Let's Talk About It: Making Tracks
In 1876, fewer than fifty years after the first railroad lines were laid in North America, Walt Whitman composed a poem—“To a Locomotive in Winter”—that captured the power and energy of the train, the machine that Whitman hailed as the “Type of the modern—emblem of motion and power-pulse of the continent.” The images in Picturing America suggest ways in which the railway transformed the American landscape and helped determine where settlements and industry would develop.
The readings selected for Making Tracks include an account of the construction of the transcontinental railroad (Nothing Like It in the World). Rising from the Rails explores the stories of the black men—and ultimately women—whose work as Pullman porters not only shaped the quality of train travel in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century but also shaped the black middle class. The cluster of poems by nineteenth- and twentieth-century poets offers views of trains and from trains. And in the graphic novel that closes the series (Kings in Disguise), telling the story of an adolescent railway runaway illustrates the Depression, sharing the images of workers strikes and economic hardship from another generation.
This Let's Talk About It! series is hosted by the Ada Community Library. All of the programs are free and book sets will be available to borrow from the library in August. For more information please call Diane at 362-0181.
- Monday, July 12 at 7:00-8:30pm
- "Abraham Lincoln & the American West"
- presented by Richard Etulain
- Tuesday, August 10 at 7:00-8:30pm
- "Louisa May Alcott"
- presented by Janet Worthington
- suitable for the whole family
- Saturday, August 21 at 1:00-3:30pm
- Film: Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Woman
- Nancy Porter, Producer/Director
- Harriet Reisen, Producer/Writer
- suitable for teens and adults
- Tuesday, September 14 at 7:00-8:30pm
- Book Talk: Nothing Like It in the World
- by Stephen Ambrose
- suitable for teens and adults
- Tuesday, September 28 at 7:00-8:30pm
- "Idaho's Railroad History"
- presented by Arthur Hart
- suitable for teens and Adults
- Tuesday, October 12 at 7:00-8:30pm
- Book Talk: Rising from the Rails
- by Larry Tye
- suitable for the whole family
- Tuesday, October 26 at 7:00-8:30pm
- "Magic Carpet Made of Steel"
- by Bill Rossiter
- suitable for the whole family
- Tuesday, November 9 at 7:00-8:30pm
- Book Talk: Kings in Disguise
- by James Vance
- suitable for teens and adults
- Sunday, November 14 at 12:30-3:30pm
- Picturing America: Making Tracks Poetry
- storytelling & poetry with Barbara Martin-Sparrow
- people with train poems they have written are invited to read as well
- presented at the Boise Train Depot
- 384-4240
- 2603 W. Eastover Terrace
- self-guided tours of Depot & Grounds
- suitable for the whole family
- Saturday, November 20 at 1:00-3:30pm
- Film: Riding the Rails
- PBS Documentary Directed by Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell
- suitable for teens and adults
- Saturday, December 18 at 1:00-3:30pm
- Film: The Journey of Nattie Gann
- Disney Film with John Cusack
- suitable for the whole family
Idaho libraries have been bringing reading and discussion programs to their communities since 1985. The addition of a program speaker is what makes Let’s Talk About It (LTAI) different from a traditional book discussion program. Let's Talk About It brings together humanities scholars and adult readers in public libraries to read and discuss fine literature which explores American values, history and culture. This unique American Library Association series combines NEH art panels, poetry & film with railroad themed literature.
This program is made possible by the American Library Association, Idaho Humanities Council, the Institute for Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
