Many households and communities are celebrating July 4 this year as “Interdependence Day.”

Below is the text of my syndicated column that explains what that means. It will be appearing in newspapers around the country between now and July 4. It’s also on The Progressive Magazine’s website. The column draws on my new book, Make Holidays Your Own: Celebrate Holidays Throughout the Year in More Meaningful and Inclusive Ways.

This July 4, Celebrate Our Interdependence

By Matt Witt

Some of the nation’s largest corporations are joining forces with the White House to turn the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this July 4 into a celebration of militarism and the mixing of church and state.

The group behind this effort is America250. Its nearly sixty corporate sponsors include Amazon, American Airlines, Boeing, BP, Chick-fil-A, Chrysler, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Comcast, Cummins, CVS, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Hilton, John Deere, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorganChase, Lockheed Martin, Oracle, Palantir, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Target, and Walmart. Its leadership includes Kellyanne Conway, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager and spokesperson, as well as an array of Trump administration Cabinet members.

America250’s mission, set forth on its website, says nothing about the growing gap between America’s billionaires and ordinary Americans, or about how the biggest corporations are making huge profits while working households struggle to make ends meet.

America250 is working closely with Freedom 250, an operation led by the White House that describes U.S. history as the history of its armed forces. The official White House website for Freedom 250 also includes a section called “America Prays” that highlights the theme that Christian Protestant faith has always been central to the country’s history. It urges U.S. citizens to “pray for our country and our people and rededicate ourselves as One Nation Under God.”

But this is not the only avenue we have as citizens to recognize July 4. We can, as an alternative, embrace the common future all of us share with other people and other living beings by celebrating July 4 as “Interdependence Day.”

For starters, our Interdependence Day celebrations can recall the radical assertion in the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In listing grievances against the King of England, the Declaration said that he had “made Judges dependent on his Will alone,” “sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people,” and “kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies.” It also said the king was guilty of “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury” and “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”

Interdependence Day can be a time to recognize that, while the Declaration’s assertions about unalienable rights were bold, they did not apply to everyone and are still in jeopardy today.

“All men,” as referred to in the Declaration, did not include women, who could not vote, hold public office, own property, enter most professions, or even serve on juries. It also did not include African Americans or Indigenous people.

Alternative Interdependence Day celebrations could include booths or workshops where community members can find out how to defend our constitutional rights and support worker and immigrant rights and other causes. They could also include teach-ins, film screenings, and other ways to learn about a different vision of globalization that benefits working people in all countries instead of just billionaires and big corporations.

Music, poetry, visual art, dance, food, and storytelling from a variety of cultural traditions can emphasize our diversity and our interconnectedness. Environmental groups can organize activities that highlight our interdependence when it comes to clean air and water and the impacts of climate change.

There’s no “one size fits all” formula for Interdependence Day celebrations. But one thing is for certain: The commemorations funded by big corporations and led by the White House will not be focused on the idea that all people “are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

It will be up to our households and our communities to make this Interdependence Day more meaningful, inclusive, and fun.

Matt Witt of Talent, Oregon, is the author of Make Holidays Your Own: Celebrate Holidays Throughout the Year in More Meaningful and Inclusive Ways.

More photos may be seen at MattWittPhotography.com.

Before talking about other book and films you may have missed, here’s two that are timely.

As I reported in this text-and-photos article, the U.S. Senate last week confirmed Steve Pearce to be in charge of the federal agency that oversees many special ecological places that have been designated as national monuments. Pearce made millions from the oil and gas industry, and while a member of Congress he co-authored a letter calling for elimination or drastic reductions of many of the monuments he will now oversee, including the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

If you want to support our public lands, 100% of the $19.95 sale price of my book of photographs, Monumental Beauty: Wonders Worth Protecting in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, goes to grassroots nonprofits that promote and defend our national monuments.

On this Memorial Day, my other new book, Make Holidays Your Own, describes how Memorial Day and Veterans Day – which originally were about preventing wars – have become occasions to celebrate militarism.

The book provides ideas for alternative activities that focus on giving veterans the care they need and stopping U.S. support around the world for corporate special interests, dictators, corrupt regimes, and genocide.

“Make Holidays Your Own” also talks about ways to celebrate July 4 as “Interdependence Day” and to make Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day, and other holidays less commercial and more meaningful and inclusive.

All royalties from “Make Holidays Your Own” go to Rethinking Schools that provides curriculum ideas and materials to tens of thousands of teachers.

FILMS

The Teacher. Inspired by actual events, this exceptionally brilliant, complex, and realistic feature film follows a Palestinian teacher on the West Bank who is trying to navigate resistance to Israeli occupation, responsibility to family and students, and the possibility of a new romance.

This Is Not a Drill. This documentary, free to watch on YouTube, shows communities organizing against environmental racism, fracking, and fracked gas pipelines and export terminals. One pipeline they stopped was planned to go through Black communities in Memphis even though a more direct route would have gone through richer neighborhoods. Residents were told by a corporate representative that their communities were targeted because it was the “path of least resistance,” but that did not turn out to be true.

Natchez. For nearly a hundred years, the town of Natchez, Mississippi, has attracted tourists to come see luxurious plantation homes and hear about the aristocracy that lived in them. A local Black preacher started offering alternative tours that talk about the role enslaved people played in accumulating that wealth. This documentary goes inside both types of tours and the imbalance of power and privilege that still exists.

Everybody to Kenmure Street. In Glasgow, Scotland, government agents showed up in the early hours of morning to detain two longtime residents because they were immigrants. Hundreds of neighbors turned out into the streets and reversed the arrests by physically blocking the agents from leaving with the two men. Footage and interviews shot throughout that day is the heart of this timely documentary.

Left-Handed Girl. An engaging Taiwanese feature film full of plot twists follows a single mother who operates a noodle stand, her daughter who has dropped out of high school, and a five-year-old girl who has been told by her grandfather that she is cursed because she is left-handed.

Natural Phenomena. A nurse in Cuba just wants a better life for herself, her husband injured on a construction job, and their baby that’s about to be born, but to move forward she has to overcome her country’s male-dominated and bureaucratic culture.

BOOKS

Axis of Empire: A History of Iran-U.S. Relations by Afshin Natin-Asgari (Verso). For more than a century, U.S. policy toward Iran has focused on support for dictators favored by U.S. oil companies, as this highly informative book explains. Economic and military attacks on a regime not favored by U.S. corporate interests have “helped make it tenaciously self-reliant, more repressive domestically, and more defiant in foreign relations.”

Kings and Pawns by Howard Bryant (Mariner). This book asks what it says about America that Jackie Robinson is lionized in popular culture while Paul Robeson’s legacy has mostly been erased. As a Black man breaking racial barriers as an athlete, actor, and singer, Robeson was one of the most prominent Americans in the 1940s when he used his fame to push for integration of Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson was the first to take advantage of that opportunity, yet allowed himself to be used during the McCarthy era to attack Robeson for his outspoken support for racial and economic justice.

Bloom Again by Marybeth Holleman (University of Alaska). Two women who were childhood friends but have not seen each other in decades – one an artist in Alaska, the other a science researcher in North Carolina – wonder what to do with their lives in the face of the world’s climate crisis.

Guardians of Life by Kiliii Yuyan (Braided River). Stunning photographs and accompanying text help bring to life indigenous knowledge that can be crucial in slowing climate change and maintaining biodiversity. Powerful examples include restoring the Klamath River in California, whales in Alaska, and buffalo in Montana and Alberta; using traditional kayaks and dogsleds in Greenland and fire in Australia; and other indigenous practices in Ecuador, Mongolia, Vancouver Island, and Palau.

Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov (FSG). A former Israeli soldier who is now a professor at Brown University describes the transformation of Israel from a refuge for Jews into a purveyor of genocide and discusses some possible paths forward now.

The Complicit Lens by Robin Andersen (OR Books). Many Americans rely on the corporate media for information about Israel and Gaza. In a carefully documented analysis, a media studies professor examined coverage of events since October 2023. She found some consistent patterns: ignoring the history of displacement of Palestinians since 1948, downplaying U.S.-funded genocide by the Israeli government, giving credence to Israeli claims that were not true, and labeling critics of Israeli policy as antisemitic.

Wild/Flower by Pepper Trail. This collection of poems by a thoughtful naturalist was inspired by wildflowers, trees, and other plants. It includes drawings by the author’s son, Sage Trail.

Flashes of Brilliance by Anika Burgess (W.W. Norton). Even if your interest in photography is no greater than carrying a phone camera in your pocket, you may enjoy the anecdotes and oddities in this account. The author follows how photography’s role in society evolved as technology developed from the earliest daguerrotypes to the arrival of color photography in the early 1900s. From the beginning, debates have raged about whether “the camera never lies” and about post-production manipulation.

Dead Bees Still Sting by Susan Cormier (Greystone). A good storyteller who lives in the country shares thoughts and observations about honey bees, pet quail, life and death of humans and other living things, and encroaching development.

Purgatoire by Liz Prato (Forest Avenue). In this work of fiction that reads like a collection of old family stories, Prato draws on the history of her ancestors who came from Italy to the mining towns of southern Colorado in the early 1900s. In her account, men struggled to be their true selves while women held communities and households together.

The Billionaires Have Two Parties, We Need a Party of Our Own by Les Leopold (J.P. Zenger). A long-time labor educator cites polling to suggest that many working class voters are ready to support an independent workers’ party that is not affiliated with the Democrats or Republicans. With redistricting and gerrymandering on the rise, the Democrats are irrelevant in districts that are currently solidly red, he argues, so a new workers’ party would not have to worry about being a “spoiler” in those places. Along the way, he tries to address all the objections people might have to creating an alternative to the two major parties.

