“All around me, my friends are talking, joking, laughing. Outside is the camp, the barbed wire, the guard towers, the city, the country that hates us. We are not free. But we are not alone.”
jmrl.org/samepage
We Are Not Free: The 2022 Same Page Community Read Book Selection JMRL invites all Central Virginians to read and discuss We Are Not Free by Traci Chee, the 2022 Same Page Community Read selection. Throughout March, JMRL presents Same Page programs and activities, and offers free copies of the book through all library branches while supplies last. The community-wide reading initiative provides opportunities for book groups, classrooms, and individuals to explore the themes of a single book by an author appearing at the Virginia Festival of the Book. All events are subject to change in format or cancellation. Check jmrl.org/samepage for updates.
Kickoff Event
Adult Book Groups
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1-3PM Central Library Front Porch
DISCUSSING: WE ARE NOT FREE BY TRACI CHEE
Celebrate the start of the Same Page Community Read with take + make activities, StoryCorps One Small Step BINGO + prizes. Get a free copy of We Are Not Free by Traci Chee while supplies last.
Teen Book Groups A National Book Award finalist for young people's literature, We Are Not Free (2020) is the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei, secondgeneration Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations during World War II.
Same Page Community Read is generously funded by the Friends of JMRL, supported by the Art and Jane Hess Fund of the Library Endowment and Virginia Festival of the Book (a program of Virginia Humanities).
DISCUSSING: WE ARE NOT FREE BY TRACI CHEE
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 7PM Champion Brewing Company THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 7PM Greene County Library (virtual) MONDAY, MARCH 7, 7PM Crozet Library (virtual) WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 7PM Gordon Avenue Library (virtual)
THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 6:30PM Central Library (in person + virtual)
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 12PM Central Library (virtual)
THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 6:30PM Crozet Library
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 7PM Northside Library (virtual)
Kids Book Groups DISCUSSING: PAPER WISHES BY LOIS SEPAHBAN THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 4:30PM Central Library (virtual) DISCUSSING: GAIJIN: AMERICAN PRISONER OF WAR BY MATT FAULKNER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 5PM Central Library (virtual)
DISCUSSING: DOLLS OF WAR BY SHIRLEY PARENTEAU WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 4:30PM Central Library (virtual) DISCUSSING: SYLVIA + AKI BY WINIFRED CONKLING THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 4:30PM Gordon Avenue Library (virtual)
Programs THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 6:30PM MORVEN JAPANESE GARDEN: VIRTUAL TOUR Join us for a virtual tour of the Japanese Garden at historic Morven, owned and operated by the UVA Foundation with programming and events managed by Morven Programs. Charlotte Devine, Japanese Garden Curator, will discuss this breathtaking fouracre garden and its Sukiya-style house designed by Tokyo architect Mr. Watanabe. Constructed using ancient techniques and incorporating some 50 plants indigenous to Japan and America, the Japanese Garden at Morven is a splendid culmination of Japanese tradition, aesthetics, and philosophy. If you are interested in hosting an event or program at Morven, please contact fszynskie@virginia.edu This virtual program can be accessed both by Zoom online or a toll-free phone number. Sign up at www.jmrl.org or call 434.973.7893 x4.
An Evening with Traci Chee
MONDAY, MARCH 14, 6:30PM JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION IN HISTORY AND MEMORY On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which branded Japanese Americans as enemies of the state, and enabled the forced removal and imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in camps across the United States. In this virtual talk, Joseph Wei, a doctoral candidate in Asian American studies at the University of Virginia, will shed light on this key historical episode by covering the legal and historical context of Japanese Americans' unjust imprisonment, the lives they made while in the camps, and the aftermath of the incarceration. This virtual program can be accessed both by Zoom online or a toll-free phone number. Sign up at www.jmrl.org or call 434.973.7893 x4. Programs continued on back
THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 7PM Irving Theater, CODE Building 225 W. Water Street, Charlottesville In partnership with the Virginia Festival of the Book, JMRL presents An Evening with Traci Chee on Thursday, March 17, 7 PM, at the Irving Theater in the CODE Building. Chee will discuss her acclaimed novel for young readers, We Are Not Free, the 2022 Same Page Community Read selection, in conversation with local children’s author, Amy Lee-Tai. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. Book sales and signing will follow. In response to COVID19, many venues have limited capacity. Early arrival is strongly encouraged. COVID precautions as defined by the venue will apply. Visit vabook.org/venues/code-building for specific requirements at this venue. The program will be livestreamed, and virtual viewings will also be available at some library branch locations.
Sponsored by Dominion Energy and Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
Programs TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 6:30PM ISAMU NOGUCHI: SEEING FROM WITHIN Join us for a conversation about Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi (19041988). Led by Fralin Museum docent Debbie Cohn, this virtual program will dive into the life of the artist and focus on several works Noguchi created in the 1940s, after a period of internment at the Poston War Relocation Camp in Arizona. This virtual program can be accessed both by Zoom online or a toll-free phone number. Sign up at www.jmrl.org or call 434.973.7893 x4.
Finale SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2PM SCREENING: A QUESTION OF LOYALTY Central Library Join us for a screening of A Question of Loyalty, a PBS special. An American-born generation straddles their country of birth and their parents’ homelands in Asia. Those loyalties are tested during World War II, when families are imprisoned in detention camps, and brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the battle lines. Register at jmrl.org/samepage.
March Branch Activities ORIGAMI PEACE CRANES Stop by to fold some origami cranes. Take yours home or leave them to decorate the library. (All Branches) CORRESPONDENCE STATIONS Find a letter writing station at your branch and write to a soldier, senior or friend. JMRL will mail it for you. (Bookmobile, Central, Greene, Northside, Scottsville) GRAPHIC NOVEL MEMOIR Use a template provided by JMRL to craft a personal memoir of illustrations. (Central, Crozet, Gordon Avenue, Northside, Scottsville) POST-IT HAIKU POETRY Write a haiku to share in your library branch. (Central, Crozet, Gordon Avenue) CHERRY BLOSSOM TAKE + MAKE Drop in to make a paper cherry blossom. (Nelson, Northside)