LTAI: Women's Suffrage is a program series designed to spark conversation about American history and culture through an examination of the women's suffrage movement.
This is the fifth (and last) of five online/in-person meetings hosted by Broward County Main Library.
Join a special book discussion on The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow. This conversation will be led by scholar Dr. Jane Caputi, a professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University (FAU).
Book abstract:
In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in this powerful novel of magic, family, and the suffragette movement.
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.
But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.
An homage to the indomitable power and persistence of women, The Once and Future Witches reimagines stories of revolution, motherhood, and women's suffrage—the lost ways are calling.
Scholar's bio:
Jane Caputi is Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at Florida Atlantic University. Her doctorate is in American Culture Studies. At FAU, Dr. Caputi has won the University Distinguished Teacher Award (2001) and was twice named University Researcher of the Year for Scholarly Activities, Professor level (2005 and 2013). In 2016, the Popular Culture Association named her their “Eminent Scholar of the Year” and in 2020 the Association for the Study of Women in Mythology gave her their annual “Saga Award” for contributions to women’s history and culture. In 2013. Palm Beach County NOW (National Organization of Women gave her their annual Susan B. Anthony Feminist of the Year Award.
Dr. Caputi has written four books: The Age of Sex Crime (1987); Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth (1993); Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power and Popular Culture (2004); and Call Your “Mutha’” A Deliberately Dirty-Minded Manifesto for the Earth Mother in the Anthropocene (2020). This last book is in a series on Heretical Thought and was published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Caputi also has made two educational documentaries The Pornography of Everyday Life (2006), distributed by Berkeley Media and Feed the Green: Feminist Voices for the Earth (2016), distributed by Women Make Movies.
LTAI: Women’s Suffrage is a humanities discussion project from the American Library Association (ALA) supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
AGE GROUP: | New Adults | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Workshop | Online/Virtual | Discussion/Lecture | Clubs & Groups | Books |
Mon, Apr 29 | 12:00PM to 8:00PM |
Tue, Apr 30 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Wed, May 01 | 12:00PM to 8:00PM |
Thu, May 02 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Fri, May 03 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sat, May 04 | 10:00AM to 6:00PM |
Sun, May 05 | Closed |