You Are the Land by Steph Littlebird (Nancy Paulsen Books). A children’s book by a member of Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde features big illustrations and minimal text to tell the story of a young girl who learns she is one with nature.

The photo above shows a fox bringing food home for its kits around Mother’s Day this year. More photos may be seen at MattWittPhotography.com.

If you’re tired of bad news, here’s a new book about one small step households and communities can take to promote alternatives to the Trump agenda.

“Make Holidays Your Own” gives background on 13 holidays throughout the year, how they have evolved, and how we can make them less commercial and more meaningful, inclusive, and fun.

The book is particularly timely as the White House is spending hundreds of millions in tax dollars to make the 250^th anniversary of July 4 a day to celebrate America’s war machine, with most of the largest corporations signing on as sponsors.

“Make Holidays Your Own” describes how we can make July 4 “Interdependence Day” instead – a day that recognizes the common future we share with other people and other living beings.

In other examples, the book shows how Memorial Day and Veterans Day can be times to focus on peace instead of celebrating war. Labor Day can be about working people’s issues today. Martin Luther King Day can be about the movement and not just the man.

In every culture, holidays matter. They come with a message and symbols -- with a story that reinforces a certain way of looking at society and passes on certain values to the next generation.

“Make Holidays Your Own” was inspired by communities that are reframing and reclaiming many of our holidays that have been taken over by big corporations and their political allies.

All royalties go to Rethinking Schools, a national nonprofit organization that supports social, economic, and environmental justice teaching at a time when the very idea of public education is under attack. Rethinking Schools’ materials have been used by tens of thousands of educators and have reached millions of students.

“Make Holidays Your Own” is available here for $12.95. A discount of 25% is automatically applied to orders of 10 or more copies. “Make Holidays Your Own” is also available as an e-book here and may also be available wherever else you shop for e-books.

“This timely book is full of informative history about some of our holidays that will surprise many readers. In addition, the book provides suggestions for celebrating these holidays that bring people together to forge a better world.” – Steven Pitts, Emeritus Associate Chair, UC Berkeley Labor Center, and co-founder, National Black Worker Center

“Some holidays were hard-won; some are based on myths. Make Holidays Your Own helps turn these familiar dates into meaningful opportunities for learning and connection.” – Mandy Yeahpau (Comanche, Cherokee, and Tarahumara descent), board member, Indigenous Creative Stage Workers Alliance

“Make Holidays Your Own is an inspiring resource for teachers, parents, students, and anyone interested in social change.” – Deborah Menkart, Executive Director, Teaching for Change

“I love the idea of ‘Interdependence Day’ for July 4th and making holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day about peace and justice instead of celebrating war.” – David Zeiger, Film Director, “Sir! No Sir!”

“Holidays can be about our hopes, our values, and the future we want to see. That’s what this book is about.” Hannah Sohl, co-founder, Rogue Climate

BOOKS

The Soldier’s House by Helen Benedict (Red Hen). Two U.S. soldiers from the U.S. war on Iraq marry when they return home but still carry deep psychological scars. One of them had an Iraqi interpreter who was killed because he served the invaders. This U.S. soldier saves the dead man’s widow and child by arranging for them to escape to the U.S., where they move into the soldiers’ house. As this powerful and brilliantly nuanced novel shows, the lasting damage the U.S. invasion caused is not over for any of them, but each in their own way is trying to find a way to carry on.

Thirsty Creek by Jennie Bricker (Unsolicited Press). Beginning in the 1960s, opossum shrimp were introduced into several Oregon lakes with the idea that kokanee salmon would eat the shrimp, grow larger, and make better trophies for the sport fishing business. As this creative novel explains, the plan backfired dramatically in many cases. As has happened with so many human interventions in ecosystems, that ill-fated decision has continued to impact future generations of humans and other living beings.

Low April Sun by Constance E. Squires (University of Oklahoma). 2025 marked the 30^th anniversary of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by white supremacists that killed 168 people. This perceptive novel is set against that atrocity and shows how its lasting impact radiated outward like ripples on a pond. In so doing, Squires skillfully explores obsession, guilt, personal integrity, and forgiveness.

Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth (Graywolf). This quirky novel tells a story that is at once satire and serious about women who decide to disrupt the inhumane way most chicken eggs are produced in the U.S.

The Endling by Keely Jobe (Scribe). Drawing on her own experience living in a remote all-female commune, an Australian novelist imagines a crisis in such a compound when all of the women mysteriously become pregnant and one of the children turns out to be a boy.

Mule Boy by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue Literary Press). Many workers give their health and even their lives to make profits for others. This immersive novel brings that reality to life through the eyes of a man who survived a coal mine disaster that took the lives of his coworkers.

Reclaiming the Cascades (Hawkeye). An anthology of poetry, prose, and art by 14 Indigenous writers and artists in the Pacific Northwest draws on their relationship to the land and their cultural traditions.

Safety Through Solidarity by Shane Burley and Ben Lorber (Melville House). Antisemitism is on the rise. For Jews to be more safe, they have to join forces with other movements for economic and social justice, rather than becoming more isolated in support of the Israeli government’s genocidal war on Palestinians.

The Second Estate By Ray D. Madoff (University of Chicago). The kind of wealth that rich people amass is not taxed or is taxed at very low rates. That’s the main problem that has to be fixed or underfunded public programs will continue to fight over budget scraps.

Undammed by Tara Lohan (Island Press). Many dams across the U.S. are being taken down, thereby boosting biodiversity and water quality, building climate resilience, and making communities safer.

East Nashville Skyline by Brian T. Atkinson (Texas A&M). Todd Snider, who died recently, was one of America’s best songwriters with songs like “Looking for a Job,” “Can’t Complain,” and “Easy Money.” His spirit comes to life in these interviews with Snider himself and many people who knew him.

FILMS

The Voice of Hind Rajab. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, this film based on actual events is a powerful antidote to those who talk about war like it’s a sports event, with winners and losers and no human cost. In 2024, a Palestinian family was evacuating a community in Gaza on orders from the Israeli army. Yet, Israeli tanks (largely funded by U.S. taxpayers) opened fire on their car, killing everyone except a little girl. She connected by phone with the Palestinian equivalent of the Red Cross, but will rescuers reach her in time?

Mr. Nobody Against Putin. When Russia’s current war on Ukraine began, Putin ordered all schools to implement a curriculum promoting militarization. A young teacher at a small-town school was, among other duties, responsible for videoing events and classroom lessons to show higher-ups that the staff was complying with Putin’s edict. When the school year ended, that teacher smuggled all the footage out of the country so it could be turned into this unique documentary. Seeing what dictatorship and militarization look like in another country helps shine a light on where the U.S. could be heading.

Soulemayne’s Story. This timely and compelling feature film follows a Guinean immigrant to Paris who survives making food deliveries by bicycle and who is desperately trying to obtain refugee status.

A World Apart. A teacher in Rome takes a job at a school in a small community in an Italian national park where he has a lot to learn about local customs. When the school faces closure because of declining enrollment, the town welcomes refugee families from Ukraine and Africa.

Sweet As. An Indigenous film director in Australia drew on her own experiences in making this feature. A girl from a troubled home is nearly out of options when her uncle sends her on a road trip with other at-risk teenagers and two adult mentors. The focus of the trip in Australia’s back country is for the young people to learn about photography – and about themselves.

The Ballad of Wallis Island. In this feel-good British film full of wordplay and beautiful scenery, a quirky lottery winner now lives a solitary life on an island off the coast of Wales. His dream is to reunite a duo of folksingers who broke up their professional partnership and romantic relationship years before and to have them perform a concert for him. They don’t discover his agenda until they each arrive at the island.

Lead Belly. Huddie Ledbetter was a Black blues singer who died in the 1940s but inspired many of the most famous rock and folk musicians including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Harry Belafonte, B.B. King, Joan Baez, and more. Many of his songs, including Goodnight Irene, Midnight Special, Pick a Bale of Cotton, and Rock Island Line, have been performed by a wide range of artists,

MUSIC

Magic Accident by Della Mae. The all-female bluegrass band presents an album that reflects their skill as musicians, their depth as songwriters, and their energy as performers.

The Red Album Vol 2 by Carsie Blanton. The singer-songwriter who recently was held in an Israeli prison for participating in an international flotilla protesting the blockade of Gaza has released a new album with songs like Another War, FBI, The Future, and The Little Flame.

The photograph above shows a wild barred owl shortly after it nabbed a robin for lunch. More photos at MattWittPhotography.com. Also available is a book of 132 photographs, Monumental Beauty: Wonders Worth Protecting in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, with all proceeds going to local profits that promote and defend public lands.

I had the good fortune to see this rainbow over the Klamath River in California shortly after four dams were removed, allowing salmon to spawn in waters that had been blocked for up to 100 years. Crews from the Yurok Nation have planted millions of seeds on the river banks shown in this photo so native flora will restore this area.

Major streams from the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument such as Jenny Creek and Scotch Creek feed the undammed Klamath River, underscoring the importance of protecting the monument.

But as this column of mine in newspapers throughout the West reports, the Trump administration recently nominated Steve Pearce to head the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency that administers many of our public lands. As a member of Congress, Pearce coauthored a letter to Trump specifically calling for abolition (“complete rescission”) of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and other monuments that he would now oversee.

The photography book, Monumental Beauty,shows the beauty and biodiversity of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, with 100% of the proceeds going to the monument’s defense.

The story of how and why the dams on the Klamath were taken down is told in a highly informative new book, The Water Remembers (Little, Brown)., by Amy Bowers Cordalis, former general counsel of the Yurok Nation.

