Grass Roots Books
227 SW 2nd Street

In late 2016, President Barack Obama designated 1.35 million acres of public lands in southeastern Utah as Bears Ears National Monument. On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump shrank the monument by 85 percent. A land rich in human history and unsurpassed in natural beauty, Bears Ears is at the heart of a national debate over the future of public lands.

Through the stories of 20 individuals, and informed by interviews with more than 70 people, Voices from Bears Ears captures the passions of those who fought to protect Bears Ears and those who opposed the monument as a federal “land grab” that threatened to rob them of their economic future. It gives voice to those who have felt silenced, ignored, or disrespected. It shares stories of those who celebrate a growing movement by Indigenous peoples to protect ancestral lands and culture, and those who speak devotedly about their Mormon heritage. What unites these individuals is a reverence for a homeland that defines their cultural and spiritual identity, and therein lies hope for finding common ground.

Journalist Rebecca Robinson provides context and perspective for understanding the ongoing debate and humanizes the abstract issues at the center of the debate. Interwoven with these stories are photographs of the interviewees and the land they consider sacred by photographer Stephen E. Strom. Through word and image, Robinson and Strom allow us to both hear and see the people whose lives are intertwined with this special place.

Rebecca Robinson is a Portland, Oregon–based writer. Her work has been widely published and she has received numerous awards for her work in print, radio, and online media. Voices from Bears Ears is her first book.

 

Stephen E. Strom received his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University in 1964. Strom’s photographic work is held in several permanent collections, including the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. His most recent book is Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land.

Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosopher from OSU, and cofounder of the Spring Creek Project who loves the San Juan River and the view of the Bears Ears under thunderheads.

The event is free and open to the public. Grass Roots will have books available for purchase.

LaSells Stewart Center
875 SW 26th St, Corvallis

As part of OSU's Ideologies and U.S Foreign Policies Conference (May 31st-June 1st) Dr. James Lindsay will be speaking on the subject of Donald Trump and American Ideology in foreign policies. Dr. James Lindsay is the Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations, and co-author of the recently published Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership.
Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership  is an inside portrait of the greatest lurch in US foreign policy since the decision to retreat back into Fortress America after World War I. The whipsawing of US policy has upended all that America's postwar leadership created-strong security alliances, free and open markets, an unquestioned commitment to democracy and human rights. Impulsive, theatrical, ill-informed, backward-looking, bullying, and reckless are the qualities that the American president brings to the table, when he shows up at all. The world has had to absorb the spectacle of an America unmaking the world it made, and the consequences will be with us for years to come. 
The event is free and open to the public. Grass Roots will have books available for purchase. 

 

Grass Roots Books
227 SW 2nd Street
 

Travel the Cosmos with two very unique and wonderful space science-fiction writers Bridget Tyler and Francesca Varela. In Tyler’s The Pioneer, Jo steps onto her new planet for the first time, and she’s ready to put her tragic past behind her to begin again. But underneath the idyllic surface of the Watson family's new home, something is very wrong. And when Jo accidentally uncovers a devastating secret that could destroy everything her family has worked for she is faced with a terrible choice - do the right thing for her family...or do the right thing. With the fate of the pioneers in her hands, Jo must decide how far she’s willing to go to expose the truth—before the truth destroys them all.

Francesca Varela’s novel The Seas of Distant Stars takes place on the planet of Deeyae, following a girl named Agapanthus who was kidnapped when she was only two years old, but she doesn’t remember it. In fact, she doesn’t remember her home planet at all. All she knows is Deeyae, the land of two suns; the land of great, red waters. Her foster-family cares for her, and at first that’s enough. But, as she grows older, Agapanthus is bothered by the differences between them. As an Exchanger, she’s frail and tall, not short and strong. And, even though she was raised Deeyan, she certainly isn’t treated like one. One day, an Exchanger boy completes the Deeyan rite-of-passage, and Agapanthus is inspired to try the same. But, when she teams up with him, her quest to become Deeyan transforms into her quest to find the truth―of who she is, and of which star she belongs to.
 

Bridget Tyler spent her childhood pretending to live in strange and thrilling new worlds. Now that she's an adult...nothing has changed. Bridget writes stories set in all her favorite imaginary places for television, film, and now books. She lives in Corvallis with her husband, who is a robotics professor, and their toddler, who is not a robot. Probably.

Francesca Varela was raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Oregon with degrees in Environmental Studies and Creative Writing, and she then went on to receive her master’s degree in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah. Francesca’s dream of becoming an author began in third grade, and her writing career had an early start; she wrote her award-winning first novel, Call of the Sun Child, when she was only 18 years old. When not writing or reading, Francesca enjoys playing piano, figure skating, hiking, identifying wild birds, plants, and constellations, and travelling to warm, sunny places whenever she can.

The event is free and open to the public. Grass Roots will have books available for purchase.