The Prison Book Program has spent almost 50 years with one central mission: providing incarcerated people across the United States with free books from its headquarters in Quincy, Mass.
Sowntharya Ayyappanstarted dancing at age six when her parents took her to learn Bharatanatyam, a classical style of Indian dance, from a teacher 30 minutes away from her home.Ayyappan has been dancing since, spending time doing so every weekend throughout high school. So when she got to Tufts, it was only natural that she’d joinTufts Pulse, Tufts’ Indian classical dance team.
Bookstores across Boston celebrated National Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 24. Leading up to the day, bookstores announced their plans on social media, which included author talks, raffles and exclusive sales. Porter Square Books, Harvard Book Store, Brookline Booksmith, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, Papercuts J.P. and All She Wrote Books all participated in the day.
With two years of operation under its belt, All She Wrote Books — an intersectional, feminist and queer bookstore in Somerville — continues to strive to be a space for all people and voices to feel welcomed and heard. Christina Pascucci-Ciampa opened All She Wrote Books first as a pop-up store in 2019 to address a gap she saw in the world of independent bookstores, and she is celebrating the store's two-year anniversary today.
Independent booksellers are suing Amazon and the "Big Five" publishing companies — Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers — with a class-action lawsuit citing "a massive price-fixing scheme to intentionally constrain the bookselling market and inflate the wholesale price of print books,” according to Hagens Berman, one of the law firms representing the prosecutors.
Books are able to connect people and their stories from cultures to cultures. Student authors Saherish Surani and Sebastian Fernandez both utilized language and their books to speak to larger societal ideas and give voice to those issues.
While larger artists have stayed afloat, beloved venues have felt the impact of the end of live shows. In Boston, multiple local venues have been forced to close doors due to economic losses following the cancellation and postponement of live music. One such venue is Great Scott, which has hosted shows in the greater Boston area for more than 40 years.
Sapphire is also a multifaceted organization. It offers a book club, publishes two separate biannual publications — a literary magazine called Sapphire Hues and an art book series — and holds other community events, all of which are currently virtual.
There have been many posts this month by Black activists, literary lovers and even local Boston bookstores on social media highlighting different titles by Black authors. These posts provide easy access to anyone searching for their next read and give social media users a great way to support Black voices.
In addition to setting aside time every night to write, Fraise uses outlining to help her writing process. Her extensive and detailed outlining with color-coded Excel documents helps her ideas flow when it comes time to write.