After the dams were removed, 28 indigenous young people took a month to kayak the length of the river, from its headwaters and past the sites of the former dams to the ocean. An inspiring 30-minute public television documentary called First Descent follows their journey.

Meanwhile, states could be taking bolder, outside-the-box action to counter attacks by the Trump administration. This article from the blog More Than Just Parks gives examples.

BOOKS

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (Knopf). In this all-too-real novel that takes place in India, the global climate crisis and the gap between billionaires and everyone else grow to the point that households are pitted against each other for basic survival.

Amity by Nathan Harris (Little, Brown). In this unusual historical fiction, it’s 1866 and the Civil War is over, but a Black brother and sister who were enslaved by a white family in New Orleans are still not free. Their struggle for emancipation ends up in Mexico where they encounter African Americans and Seminoles who fled the United States and established their own community.

The Daughters by Ben Rogers (University of Nevada). This touching story is about people who long for close family relationships but can’t quite make them happen.

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (Scribe). An Iranian novel follows one left-leaning family over 40 years from opposing the repressive regime of the Shah to exile in Germany to a return to their homeland.

The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad (Little, Brown). A young Gazan journalist shares excerpts from her diary covering the period from October 7, 2023 to May, 2025. The result is an eloquent account of what she saw and felt, from scenes of unspeakable destruction to poignant anecdotes about friends, family, and neighbors.

Gaza Catastrophe by Gilbert Achcar (University of California). A Lebanese writer explains that oppression of Palestinians began long before October 7, 2023, and argues that neither the Israeli government nor Hamas represent the interests and needs of the Palestinian people.

On Antisemitism by Mark Mazower (Penguin). In measured tones, a Jewish historian examines how the word “antisemitism” that once had a clear meaning has become a weapon used against anyone who questions the policies of the Israeli government. Those policies, he finds, have actually increased antisemitism around the world and have made Jews less safe, not more. He quotes a former Israeli attorney general who said that the Israeli government treats Palestinians the way Jews around the world have long been treated: “For Jews in Israel there is only one way to combat antisemitism, That is not to imitate (it).”

Don’t Stop Teaching About Gaza (Rethinking Schools). A publication from a network of educators gives practical examples of how to help students, families, union members, and others learn about the situation in Gaza and what can be done about it.

Solidarity Betrayed by Ana Avendaño (Pluto). A former Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO uses specific examples to show that unions have not done enough to combat sexual harassment and makes concrete recommendations for improvement. While the book focuses on unions, it will be useful for anyone interested in learning more about both the problem of sexual harassment and possible solutions.

We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System by Jonathan Rosenblum (OR Books). The author gives his take on the years he worked for Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant who supported a local $15 minimum wage, renters’ rights laws, and other progressive legislation.

FILMS

Lingua Franca. In this powerful feature film, a trans woman from the Philippines who works in New York is terrified that she might be picked up by ICE. Marriage to an American citizen might provide a path to citizenship (though a difficult one) but her relationship with a male slaughterhouse worker is complicated.

Las Amazonas de Yaxunah. A surprising ESPN documentary follows women of Mayan ancestry in a small community in the Yucatan jungle who unexpectedly form a softball team, bringing change to themselves, their families, and their community.

The Wall Street Boy. What if a teenaged genius in a small village in Kenya developed an algorithm that allowed him to beat world markets in stocks and currencies?

Where The Tracks End. Men in Mexico who repair train tracks must constantly move with their families to follow the work, making schooling and friendships difficult to maintain. This realistic but fictionalized feature film focuses on one such makeshift community and their school teacher.

Welcome. Inspired by true stories, this French film features a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee in France who wants to try to reach England by swimming the English Channel even though he doesn’t know how to swim.

I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. This award-winning film made in 1932 is based on a true story of a white returning war veteran who was sentenced to 10 years hard labor on a Georgia chain gang after unwittingly being drawn into a petty robbery. He escaped, built a respectable life in the North, and became an outspoken critic of the use of chain gangs.

Willow. The amazing lives of mountain lions, foxes, and other animals are revealed in this hour-long documentary based on video footage shot over many years using motion-sensitive cameras on a large piece of private land in Montana.

Union. Filmmakers got access to document from the inside the campaign to form a union at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, NY. They show both the workers’ courage and determination and the obstacles unionization efforts at Amazon continue to face.

MUSIC

Safe, Sensible and Sane. This enjoyable collaborative album by Alison Brown and Steve Martin features virtuoso, melodic banjo playing and quirky lyrics, with guest appearances by Della Mae, Jackson Browne, the Indigo Girls, Tim O’Brien, Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, Jason Mraz, and more.

Jesse Welles. Welles is a prolific songwriter of political songs like “War Isn’t Murder,” “Walmart,” “United Health,” and “Join ICE,” as well as more personal or philosophical tracks.

A new review of the book of photographs, Monumental Beauty: Wonders Worth Protecting in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, says: “This catalog of nature’s charms, great as mountains and as small as a fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, is a spirited argument for the protection of public lands to be held for the benefit of all – not just humans, and not just those living now – but well into the future.”

After describing some of the assaults on public lands by the Trump administration, the review adds: “In the face of such looming threats on both legal and political fronts, any money generated from the sales of Monumental Beauty is going to locally-based nonprofit organizations that work on promoting and defending the monument.”

The photographs above first show a wild juvenile red-shouldered hawk with its eyes open and then with its white eyelids closed. More photographs may be seen at MattWittPhotography.com.

BOOKS

Things I Didn’t Do by Karin Anderson (Torrey House). A follow-up to the stellar novel What Falls Away, this one is similarly perceptive about human emotions and relationships, with western landscape as backdrop. The story is centered on a boy growing up in rural Utah who is gradually learning about his past and about how to be a man.

Emerald City Blues by H. Lee Barnes (University of Nevada). This novel about women who worked in a factory during World War II while millions of men were overseas manages to be rooted in that important history but at the same time relevant to today.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (Pantheon). In this dystopian novel that doesn’t seem very farfetched, a big corporation monitors people’s dreams and sells the information to a government agency responsible for identifying anyone who might pose a potential risk to public safety. The company also makes money by inserting commercial products into people’s dreams. The algorithm it uses leads to the lengthy incarceration of a young mother who has done nothing wrong.

The Night of the Scourge by Lars Mytting (Overlook). Third in the Sister Bells trilogy that started with The Bell in the Lake, this Norwegian novel features lyrical writing and memorable characters. The story shows how wartime occupation tears a country apart but also brings out solidarity in resistance.

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (Catapult). While an indigenous family from Nova Scotia is in Maine for the summer to work the blueberry harvest, their four-year-old daughter disappears. Meanwhile, a young girl grows up with a white mother and father but keeps stumbling across clues that make her question whether they really are her parents.

Adventures of Mary Jane by Hope Jahren (Delarcorte). Mary Jane is a character mentioned in Mark Twain’s book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In this well researched novel for teenagers she is given her own story as she travels down the Mississippi River in the years before the Civil War.

Art on Fire by Yun Ko-eun (Scribe). In this absurdist satire that skewers modern capitalist culture and the art world, an artist in Korea who supports herself as a delivery driver is offered a prestigious residency in Palm Springs.

Where We Call Home by Josephine Woolington (Ooligan). A journalist who is a skilled storyteller shares what she learned about ecology and the perspectives of indigenous people as she researched particular animals, birds, or plants and how they are threatened by climate change, clearcutting, and development. Chapters talk about sandhill cranes, camas, whales, huckleberries, bumble bees, and more.

How to Be Hopeful by Elin Kelsey (Greystone). While it has a particular focus on climate change, this collection of practical advice and exercises takes on big questions about “doomism” and how those in power try to make everyone else feel that resistance is futile.

The Quinoa Bust by Emma McDonell (University of California). Quinoa was long a staple of the diet of Andean communities. Then political and corporate entities transformed it into a global “superfood” commodity. An anthropologist studied the impact on a community in Peru, where many local farmers who should have benefited were negatively impacted instead.

American Maccabee by Andrew Porwancher (Princeton). In the early 1900s, growing inequality of wealth between rich industrial magnates and workers and farmers led many Americans to look for scapegoats to blame for increased economic insecurity. One of their favorite targets was Jewish immigrants fleeing from Russia and eastern Europe where they faced intense violence, bans on owning property or sending their children to schools, and other oppression. President Theodore Roosevelt sometimes was an ally to Jews at home and abroad but at other times he chose not to be for political reasons or because it would mean jeopardizing the interests of powerful corporations.

The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush (Milkweed). A writer accompanied a team of scientists who became the first humans to conduct onsite studies of the impact of climate change at Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, the widest glacier in the world.

FILMS

The Penguin Lessons. In a powerful film that might seem improbable if it weren’t based on a true story, an English teacher at an expensive private school in Argentina rescues a penguin from a seaside oil slick and smuggles it back to his school. Set in a time of militarization and government lawlessness, the story is timely given recent actions by the Trump administration.

The Good Boss. A factory owner who inherited the business sees himself as a benevolent father figure to the workers, but the reality of underlying power relations becomes clear when the owner’s principles are tested in this well-acted film from Spain.

The Grizzlies. Based on a true story, this film is set in an isolated Inuit community in the Arctic with a high rate of addiction and teen suicide. A new teacher from outside the community commits frequent cultural faux pas but learns from native people and finds an unexpected way to connect

The Children’s Train. Southern Italy was subjected to so much destruction during World War II that leftist organizers arranged for tens of thousands of children to be sent afterward to live for a few years with families in the North. This touching Italian feature film imagines what that experience might have been like for one of the children, his single mother, and the woman in the North who hosted him.

