Dr. Chun Resource Library presents…

Lee Maracle and her book Ravensong!

Hosted by OPIRG & The Centre for Women and Trans People

This month the reading circle will be featuring the novel Ravensong, and a discussion with beloved author of I am Woman, Lee Maracle! Please bring along your thoughts and ideas to share and engage in this discussion with Lee about her novel.

When: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 6:00 PM

Where: The Dr. Chun Resource Library at The Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T, 563 Spadina Ave., Room 100 (North Borden Building)

FREE event! Yummy refreshments will be provided!

We have a copy of the book available to borrow at the Dr. Chun Resource Library. As well, it is available at U of T libraries: Robarts, New College Library, Thomas Fisher Rare Book, Victoria College library, OISE, UTM Library, and Trinity College library. Moreover, Ravensong can be borrowed from the Toronto Public Libraries, including: York Woods, Toronto Reference Library, TRL Stacks, and Flemingdon Park.

Ravensong is a passionate novel about a young woman’s search for answers to difficult questions by one of our foremost First Nations writers. Stacey must balance her family’s traditional ways against white society’s intrusive values. It is set in the 1950’s Pacific Northwest.

Lee Maracle is of Salish and Cree ancestry and a member of the Stó:lō Nation. She was born in 1950 and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She grew up in a poor neighborhood in North Vancouver and was one of the first aboriginal people to go to public school. Feeling isolated from her own culture as well as an outsider in Canadian culture, she dropped out of school and later drifted from western Canada to California to Toronto, supporting herself by working in construction, hospital laundry, nightclubs, film production, adult education, theatre, radio, stand-up comedy, aboriginal arts and crafts, and traditional healing. Eventually, she became politically active and remains active in the Native struggle against racism, sexism and economic oppression.

Besides being a professor at the University of Toronto, she has also been the Stanley Knowles Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at the University of Waterloo. She was one of the founders of the En’owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, BC (1981); a learning institute with an Indigenous Fine Arts Program and an Okanagon Language Program. In 2001, Maracle was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University to engage in activities focused on promoting Canadian culture and awareness. She is a member of the Red Power Movement and Liberation Support Movement. Maracle has been the Traditional Cultural Director of The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and has worked as an instructor of dramatic composition and theatrical representation. Maracle’s works reflect her antipathy toward racism, sexism, and white cultural domination.

The Dr. Chun Resource Library is a joint project of the Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T, and OPIRG-Toronto.