage. Folks have come together to organize countless fundraisers, quickly raising over $60,000 (the fundraising goal set by Hampshire Community Cares) for those directly impacted by the Northampton fires. This outpouring of generosity and support is notable and well worth celebrating, and will certainly go a long way to helping those affected by the arson recover their losses.

However, Northampton was not the only community in Western Massachusetts affected by fires this winter. Only days before the Northampton fires, on December 23, 2009, an apartment building in Holyoke went up in flames leaving 42 residents homeless and sending at least 6 people to the hospital. This fire was not caused by arson, but was the result of a negligent landlord who did not provide his tenets with central heat forcing tenets to use electric heaters as their primary source of heat for the winter. Holyoke residents have rallied in support of their neighbors, providing for their immediate needs and gathering donations of clothes, furniture and other items to replace what people lost. They created the Lyman Street Relief Fund with the hopes of raising several hundred dollars for each household displaced by the fire (15 in all). Thus far, they have only been able to raise $2000, a mere fraction of what has been raised in Northampton. While the donation of goods is important, the people displaced by the Holyoke fire also need money to help them recover their losses and rebuild their lives.

We believe that the glaring disparity in the amount of money raised and attention given by the media and community at large for those affected by the Northampton fires versus the Holyoke fire raises important questions about the race, class, geographic divides that plague this Valley. How do racism and classism enable us to value the lives, homes and families differently across race, class and geography? What would it take for us to build mutually beneficial relationships based on solidarity, the sharing of resources, respect and equity, across the different communities that make up the Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts? We believe that these tragic incidents and the disparity in which they have been dealt with provide us with a valuable opportunity to explore these questions and begin cultivating genuine solidarity across the differences that so often divide us.

Given that the Northampton community has surpassed its fundraising goal of $60,000, we also join others who are advocating that any additional funds raised by Hampshire County Cares (the website that has been raising funds for those affected by the Northampton fires) be re-directed to those affected by the Holyoke fires. This is a great opportunity for residents of Northampton to stand in solidarity and share vital resources with our neighbors in Holyoke.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

US Social Forum Info Sessions

Join Food For Thought Books Collective, Arise for Social Justice, OutNow, To Tell You The Truth, the Center for Popular Economics, and other local activists and organizers for information sharing and dialogue about the U.S. Social Forum II, taking place in Detroit on June 22-26th, 2010.

There will also be information available about the Allied Media Conference taking place in Detroit June 18-20th, 2010.

The USSF Northeast Representative (Akudo Ejelonu) will give a presentation on what folks can expect at the forum. Local activists and organizers will share their experiences and learnings from USSF 2007 and what their organizations and movements are planning for 2010 in Detroit. We invite community members, activists, radicals, progressives, organizers, media-makers and artists to join us in this event both to learn more about the Allied Media Conference (AMC) and the USSF 2010 and begin a dialogue how these experiences can support local organizing efforts for radical media-making, equity, justice, peace and sustainability.

There will be two info sessions:

All are welcome. Hope to see you there!

For more information call Javiera or tk at 413-253-5432 or email tanya@foodforthoughtbooks.com

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Now Available! Important New Book from UMass Economist Nancy Folbre



We used to be state-supported, then state-assisted, and now we are state-located.—DR. JAMES J. DUDERSTADT, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


Once upon a time, students who were willing and able to work hard could obtain an affordable, high-quality education at a public university. Those times are gone. Intensified admissions competition coupled with opposition to public spending has scorched every campus. Budget cuts, tuition hikes, and debt burdens are undermining the best path to upward mobility that this country ever built.

But despite all of this, Americans still embrace ideals of equal opportunity and know that higher education represents a public good. Students, faculty, staff, and advocates are beginning to build political coalitions and develop new strategies to improve access, enhance quality, and simplify financial aid. This book celebrates and will fortify their efforts.

In Saving State U, economist Nancy Folbre brings the national debates of education experts down to the level of trying to teach—and trying to learn—at major state universities whose budgets have repeatedly been slashed, restored, and then slashed again. Here is a brilliant firsthand account of the stakes involved, the politics, and the key debates raging through public campuses today. In a passionate, accessible voice, Folbre also offers a sobering vision of the many possible futures of public higher education and their links to the fate of our democracy while looking at the practical ways in which change is now possible.


Nancy Folbre, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, lives in Montague, Massachusetts. She is the author or co-author of three other New Press books: The Invisible Heart, The War on the Poor, and Field Guide to the U.S. Economy.

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