Sunday Best. A documentary traces the history of The Ed Sullivan Show, which from 1948 to 1971 was one of the most popular and most influential programs on TV. One key to Sullivan’s success was that he insisted on featuring Black performers at a time when they generally were not welcome on television because network executives were fearful that they would alienate white audiences. Some of the performers who got national exposure that way included Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, The Supremes, The Jackson 5, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, and many others.

MUSIC

Snipe Hunter by Tyler Childers. Popular enough that he could crank out albums stuck in a predictable groove, the Appalachian songster instead chooses to take a refreshing and eclectic journey full of surprises..

The Freelancer’s Blues by Dougie Poole. Includes the title song and others like “Buddhist for a Couple Days,” “Vaping on the Job,” and “Natural Touch.”

BOOKS

Monumental Beauty by Matt Witt (Common Ground Press). A leading conservationist writes that Monumental Beauty “is particularly timely as the Trump administration and its corporate allies are attempting to prioritize logging, drilling and mining on our special public lands instead of conservation for now and for future generations.” Monumental Beauty features 132 photographs showing the beauty and biodiversity of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument that was singled out in Project 2025 for attack by the new administration. 100% of sales from Monumental Beauty go to the nonprofit Soda Mountain Wilderness Council that for 40 years has been leading the fight to establish and protect the Monument. The book includes a forward by Don Gentry, former chair of the Klamath Tribes. Monumental Beauty can be ordered here.

Truth Demands by Abby Reyes (North Atlantic). When Reyes was in her early 20s, her boyfriend and two others were brutally murdered while in Colombia to support indigenous people resisting a multinational oil company. Her thoughtful memoir intertwines her continuing work for climate action and corporate accountability and her personal search for ways to keep going in a world full of injustice and violence.

Selling Social Justice by Jennifer C. Pan (Verso). At a time when many people in America are struggling economically while billionaires get richer, both major political parties and their corporate allies have changed the subject from class inequality by focusing instead on race. It will take a movement that unites working people of all races based on class interests to counter the intensifying assault on living standards and workers’ rights.

A Hole in the Story by Ken Kalfus (Milkweed). In this nuanced and honest novel, a Washington journalist who considers himself a progressive thinks the #MeToo movement is about other men until he is challenged to reexamine his own past.

The Jewish South by Shari Rabin (Princeton). A history of Jews in the American South reveals a mixture of contradictions. Jews often have been “othered” by Christians, sometimes violently through lynchings and bombings, and today by attempts to impose Christian teaching in public schools. Some Jews played a courageous role as allies in the civil rights movements. Yet, throughout history, many Jews and their rabbis have tried to be accepted as white southerners, which sometimes meant exploiting enslaved labor or remaining silent on the treatment of Black people.

On the Pleasures of Living in Gaza by Mohammed Omer Almoghayer (OR Books). A journalist born and raised in Gaza shares stories about the culture and resilience of the people who live there.

Red Scare by Clay Risen (Simon and Schuster). During the 1930s and after World War II, right-wing forces funded by wealthy special interests fought back against progress won by workers, women, and people of color under the New Deal. Officials like Senator Joseph McCarthy and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who had no respect for constitutional rights or factual accuracy labeled progressives as communist subversives, causing many to lose their jobs or even go to jail for their beliefs. Universities, Hollywood studios, and some labor leaders, hoping to save their own skins, engaged in appeasement, which only further whetted the appetite of the demagogues. Senators Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, and most other leaders of both parties went along, enacting legislation that made it illegal simply to be a member of the Communist Party, punishable by up to five years in prison. This history of the Red Scare is particularly timely as people are being arrested and deported today because of their beliefs without resistance from many big institutions.

Hillbilly Highway by Max Fraser (Princeton). In the last century, about 8 million white southerners migrated from rural areas to the industrial cities of the Midwest. As they struggled to adjust both economically and culturally, they often were left out of anti-poverty programs and disrespected by urban elites, laying some of the groundwork for today’s political dynamics.

The Girl in the Middle by Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton). In 1868, a well known photographer took a picture in what is now Wyoming of six white men and one young indigenous girl. The photographer labeled the six men – all high up in military or political circles – but not the girl. An historian traces the lives of the photographer and all seven subjects of the picture, including the girl. The result provides an informative window into the white invasion of the West as well as the early days of photography..

Justice Abandoned by Rachel Elise Barkow (Harvard). Mass incarceration leads to more repeat crimes as detention makes it harder to get jobs, housing, health care, and other services, and a high percentage of people in jail are awaiting trial and have never been convicted. Yet, over the past 50 years the U.S. Supreme Court has ignored the Constitution and issued decisions that allowed more pretrial detention, coercive plea bargaining, disproportionate sentences, stop-and-frisk policing, prison overcrowding, and racial bias throughout the so-called criminal justice system.

Democracy in Power by Sandeep Vaheesan (University of Chicago). About one-quarter of U.S. customers get their electricity from publicly owned utilities or nonprofit cooperatives. As rates climb and the shift to renewable energy moves too slowly, this book examines the history, strengths, and weaknesses of various forms of electric utility and identifies a path forward.

FILMS

Dusty and Stones. Two cousins from a remote valley in Swaziland fall in love with American country music and begin writing and performing their own songs. This documentary shows their joy but keeps it real as they travel to play in Nashville and a music festival in Texas.

North of North. An 8-part series follows a 26-year-old Inuit woman coming into her own in a fictional Canadian Arctic community.

Unrest. A visually creative feature film takes place in a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland where factory workers are organizing.

Aisha. A woman who was raped in her home country of Nigeria tries to navigate the refugee system in Ireland. Along the way she befriends an Irish security guard who is trying to rebuild his own life after serving time in prison because of drug addiction.

Forgotten Love. A surgeon in Poland is hit on the head during a mugging and suffers from amnesia. Many years later, while working at a sawmill in the countryside, he slowly starts to reconnect with his profession and with his daughter.

The Fam. In this feature film that has the authenticity of a documentary, seven teenage girls and their social workers in a foster home work through life’s challenges

Late Bloomers. A young woman struggling to find herself and to cope with her mother’s decline finds meaning in a friendship with an elderly immigrant.

Photograph above shows a sandhill crane guarding her nest in a wetland in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. More photographs may be seen at MattWittPhotography.com.

Here’s something simple and immediate you can do to fight back against one of Trump’s many outrageous actions – his attack on our public lands, including our national parks and national monuments.

You can pre-order a new book of photography called Monumental Beauty that shows the natural beauty and biodiversity we need to protect. 100% of the money will go directly and immediately to grassroots organizing to resist the attack on our public lands.

Trump specifically targeted the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon and northern California during his first term but was slowed by public resistance. Project 2025 has singled out the Monument as a first target to be gutted in Trump’s second term. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told reporters on April 25 that the Trump administration is conducting “a thorough review” to determine the future of all national monuments.

The Monumental Beauty Project: Raising Funds and Public Awareness

Monumental Beauty serves three purposes.

It shares in a hard-cover, coffee-table book 132 beautifully reproduced photographs of mine that highlight the birds, butterflies, ancient waterfalls, towering trees, wildflowers, and animals that grace the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument that is home to more than 3,500 different plants, mammals, and other living beings.

It raises money. Thanks to major donors to this project, 100% of sales from Monumental Beauty will go to the nonprofit Soda Mountain Wilderness Council (named after a prominent feature in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument). For 40 years, the Council has been leading the fight to establish and protect the Monument and they are gearing up for a new round of resistance.

It raises public awareness of the attack on our public lands. National monument designation generally prohibits logging for commercial purposes, new grazing, mining, or other development. But the Trump administration has sent federal agencies a series of executive orders directing that profits of logging, mining, and oil and gas companies be prioritized over protection of public lands like the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Monumental Beauty includes a foreword by Don Gentry, former chairman of the Klamath Tribes, who writes: “Today, protection of the land is urgent as climate change puts our watersheds and forests, and even our homes and our culture, at risk. We have always been one with the land and always will be. The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is one important way to help us protect it.”

Stanley Smith, formerly of the Getty Museum, adds, “Throughout history, photographers like Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter have played an important role in promoting and protecting America’s public lands. Monumental Beauty continues that tradition with these artful images of a very special national monument.”

Monumental Beauty will be published on June 9, the 25th anniversary of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

You can pre-order it here for $19.95 – with 100% of the funds going immediately and directly to the fight to protect our public lands.

Thanks!

FILMS

From Ground Zero. Shortlisted for the 2025 Academy Awards, this is a deeply moving collection of shorts by 22 Palestinian filmmakers that show the humanity and resilience of children, women, and men in Gaza and the impact of the war on their lives.

No Other Land. This Academy Award winning documentary was a joint project of two young filmmakers – one Palestinian and one Israeli. Footage shot over a five-year period shows the destruction of homes, a school, and a village well by the Israeli army in an attempt to drive Palestinian families off their land in the West Bank.

World War III. In this unusual Iranian feature film, a poor laborer encounters a crew making a low-budget film about the Holocaust. When the actor playing the part of Hitler is suddenly incapacitated, the laborer is unexpectedly pulled into filling in for him.

A Real Pain. In this feature film that walks the line between humor and sadness, two male cousins, each with their own challenges in life, join a tour group of Jews visiting Poland to learn more about their heritage, including the Holocaust.

Without Arrows. Filmed over 13 years, this documentary shows the challenges faced by a Lakȟóta man who left home for the east coast and became a renowned grass dancer but comes home to stay connected with his family and community.

