Bitch Media is presenting a program called "Beyond Judy Blume: Identity and Sexuality in Young Adult Literature" public community forum November 8.
| When: | Thursday, November 8th at 7pm |
|---|---|
| Where: | Smith Memorial Student Union, rm 327, Portland State University |
| Admission is free. |
Beyond Judy Blume Community Forum
What: Take part in an interactive community forum about identity and sexuality in YA lit with an interdisciplinary panel of educators, authors, and youth. This forum will provide a space to discuss how portrayals of sexuality and identity in young adult literature have progressed in recent years, how young adult literature reflects changing cultural views on youth identity and expression, and how young adult literature can be used as a tool to empower youth.
Join Bitch Media and an interdisciplinary panel of educators and authors, to include:
Sara Ryan is the author of the novels The Rules for Hearts and Empress of the World, and of various comics and short stories on themes including but not limited to teen angst, Hellboy, joining the military, the 1962 escape from Alcatraz, and circuses. Her first graphic novel, Bad Houses, with art by Carla Speed McNeil, is forthcoming from Dark Horse Comics.
Michelle R. McCann has worked as a children’s book editor for more than twenty years, shepherding hundreds of children’s books into print. She has also written and compiled seven award-winning children’s books of her own. Michelle has an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College and currently teaches “Publishing for Young Adults” at Portland State University.
Vanessa F. La Torre is a Bilingual Youth HIV Education Coordinator in the Prevention and Education Department at the Cascade AIDS Project, and has been involved as a public health advocate and educator in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the broader Latino community since 2003. Vanessa’s professional experience focuses in cultural approaches to health promotion, program design and implementation, and cultural communications. She has worked closely with the HIV-positive Latino and Young Adult community, using a multilevel systems approach to promote and enhance participant engagement in health care services through empowering positive social networks that address the psycho-social needs of the community.
Panel moderator:
Hannah Steinkopf-Frank is a senior at Cleveland High School in Portland Oregon. She plays guitar and writes about music for her blog, The September Gurl, and is the Reviews Editor for the Cleveland Clarion. Her favorite YA novel is the 1967 classic The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.