Posts by Rodger Taylor

As we know Summer is almost over, but for the Writer's Club@Columbus things just seem to be warming up. Topical and tropical but cooled by the air conditioning, we restarted on August 18th with the idea of not shying away from the good, controversial or the truth and we hope to keep things going for the rest of the year.

On May 4th the Writers' Club@Columbus read a news story about the kidnapping of almost three hundred young women -- students attending school in Nigeria. Since Monday happily the story has received more attention but on Monday it was just a scantily covered blip on the radar screen.

Using Colum McCann’s descriptive approach as a model, we thought of war and writing and tried to inject ourselves into the scene.

We have been talking about and thinking about the homeless over the last few weeks.

Last week it was thrilling to have two of the club’s guardian angels working with us. A special thanks to Lois Stavsky, who organized and created our workshop lesson and to Young Adult author Lyn Miller-Lachmann, the lego lady (her latest book Rogue) and resident of the Columbus Branch neighborhood, who dropped in, hung out, participated and inspired us all. The Writers' Club@Columbus examined the issue of homelessness, a daunting problem afflicting our city and world.

The partnership between Yianni Stamas and Lights Camera Read and NYPL's Columbus Branch Young Adult services begins with our 2014 entrepreneurial series for teens—examining jobs in the real world. Our first event featured native New Yorker Manny Ramirez–no not the baseball player but a Manny who was Ramirez before him.

We began our journey with the Writers' Club@Columbus on February 10th 2014—I apologize for the time lag folks but it does take a minute sometimes to get cracking… even with technology and all… so here's the first post.

“When you think about the Underground Railroad, it is a land based operation, moving from one section of the country (where slavery exists) to another where it doesn’t take place—You must negotiate the land to get your freedom. We haven’t focused in on the land itself in the exploration of the Underground Railroad. When you start to read the land you come up with some different conclusions." Hear more from the author on Tuesday, February 11 at 4 p.m.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lyn Miller-Lachmann during a reference interview in the Young Adult and Children’s room at the Columbus Library. Lyn’s little lego story about Rainha and reading has warmed my heart and made me want to share it.

The partnership between Yianni Stamas and Lights Camera Read and NYPL's Teen Central at Grand Central continues with our 2013 entrepreneurial series for teens — examining jobs in the real world. Our first event featured actor/firefighter Christopher Stadulis.

I have to thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to come to Teen Central and make his presentation on a pro bono basis. I found our conversation with Chris inspirational and informative, plus Chris 

platinum piaTeen Central at Grand Central Library partnered with Yianni Stamas and Lights, Camera, Read to create Digital Communication Arts projects aimed at bettering and bringing awareness to the New York City community and beyond. Teens and NYC youth participated in this year long program. We'd like to acknowledge the three Platinum Pia winners who also injected themselves into the life and culture at Teen Central.

Digital 

Miguel Trelles, one of the hands behind the scenes of Festival Borimix, is the kind of New Yorker who gives you hope.

After Sandy blacked out and knocked us off our hinges — like the Lower East Side and the rest of the City, Borimix 2012 Puerto Rico Fest picked itself up dusted off and now also in the aftermath of a contentious racially and sexually charged but hopefully empowering election, from the Belly-ache opera to the Mexican Pinocchio, Miguel and his cohorts at the Clemente 

Welcome to our Books On Bullying reading list. It includes items from the Teen collection with some Adult titles and one very sentimental Children's favorite. We'd like this list to be as interactive as possible. Any good suggested additions will be considered and if appropriate added.

The Teen Central Digi Arts Projects and Workshop at Grand Central Library in partnership with Yianni Stamas and

This April — Fred Jerome and I, authors of Einstein on Race & Racism (2005) went to Paris for the unveiling of the French edition of our book.

Einstein at Lincoln UniversityThe title in French means Einstein - anti-racist - Quite fitting because our book focuses on Albert Einstein's little known anti-racism.

In his lifetime the famous 

People are predicting all kinds of crazy things regarding the year 2012, including, of course, the end of the world. Someone I respect told me that a lot of this issue is tied to the Mayan calendar and tradition. He suggested a better way of looking at 2012 would be as a year of change — a shift of epochs, or as a world turning in a new direction— not the actual end of the world, but a new beginning instead.

In that same spirit... something new at Teen Central is our Online Art & Talent Show, featuring a few of 

Justin Tuck, who plays football for the New York Giants, is one of the top defensive linemen in the game and actually one of my favorite players. It's been a rough, injury plagued year for him on the football field, but the release of a children's book he wrote called Home-Field Advantage, illustrated by Leonardo Rodriguez, is one of the all-star moves he made this fall.

At Grand Central 

During the first part of the Writers' Club meeting on August 2, the question of reality and dreaming came up. Someone spoke about the feeling of waking up — perhaps coming out of a dream and having that disoriented feeling of not knowing quite where you are or where you were, or dreaming that you woke up from a dream only to be still dreaming. Reality can be complicated and so can dreaming, so here are some dreamy poems about what is real and what is not.

  Ouch! Heart Wait… Are you still beating? And am I still imagining? The 

Thinking about politicians wasting money like it's a crime — are they trying to mess up the world on the peoples' dime? — folks out of work — solutions seem so easy — watching slimey rich men screw it up feels so sleazy — budget talk instead of creating jobs?  — feels like fodder for a blog —

Well — sorry for the extra hyperbole or if it sounds like I'm preachin', but at our August 2 meeting, the writers' club at Teen Central produced some pieces that we will 

Teen Central at Grand Central Library, located at 135 West 46th Street, presents two special programs this summer.

Calling all writers! Come join, help create, and be a part of our writing community.

The Writers' Club, led by Kahlil Almustafa, — meets every Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Call 212-621-0676 for more