Inshallah A Boy. A devout Muslim woman in Jordan suddenly becomes a widow and single mother in this feature film. As she tries to carry on with her life the country’s male dominated culture confronts her with unexpected barriers.

Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat. An innovative Academy Award nominated documentary blends music and historical footage to revisit the period in the early 1960s when poor African countries like the Congo were demanding independence. As they do now, wealthy nations like the U.S. and Belgium were fighting to keep control over that continent’s mineral wealth. The U.S. government enlisted Black entertainers like Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie to travel to such countries as cultural ambassadors to provide political cover as the CIA worked to install malleable puppet regimes.

BOOKS

Some Final Beauty by Lisa Alvarez (University of Nevada). This is a beautifully written collection of short stories, often inspired by true events, that draws on the author’s deep experience in community and family issues.

Metamorphosis edited by Grist (Milkweed). A varied, unpredictable, and multicultural collection of 12 short stories looks to our future in a time of climate change.

West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge (Lake Union). Based on a true story, this novel reimagines a perilous journey during the Great Depression in which two giraffes acquired by the San Diego Zoo were transported by truck across the U.S., long before the interstate highways were built.

Katharine, The Wright Sister by Tracey Enerson Wood (Source). A fictionalized biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright and their sister Katharine tells the human side of their story – their doubts, family tensions, and successes before and after the first motorized airplane flight.

We Are the Union by Eric Blanc (University of California). Nearly 60% of workers in America say they would support having a union where they work, yet only 11% have one. This thoughtful book uses recent organizing at Starbucks and other companies to discuss ways to close that gap. The central thesis is that to get to the necessary scale existing unions need to invest far more resources in supporting organizing led by workers themselves.

Stolen Pride by Arlie Russell Hochschild (New Press). A sociologist listened in depth to blue-collar men in Pike County, Kentucky, an area devastated by the decline of the coal industry and by opioid addiction promoted by drug companies. She concluded that most of them supported Trump not because of issues or policies but because he spoke to their lost sense of pride. When Trump was attacked by liberals or prosecutors, he successfully appealed to these men by saying, “See how they look down on us?”

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here by Jonathan Blitzer (Penguin). A journalist takes a deep dive into the connection between U.S. support for wealthy dictators in Central American countries and increased immigration from that region.

Syria: Civil War to Holy War? by Charles Glass (OR Books). The fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024 did not mean the arrival of peace or democracy for Syrians. Outside countries, including the U.S., Russia, Turkey, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others continued their longstanding practice of pursuing their own interests either by the direct use of force or by funding mercenaries.

Climate Injustice by Friederike Otto (Greystone). Inequality of wealth and privilege within and between nations plays a huge role in the climate crisis. What to do to slow the pace of climate change and to reduce harm is known but corporate interests wielding political power to prevent systemic change stand in the way.

A Walk in the Park by Kevin Fedarko (Scribner). Over year’s time, a writer and photographer hiked the entire length of the Grand Canyon in segments with help from some of the few backpackers ever to cover that remote and spectacular landscape.

The Political Economy of California (Dollars and Sense). Despite the dry title, this collection of articles about current struggles over worker justice; immigrant rights; affordable health care, housing, and education; and many other issues will be of interest even to readers not in California.

Radioactive Radicals by Dan La Botz (BookLocker). The author has spent a lifetime participating in movements for workers’ rights. In this 734-page novel, he draws on that experience, including his time working with other Teamster members to challenge the corrupt leadership of that union. His story about taking strategically chosen blue-collar jobs in order to organize for economic justice may be of particular interest at a time when many young people are doing the same at Starbucks, Amazon, and other companies.

MUSIC

Avett Brothers. The duo’s latest album includes a spiritual hymn for our time, “We Are Loved.”

A Tip Toe High Wire by Sierra Hull. Virtuoso bluegrass music with a soothing voice.

Photograph of egret taking off by Matt Witt Photography

FILMS

Exhibiting Forgiveness. An African-American artist paints painful scenes from a childhood marked by abuse by his father that was tolerated by his mother. When his father reappears in his life, his mother urges him to forgive them both, but it’s not so simple.

Lyd. A dramatic documentary made by a Palestinian and a Jewish American focuses on the city of Lyd that was founded nearly 5,000 years ago. In 1948, tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Lyd were forcibly driven out by the Israeli army so Jewish refugees could move into their homes. The film includes powerful interview footage of former Israeli soldiers describing the atrocities they witnessed, as well as of Palestinian survivors and their descendants. It also shows that the oppression of Palestinians in and near Lyd continues to the present day.

Touch. A young woman and man meet in London and fall in love. He is from Iceland. She is from Hiroshima and is the daughter of parents who survived the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. She suddenly returns to Japan without even saying goodbye. Fifty years later, he searches for her and finds out what happened.

Panchayat. A TV series with some appealing characters sheds a light on village dynamics in rural India.

Toni. A 42-year-old woman has raised five kids. Now she has to decide what to do with the rest of her life. With skilled acting and directing, this feature film shows what it’s like to be a teenager, a parent of teenagers, and a single mom.

On the Count of Three. As this dark and sensitive film begins, two young men are about to help each other commit suicide but they decide to wait a day and to use the time revisiting key people in their respective pasts.

Three Monkeys. A chauffeur, a kitchen aide, and their son live in a poor neighborhood in istanbul. When the rich politician the chauffeur works for accidentally kills a pedestrian while driving drunk, he asks the chauffeur to take the fall for him.

Songs of Earth. This documentary by a Norwegian filmmaker, shot in all seasons of the year in the fjord where her family has lived since the 1600s, features breathtaking nature footage.

BOOKS

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (One World). An ambitious novel follows multiple generations of working class Latinx and indigenous women in Colorado trying to survive against the odds.

Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj (HarperVia). Stories about three Palestinian families of different economic circumstances who immigrated to the U.S. are woven together in this nuanced novel.

Mirage by Nahid Rachlin (Red Hen). Identical twin sisters in Iran are thrilled when they both get pregnant at the same time, but all does not go as planned.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner). An entertaining novel follows the author’s musings about the origin of humans intertwined with a story about a female undercover operative hired to try to entrap members of an anarchist commune in France in violent crime.

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam (Riverhead). A young Black woman gets a job at a new foundation established by an elderly white multi-billionaire. A relationship develops between them, but what is it exactly, and where is it leading?

Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha (Knopf). A Palestinian librarian and scholar wrote powerful poems after his home and a community library in Gaza were destroyed by Israeli bombs.

Clean by Alia Trabucco Zeran (Riverhead). In this intense novel, a woman leaves rural Chile to work as a maid and nanny for a professional couple in Santiago. She is in jail and being interrogated, but for what?

Undivided by Hahrie Han (Knopf). A huge mega-church in Ohio with an 80-20 ratio of white to Black members started a program of small groups meeting to talk about race. Some of the participants progressed beyond sharing individual stories to taking collective political action for systemic social justice. Han tells what happened by focusing on four unlikely participants – two Black, two white.

The Politics of Hate by Angelia R. Wilson (Temple). How did an overwhelming majority of white evangelicals come to support a presidential candidate who had consistently violated their professed Christian values? A political science professor describes decades of highly sophisticated and coordinated strategy by the Christian Right that may not have been obvious even to the average church goer who has been impacted.

The War Below by Ernest Scheyder (One Signal). Many new technologies, from smart phones to electric cars, require massive supplies of lithium and copper. The author spent time with wealthy speculators hoping to make a fortune meeting this need. He also visited communities and ecological systems whose future is threatened by huge new mines these speculators and some government agencies are planning.

The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger (Harper). A science writer describes recent research that demonstrates remarkable ways that plants survive and thrive.

The Apothecary’s Wife by Karen Bloom Gevirtz (University of California). At one time, illnesses were usually treated by women for free using home remedies. An historian chronicles the systematic shift to a male-dominated medical and pharmaceutical industry that often prioritizes profit over health.

Crimes Against Nature by Jeff Sparrow (Scribe). Big corporations and their political allies encourage us to think that the way to address climate change is for each of us to change our individual behavior. But the capitalist drive for profits created climate change and must be addressed in order to prevent further catastrophe.

MUSIC

Orchestras by Bill Frisell. The jazz guitarist collaborated with two orchestras on a calming but not soporific double album.

Photograph from Oregon coast by Matt Witt

FILMS

The Old Oak. The main characters in this artfully done feature film by Ken Loach include the owner of the struggling pub in a poor town in northern England and a Syrian refugee who has become an amateur photographer in order to cope. For generations, coal mining families in the town were proud of their work and their union, but there was no plan for them when the mines closed down and their community was left in poverty. When the government chooses to resettle Syrian refugees there, some residents blame the newcomers for their problems, while others find common ground.

Rez Ball. A Native American director and scriptwriter teamed up to produce this exceptional feature film about teenagers and their families on a reservation in New Mexico. A former WNBA professional basketball player from the rez has come home to coach a boys high school team that faces an unexpected challenge off the court. 

Suro. In this intense and complex drama, a young couple in Catalonia leaves the city with big plans for the cork tree plantation they have inherited. Their relationship and their ideals are challenged by the realities of the dangerous and exploitative conditions the plantation workers face.

Between Two Worlds. An established French journalist gets work as a cleaning lady on a large ferry boat in order to get material for a book on how economic survival has become more precarious for many working class people. In the process, the people she is writing about become real to her and she learns more about class than she expected.

