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Danvers-Topsfield Massachusetts Area Branch American Association of University Women

2007-08 EVENTS --

April 2008

• The AAUW-MA Spring Conference and Annual Meeting  on April 5 and 6 at the Cape Codder Resort and Spa in Hyannis. The program on Saturday is entitled, "It's All About the Money."  We plan to have an update on the status of women in Massachusetts and we are planning an overview of the Educational Foundation's pay gap research and current wage equity projects.  Afternoon sessions will touch on women's economic security, intellectual property rights and identity theft.  The LAF banquet will feature a Legal Advocacy Fund litigant, a coach who lost his job defending women's right to participate in sports.  He recently won his case.
  On Sunday, author Kate Whouley, will be the guest speaker and the Annual Metting will be held.
  
  For more details see the website: http://www.aauw-ma.org/SpringConference/PreAgendaInfo.htm
  
  For complete conference information and registration form, see The Bay Stater Spring 2008 issue [PDF file].
  
  

• Saturday, April 12th, 2008, 10:30 AM, Author’s Brunch, in the new Georgetown Peabody Library, Georgetown, MA, in partnership with the Friends of the Georgetown Library
  
  Guest speaker Andre Dubus III, famed author of The House of Sand and Fog, will be talking about his new book titled The Garden of Last Days.

Set on Florida's Gulf Coast, The Garden of Last Days is told from many points of view - from a three year old girl's to a 71 year old woman's, as well as quite a few young men, including one from Saudi Arabia who has come to the United States to do some harm. It is a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masulinity.

"One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works." ~ Source: the author about his soon to be published book. What mother couldn't identify with that predicament?

About the author: Andre Dubus III is the author of House of Sand and Fog (an Oprah's Book Club selection and finalist for the National Book Award), Bluesman, and The Cage Keeper and Other Stories. He lives with his family north of Boston.

Brunonia ("Sandy") Barry of Salem will be the second author at this event.

"As a novelist, Barry, 47, is a late bloomer. Raised in Marblehead, she spent years working with theater companies in Maine and Chicago. In the mid-1980s, she went to Hollywood to have a crack at screenwriting. For 10 years she worked on other writers' scripts but never sold one of her own. In 1995 she and husband, Gary Ward, moved back to Massachusetts, settling in Salem..." [excerpt from an article on Boston.com by David Mehegan, Globe Staff, January 13, 2008, "Salem Author self-publishes herself into a novel $2m payday"]

Her latest book, "The Lace Reader," is an intricate narrative centering on a young woman who has the power to read the future in the patterns of Ipswich lace. "It has strong characters and an amazing twist at the end." [source: same article, page 3] You can read more about this local author in the Oct 11, 2007, Salem edition of Wicked Local.

Brunch: a variety of quiche, fresh fruits, salad, home made muffins, juice, coffee and tea.

Admission: $20 ~ for reservations or more information, call Pat Gorton at 978 352-8931 or send an email to aauwnewburyport@yahoo.com.

Venue information:

Georgetown Peabody Library
Lincoln Park at Maple Street
Georgetown, MA 01833

hours and directions

 

• "Beyond the Bachelor's: Making It Real" 
  Tuesday, April 15th 7:00pm at Merrimack College. 
  This event will feature three of AAUW's Educational Foundation Fellows and is geared to students considering graduate school.
  Danvers-Topsfield, Newburyport and North Shore Branches are partnering with Merrimack College on this event

May 2008

• Legal Advocacy Fund fundraiser - details to be announced

September 2008

• Membership Brunch Rowley Public Library - details to be announced

AAUW Conventions:

AAUW of Massachusetts Convention
April 5th and 6th, 2008, Saturday & Sunday on Cape Cod -- AAUW Massachusetts Convention and Annual Meeting- details to be announced


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