Driver. It’s estimated that half of today’s truck drivers are so-called owner operators who bear all of the risk of financing and maintaining their vehicle while often reaping little of the reward. This documentary shows a leader of the independent group, Real Women in Trucking, who uses an app of a “logistics” broker to find loads to haul, often in competition with other drivers to see who will do the work for less. She pays unaffordable fees to a leasing company for her truck. Many drivers live in their trucks because they can’t afford to maintain both their vehicle and a home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, half of truck drivers are over the age of 46,  less than 7% are women, and the average full-time income is $43,252 annually, 

Skin of Glass. The filmmaker’s father designed a glass skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil. Years later, the building, like many in the city’s downtown, was taken over by hundreds of homeless families who had nowhere else to go.

BOOKS

The Greatest Indian Stories Ever Told edited by Arunava Sinha (Aleph). Fifty short stories by writers in India from the 19th century to the present add up to a fascinating view of life there, mostly from the point of view of working class people.

Dendrites by Kallia Papadaki (World Editions). Several generations of Greek immigrants struggle to reach the American dream in Camden, NJ and to care for each other in this sensitive novel.

Devils Island by Midge Raymond and John Yunker (Oceanview). Every character has their own agenda and nothing is what it seems in this clever whodunit mystery novel set on an island off the coast of Tasmania. 

Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang (Viking). Many U.S. politicians speak of “China” as if it were a monolith whose 1.4 billion people all have the same interests and enemies. This book by a native-born journalist who spent seven years following the lives of four young women, including a labor activist, paints a very different picture. She shows a country where inequality of wealth, privilege, and power is growing rapidly to the benefit of global corporations, many of them based in the U.S. Meanwhile, Chinese workers are told that they must compete with each other to avoid “falling off the ladder” into greater economic insecurity.

People, Power, Change by Marshall Ganz (Oxford University). This road map for community organizing, grounded in a wide range of practical experiences, will be useful both for veteran organizers and for anyone who wants to help create a better world but isn’t sure where to start. 

Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver (One Signal). Virtually every time a resident of America eats a meal they are benefiting from the exploitation of immigrant workers. A reporter in Arkansas spent four years going deep into the lives of immigrants who process chickens for Tyson at the cost of their health, their basic human rights, and in many cases their lives.

Vigilante Nation by Jon Michaels and David Noll (One Signal). Corporate-backed politicians in red states are enacting an agenda that takes away the rights of those who already have the least power, wealth, and privilege. Their agenda cannot be opposed only by relying on local or federal elections or hoping some companies will take a stand. Instead, blue states need to take bold action both to protect rights and quality of life within their own borders and to put economic pressure on red state officials.

A.I. Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor (Princeton). Two computer scientists provide a simple explanation of the different types of artificial intelligence and A.I.’s beneficial uses and pitfalls. One focus is on how, despite claims by some corporations, A.I. cannot accurately predict the future – which job applicant will be a good fit, which individual is likely to commit a crime, which insurance customer will be most profitable, etc.

The Education Wars by Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider (New Press). As profiteers and politicians join forces to undermine public schools, those who want to preserve and improve public education have to figure out how to build support rather than driving voters into the arms of their opponents.

Dismantling Mass Incarceration edited by Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and Maria Hawilo (FSG). While many books have described how mass incarceration is unjust and neither humane nor effective, this collection of essays grapples with ways to start changing the system. Sections discuss possible changes involving police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, prisons, and post-incarceration programs.

Blue Collar Empire by Jeff Schuhrke (Verso). In every generation of U.S. union leaders there are some who advocate joining forces with working people in other countries while others support the corporate-dominated foreign policy of the U.S. government. An historian describes how this divide played out in the period from 1945 to 1995, with some union officials accepting money and other perks to coordinate agendas with the State Department and the CIA while others refused.

The Littlest Turtle by Lysa Mullady (Magination). A short book for young children with big illustrations and minimal text tells the story of turtles who learn to share.

The Voices of Nature by Nicolas Mathevon (Princeton). The world of mammals, birds, reptiles, and other beings is full of fascinating examples of communication, even though scientists are still hard at work trying to figure out what is being said or why. 

MUSIC

The Breath Between by David Francey. A Scottish-born Canadian carpenter draws on his experiences as a working man in his songs.

Tom Prasada-Rao. The best known work by this singer, who died this year, is “$20 Bill,” a response to the killing of George Floyd. 

Chestnut Mare by Paula Fong. Includes a poignant song about her brother who committed suicide when she was 19.

Photograph of the light of the full moon on the Oregon coast

BOOKS

White Dove, Tell Me by Martin Etchart (University of Nevada). A tightly written novel uses rich detail to take us inside a Basque community in rural Arizona and the lives of a young couple trying to hold onto their sheep ranch that is in foreclosure.

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor (Pantheon). Twelve households live on an isolated island off Wales and make their living from the sea. The 18-year-old girl who is at the center of this understated novel becomes a translator for two English ethnographers who visit the island but do not really understand its people.

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty (Tin House). A white man who grew up in a Penobscot community in Maine planned to marry his pregnant girlfriend from the tribe but at the last minute she backed out because the child would not be considered a member of the tribal nation. She married a Penobscot man who raised the girl with her as if he were the biological father. Now, the girl is in her 20s. Should she know her true history?

Rednecks by Taylor Brown (St. Martin’s). An historical novel recalls how coal companies used violence, including the deployment of U.S. soldiers and bomber planes, to put down a miners’ strike in the early 1920s in West Virginia. Many of the miners had recently returned from serving in World War I, only to be denied basic rights at home.

James by Percival Everett (Doubleday). A novelist who has never been constrained by literary conventions retells Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Black man who escaped with Huck down the Mississippi River. The result is a commentary about race not only in pre-Civil War America but in our own time as well. 

Fatman in Eternity by Anthony Schmitz is the fourth and final novella in an innovative series that explores big questions about life and death as characters go back and forth between the land of the living and the underworld. At times, the dead interfere with the affairs of the living, attempt to right wrongs, settle old scores, and keep an eye on those they loved.

What’s Yours Is Mine by Tom Slee (OR Books). Rhetoric surrounding so-called “sharing economy” companies like Uber and Airbnb promised benefits for all. But this thoughtful and readable analysis shows that in reality these corporations have made a small number of people rich by exploiting the labor of others while hurting many of the communities where they operate.

The Cost of Free Land by Rebecca Clarren (Viking). In the late 1800s, the author’s ancestors had to flee their home in Russia because of brutal attacks on their family and other Jews. When they arrived in America, they were directed to South Dakota, where the U.S. government gave them land that had been taken from the Lakota who lived there. Clarren, a skilled journalist, revisits that history and explores the question of what can be done now to address the wrong from which her family and other Americans have benefited.  

We Were Illegal by Jessica Goudeau (Viking). A white journalist tracks her relatives’ history. Some came to the U.S. from Europe as illegal immigrants. Some moved illegally to Texas when it was part of Mexico, taking land where indigenous people lived. Some fought for the right to enslave other people. One was a Texas Ranger who helped cover up a mass murder by a local sheriff. In telling their story, Goudeau shows how racism, injustice, and violence have long standing roots in American life.

Extraordinary Rendition edited by Ru Freeman (OR Books). After the Israeli military, funded by the U.S., killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza back in 2014, more than 65 American writers from diverse backgrounds contributed poems, short fiction, and essays to an anthology about Palestine in an attempt to express their grief and their sense of responsibility.

Teach Palestine by Rethinking Schools. A leading magazine for social justice teaching leads with seven articles related to how to talk with students about Palestine and Israel. Another interesting article discusses how to teach about the national parks in a way that recognizes how land was taken from indigenous peoples.

Bicycle City by Dan Piatkowski (Island Press). Drawing in part on progress made in Oslo where he now lives, an American researcher shares what he has learned about how U.S. cities can become more liveable and sustainable by reducing residents’ dependence on cars.

Don't Forget The Worker by Jack Geissert, Max Kiefer, and Bobby J. Gunter, with photographs by Earl Dotter (ACGIH). Case histories illustrate the importance of workplace safety and health and how hazards can be addressed.

FILMS

Under the Fig Trees. As a group of workers spend a day harvesting figs for a wealthy landowner, we hear their conversations that reveal their feelings about their lives, shedding light in the process on class and gender in their community. The feature film’s authenticity and humanity is enhanced by the use of local women and men of varying ages  to play many of the parts.

5 Days to Dance. In this documentary, two dance instructors are contracted by a school in Spain to spend a week with teenage students preparing them to overcome their awkwardness and cliquishness and put on a dance performance for their parents and teachers.

The Visitor. This feature film follows a widower recently released from prison who returns to his home In Cochabamba, Bolivia, with hopes of regaining custody of his teenage daughter. But she has been living with her grandparents who are wealthy evangelical pastors and have no desire to let him disrupt their home life or their lucrative church practice. 

Nice People. A small town in Sweden has taken in war refugees from Somalia, but not always with welcome arms. As this documentary shows, a few local residents try to overcome barriers by recruiting young Somali men to form a team to play bandy (similar to ice hockey but with a small ball) and to represent their country in world championships held in Siberia. 

Banel & Adama. With spectacular cinematography this Senegalese feature film tells the story of a young couple in a remote village whose individual dreams clash with traditional customs.

Sometimes I Think About Dying. Despite the title, this feature film is actually about living and about being human. The main character is a young office worker on the Oregon coast who has trouble connecting with others. Her awkwardness is put to the test when a new employee takes a romantic interest in her.

Bread Bike. Young people on the California coast build community by starting a bakery and delivering their product by bicycle. 

MUSIC

My  Black Country. Eleven socially conscious songs by Alice Randall performed by Black singers including Layla McCalla, Rhiannon Giddens, Miko Marks, and more. 

Feel Like Going Home by Miko Marks. The song “Trouble” is inspired by the “good trouble” phrase used by the civil rights leader John Lewis. “That old time religion ain’t good enough for me…good trouble’s all I need,” Marks sings. 

I want trouble for the king who carries evil in his hand

And trouble for the queen who brings a curse upon the land

They build the altars and we worship the crown

Til we shake the foundation and watch ‘em tumble down

Photograph of osprey on Oregon coast, June 2024

Many of America’s most iconic natural places are protected by “national monument” designation, but a policy blueprint prepared for a second Trump administration calls for removing those protections, as explained in my column appearing in multiple newspapers. 

BOOKS

Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen (Dutton). A school psychologist named Dixon and his brother set out to become the first Black Americans to climb Mount Everest. This unusual and profoundly sad novel toggles between their time on the mountain and Dixon’s work and personal life before and after the climb.

Fire in the Canyon by Daniel Gumbiner (Astra). Ben and Ada get by financially on their small family farm in rural California, where he grows wine grapes and she writes novels. But the new reality of climate-fueled fire and smoke that is affecting so many communities threatens the future for them and their grown son.

In The Pines by Grace Elizabeth Hale (Little, Brown). According to legend in the author’s family, her grandfather, who served as sheriff in a rural Mississippi county, stood up to a mob that wanted to lynch a Black man jailed for allegedly raping a white woman. A meticulous historian and skilled writer, Hale uncovered the ugly truth about what actually happened. 

Defensible Spaces by Alison Turner (Torrey House). Ten interconnected short stories take the reader to a small community in Colorado where a mine no longer operates and where the possibility of fire is always lurking.

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Picador). A very readable history begins in 1917 when the British government announced that it planned to support creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, where Jews constituted 6% of the population. In 1919, a commission established by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson went to the region and reported that the Zionists who supported that plan “looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine.”  The commission warned Wilson that “if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained.” The book recounts how force has been used since then to steadily expand the territory taken from Palestinian families and deprive them of basic human rights. It also describes how many Palestinians have become increasingly desperate as their situation worsens. 

Deluge: Gaza and Israel From Crisis to Cataclysm edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner (OR Books). A book written since October provides context from 13 analysts, including past efforts by Hamas to negotiate a permanent solution, the history of Israel’s policy toward Gaza, and opposition in the U.S. to continued military aid for Israel.

Wall Street’s War on Workers by Les Leopold (Chelsea Green). A respected researcher and educator presents facts to challenge myths commonly asserted by the corporate media and national leaders of the Democratic Party. Working class voters are rebelling primarily because politicians have stood by while big corporations and billionaires have destroyed jobs and communities in ways that are not allowed in some other industrialized countries. Rebuilding a winning political coalition will require challenging corporate power with effective policies, not just rhetoric at election time.

Behind the Startup by Benjamin Shestakofsky (University of California). Problems with tech companies are often attributed to the technologies themselves. But most of the tech industry is dominated by venture capital “investors” who demand rapid growth so they can reap huge gains when a company or their stake is eventually sold. Their profits often come at the expense of workers, customers, and communities, and are a major cause of inequality in America. Especially since venture capitalists often benefit from public funding and investments from pension funds, public officials and regulators should support other models, including nonprofit corporations and cooperatives.

Dignity Not Debt by Chrystin Ondersma (University of California). We are taught that debt and bankruptcy result from personal failings and bad choices. But debt is built into our economic system of inequality and exploitation. Many households must incur debt for medical needs, groceries, utilities, housing, education, transportation, or other basic needs, and then are subject to financial predators. Systemic change is required so people can meet those needs without going into debt.

National Parks, Native Sovereignty edited by Christina Gish Hill, Matthew J. Hill, and Brooke Neely (University of Oklahoma). People who have participated in or studied projects that involved collaboration between the National Park Service and Tribal nations discuss the possibilities and limitations of those experiments.

Journalists and Their Shadows by Patrick Lawrence (Clarity). A veteran journalist critiques the close relationship between the corporate media and those who wield economic and political power, and encourages the public to look to independent journalism for factual information. “We can no longer read…the corporate press to…know what happened,” he writes. Now we read “to know what we are supposed to think happened. Then we go in search of accurate accounts of what happened.”

My Life with Sea Turtles by Christine Figgener (Greystone). A marine biologist provides an introduction to the fascinating world of sea turtles. She also discusses ways that humans can support the turtles’ survival in a time of climate change, pollution, and overdevelopment.

Ride Beside Me by Lucy Knisley (Knopf). A picture book for young readers celebrates a neighborhood where many people ride bikes instead of driving cars.

What’s Inside a Bird’s Nest? by Rachel Ignotofsky (Crown). A simple illustrated science book breaks down for young and old alike the life cycle of birds and the diversity found in the bird world.

Ron Carey and the Teamsters by Ken Reiman (Monthly Review). A retired UPS driver has written a tribute to the former head of his local union, the late Ron Carey, who courageously took on the corrupt leadership of the Teamsters in the 1990s. With the support of a longstanding rank-and-file movement called Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Carey became the union’s national president and led the historic UPS strike of 1997. The strike was a groundbreaking challenge to corporations’ shift to low-paying, “throwaway jobs” and helped set the stage for the Occupy movement, the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, organizing at companies like Starbucks, and more recent high-profile national contract campaigns by the Teamsters and the UAW. Under Carey, the union also became a leading grassroots voice urging Democratic politicians like the Clintons not to join the push by big corporations and Republicans for trade agreements like NAFTA that hurt workers in all the affected countries. Had the Democrats listened, perhaps fewer voters in industrial states would eventually have turned to a candidate like Trump. A short afterword to the book by two experienced labor organizers draws a few lessons for today’s union reformers.

FILMS

A Very British Coup. In this three-part series made in 1988, a third-generation steelworker is elected prime minister of England and begins to implement the policies he promised: pro-worker, pro-environment, and anti-imperialist. The real powers that be, including the British economic royalty, military, media, and spy agencies and the U.S. government, mobilize to try to bring him down.

Farewell Amor. Seventeen years after he immigrated to New York from Angola, a cab driver is rejoined by his wife and teenage daughter. In this sensitive feature film, each of them struggles to adjust to their new reality.

Three Summers. A working class Brazilian woman who serves as property and events manager for a rich family proves to be more resourceful and resilient than her bosses.

The Blue Caftan. A husband and wife team who operate a traditional caftan shop in Morocco hire a young man to help with sewing. As the two men become attracted to each other and as the woman’s health deteriorates, all three of them learn about what love truly means.

Disturbing the Peace. This frank documentary profiles the work of Combatants for Peace, an organization of Palestinians and Israelis working together for a resolution that would bring peace and justice to all. The group includes Israelis who lost family members in the Holocaust and in wars since then, as well as Palestinians who have lost homes and loved ones to attacks by the Israeli army and “settlers.”. 

La Syndicaliste. Based on the true story of a union leader at a French nuclear power company who became a whistleblower, first her body and then her credibility are attacked in an attempt to cover up corporate and political wrongdoing.

Arc of Justice. A 22-minute documentary tells the story of the first community land trust in the U.S. It was started in 1969 by Black voting rights organizers in southwest Georgia who decided that building a cooperative community on Black-owned land should be the next step in their struggle.

MUSIC

After the Revolution by Carsie Blanton. No singer writes better songs for our time. Blanton sings about hope, love, and friendship as the empire falls and people revolt all over the world.

Great Wild Mercy by Carrie Newcomer. Soothing songs find spirituality, without religion, in nature and in bonds with other people.

Photograph of eclipse, April 2024

How we name things in nature matters to all of us, according to my syndicated column published in 30 newspapers, including the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sacramento Bee, and many more.

How we name things in nature matters to all of us, according to my syndicated column published in 30 newspapers, including the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sacramento Bee, and many more.

Now here’s some films, books, and music you may have missed:

FILMS

What We Do Next. This highly unusual drama featuring brilliant acting explores issues of class, race, ethics, and justice. It revolves around three characters: a Puerto Rican woman released from a New York prison after serving 16 years for killing her abusive father; an idealistic but ambitious Black city councilwoman; and a white corporate lawyer.

My Name is Emily. An endearing 16-year-old girl whose mother died when she was young sets out on a road trip with an equally endearing male classmate. Their goal is to find her loving father who has been institutionalized after a mental breakdown.

Learning to Drive. A white middle-aged writer whose husband has left her needs to learn to drive. Her instructor is a Sikh man from India who has just entered into an arranged marriage. Each of them can learn from the other.

Tall as the Baobab Tree. A teenage girl in a remote Senegalese village is the first in her family to attend school and dreams of a college education. When an injury to her older brother threatens the family’s survival, her father sees little choice but to sell her 11-year-old sister into an arranged marriage.

Godland. In the late 1800s, a young Danish priest with an interest in photography travels across harsh but stunning landscape to an isolated community in Iceland where he will preach in a newly built church. All does not go as planned.

Brother. A Caribbean single mother does her best to raise her two boys in a poor part of Toronto. The two sons are close but follow different paths in the face of overwhelming odds.

BOOKS

What Falls Away by Karin Anderson (Torrey House). In this exceptionally well written novel, a middle-aged woman who was cast out of her religious community as a pregnant teenager now comes back to care for her mother who suffers from dementia. Her presence leads to questions about the community’s secrets and unspoken hypocrisy and provokes a variety of reactions from her siblings and others.

The End of Drum Time by Hanna Pylvainen (Holt). An engrossing historical novel immerses us in a love story set against the arrival of Scandinavian ministers and settlers in the northland inhabited by Sami reindeer herders.

Ignition by M.R. O’Connor (Bold Type). A journalist became part of crews across the U.S. that fight wildland fires or manage controlled burns. She reports both on the crews’ internal culture and on the need in a time of climate change to learn from traditional indigenous use of fire to keep forests healthy and prevent or reduce mega-fires.

Homefront by Victoria Kelly (University of Nevada). Women and girls, many from military families, search for happiness in the face of life’s challenges in these short stories.

A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest by Charlie J. Stephens (Torrey House). Smokey is a non-binary kid who finds some solace in the nearby forest as they try to survive life with a poor single mom who can’t escape abusive relationships.

Israel’s Black Panthers by Asaf Elia-Shalev (University of California). From its founding, Israel has discriminated against Jews who came from Middle Eastern or African countries and not from Europe. In the 1970s, some of them rebelled, inspired by the Black Panthers of the U.S. Their movement helped to draw attention to social and economic inequality in Israeli society.

The Jail Is Everywhere edited by Jack Norton, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, and Judah Schept (Verso). Organizers from a variety of communities share their experiences in opposing new or expanded local jails and promoting alternatives that more effectively address mental health, addiction, homelessness, and poverty.

The Manufacturing of Job Displacement by Laura Lopez-Sanders (NYU). A Mexican sociologist at Brown University did highly unusual fieldwork by getting hired as a bilingual supervisor at a manufacturing plant in South Carolina. The company assigned her to help displace the local white and Black workforce with Latinx immigrants who management believed would be easier to exploit. Before leaving the job she observed the tactics the company deployed to skirt anti-discrimination laws.

The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators edited by Jennifer Atkinson and Sara Jaquette Ray (University of California). Educators have discovered that only presenting apocalyptic information about climate change often results in apathy, not action. Students also need opportunities to discuss and process their feelings about the future. In this book, dozens of educators share lesson plans and activities. The book is geared toward college teaching but has ideas that will be useful at other levels as well.

Presente by Herb Mills (Hard Ball). A longtime local leader in the longshore and warehouse union (ILWU) wrote this novel based on his own experiences. It is centered on the decision by ILWU members in 1980 to refuse to load weapons the U.S. planned to ship to the military junta that ruled El Salvador. It shows that workers could successfully take on the government and big corporations by building community alliances, even when the action they were taking was illegal.

The Good Deed by Helen Benedict (Red Hen). An intense novel details the horrors faced by women and children from countries like Syria and Sudan who end up in refugee camps in Greece.

Hill Women by Cassie Chambers (Ballentine). A warm and thoughtful memoir by a woman who grew up in eastern Kentucky talks about how people in some of America’s poorest counties have tried to cope with the boom-and-bust cycle of the coal and tobacco industries.

The 9:09 Project by Mark H. Parsons (Delacorte). In this novel for teens, a high school junior with synesthesia who is mourning the death of his mother develops an interest in street photography and discovers friendships that run deep.

War Made Invisible by Norman Solomon (New Press). The United States is perpetually at war no matter which party is in power. It spends more on its military than the next ten nations put together, crowding out budgets for human needs. With at least 750 military bases abroad, it has three times more than all other countries combined. U.S. military actions take a huge human toll on other countries’ civilian populations as well as its own soldiers. Yet, government officials, military profiteers, and most of the news media combine to keep these impacts invisible through disinformation, spin, and silence.

MUSIC

American Patchwork Quartet. Some of America’s best-known folk songs are reinterpreted by a foursome that includes a Hindustani classical vocalist, an Issei jazz bassist, an African American drummer, and a white southern-born guitarist and vocalist.  

This edition of World Wide Work about recent films, books, and music is the first sent via Substack but everything else remains the same – still free, still easy to unsubscribe if you don’t want it (see button at the bottom), and easy to share with friends if you think it’s useful.

Before we get to the new reviews, you may be interested, if you haven’t seen it already, in my recent column on how recent events in Gaza square with Jewish values.

BOOKS

Apeirogon by Colum McCann (Random House). This is the dramatic true story of a Palestinian family and Israeli family who each lost a child to the endless violence in that region. The children’s fathers have joined forces to campaign for an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as a first step toward a peaceful and just solution for all. As members of Combatants for Peace and The Parents Circle, they have given multiple presentations in the U.S., whose tax dollars fund the Israeli military.

The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan (Bloomsbury). A book originally published in 2006 follows two families – one family of Palestinians who were driven from their house in 1948 and the other a family of Bulgarian Jewish refugees who took over that home. The Palestinian family goes from believing their displacement is only temporary, to believing that the surrounding Arab nations will insist on their right to return, to ultimately believing that armed resistance is the only path left. The Jewish family goes from believing their new home was abandoned, to understanding that it was stolen, to ultimately believing they now have a right to it although Palestinians are owed reparations. Members of the two families meet but never resolve their differences. In an afterward written in 2020, the author – an American journalist – says that a resolution of the overall conflict has become more difficult in the ensuing years because more than 800,000 Israelis have “settled” on Palestinian land.

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (Grove). A Palestinian actor who has lived most of her adult life in London comes home to visit her sister and gets drawn into an Arabic production of Hamlet in the West Bank. She reexamines her place in the world as she learns first hand how brutally the Israeli occupation affects even a theater troupe.

Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (Riverhead). In the early 1900s, a neighborhood in Pottstown PA was home to a mixture of poor Jewish immigrants and African Americans. A grocery store owner crossed cultural barriers between the two, and when a 12-year-old deaf boy witnesses a crime committed by a prominent white citizen, the two communities come together to protect him in this novel that mixes social commentary with entertaining tall tales.

The Missing Morning Star by Stacie Shannon Denetsosie (Torrey House). Nine short stories by a Navajo writer go deep into the lives of young people around the reservation.

Power Lines edited by Jeff Ordower and Lindsay Zafir (New Press). Community, environmental, and union organizers from around the U.S. share their experiences in trying to build a united movement for climate justice in a variety of economic sectors and geographical regions.

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini (William Morrow). A feminist historical novel draws on two true stories. One is about women who went to work in munitions factories during World War I in Britain and were exposed to health hazards as a result. The other tells how they and other women also replaced men as the nation’s soccer players, drawing as many as 50,000 spectators, until the soldiers returned and the women were told to go back to their roles as housewives or low-wage workers.

Barely Floating by Lilliam Rivera (Kokila). A 12-year-old Latina on the east side of L.A. gets inspired to join a synchronized swim team, but her activist parents don’t approve. When she proceeds behind their backs, everyone in the family finds they have something to learn.

Indigo & Ida by Heather Murphy Capps (CarolRhoda). Indigo is a biracial eighth grader who wants to be liked by the “cool girls” at the same time that she is finding her voice about injustice she sees around her. When these two impulses collide, she has to make difficult choices.

What An Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin). This overview discusses the many types of owls, how they adapt to their environment, what their hoots mean, the people who study them, how they can be protected, and more.

Hedged by Margo Susca (University of Illinois). The decline of newspapers in the U.S. is often blamed on the rise of the Internet, but there is much more to the story. For decades, wealthy speculators have come to dominate the industry, draining profits and assets to pay for mergers and acquisitions while laying off thousands of workers and cutting back on service to communities. One alternative is provided by the more than 425 nonprofit news organizations that have sprung up, often spearheaded by experienced local journalists.

1932 by Scott Martelle (Citadel). 1932 was a year full of events that seem remarkable today: a strike by farmers, a march on Washington by poor veterans to protest broken promises, a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the racist conviction of nine Black teenagers known as the Scottsboro Boys, and the election of a president who said government’s job was to protect the public interest against the “economic oligarchy” that concentrated wealth and power in the hands of a small number of individuals and corporations.

FILMS

Little Bird. In this engrossing 6-part series produced, acted, and directed by professional actors with roots in various tribes in Canada, three young children on a Cree reservation in Saskatchewan are ripped away from their family and put up for adoption. One ends up living as Esther Rosenblum with an adoptive Jewish mother in Montreal who lost her own family in the Holocaust. But when “Esther” comes of age she decides to uncover her own history and try to locate her birth parents and siblings.

The Bank of Dave. In this feel-good feature film very loosely based on real events, banks In a small town in England put profits ahead of the needs of the community so a local small business operator starts helping people out. But when he tries to set up his own lending institution, the banking establishment does everything possible to stop him. He then turns to a corporate lawyer from London, a famous rock and roll band, and others for help.

Corporate. Emilie is a personnel manager at a large French company that has been taken over by an even larger multinational corporation that is determined to reduce payroll by any means necessary. She skillfully carries out their agenda until she is confronted by the human impact of her actions.

Til Kingdom Come. This documentary by an Israeli filmmaker shows the close political alliance between right-wing Christians in the U.S., right-wing Israeli “settlers” on Palestinian land, and the Netanyahu and Trump administrations.

A Town Called Victoria. The night after Donald Trump issued a ban on travel from Muslim countries in 2017, someone burned down the local mosque in the town of Victoria in south Texas. This 3-part documentary introduces us to the Muslim immigrants who had established the mosque, as well as other local residents with a variety of views. Will the community support their Muslim neighbors? Will those who created the mosque try to rebuild or be driven from the area?

Stranger at the Gate. A former U.S. soldier who spent years trying to kill Muslims overseas decided to bomb the local mosque in Muncie, Indiana. But as this half-hour documentary shows, before he could carry out the attack he actually met some of the people who used the mosque and changed his mind.

MUSIC

Heat Comes Down by John R. Miller. A creative singer-songwriter from West Virginia uses unexpected phrases and rhymes to capture feelings about real life in the U.S.A.

Jubilee by Old Crow Medicine Show. The new album from this string band has something for everyone,  from inspirational to dance tunes to ballads to just goofing off.

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