Current Events

[close] Select recommendations from readers of Globe Trot, a weekly news resource by journalist Mindy Belz.

[close] YWCA Central Maine will host book clubs that focus on social justice issues in line with our mission to eliminate racism and empower women. We hope that this book club will open important and meaningful community conversations on topics that are difficult to discuss by centering others' experiences as portrayed by literature. The club is open for all ages (with parent permission for those under 18) and meets *virtually* during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why should you join us? -->“The act of reading in a community can help you read more deeply and better understand diverse perspectives,” John Coleman writes in the Harvard Business Review. -->You read things that you would not otherwise read. -->Some books need to be discussed. -->As Joyce Carol Oates said, “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” -->We encourage meaningful and approachable discussions. You don't have to be a literary scholar or feel like an authority on social justice language. Just do the reading and show up to the discussion with an open mind and heart.

[close] The world is full of stories and clues about how to best live the lives we've been gifted. It is our responsibility to discover and study these patterns and apply them so as to advance the cause of humanity. All of human history is inextricably linked with the history of the universe and all of it is guided by a few key fundamental truths. These truths lie in the fields of physics (our way of describing the natural world - how thing work) and philosophy (our way of describing that which lies beyond the physical world - why things are) and must be discovered by each individual in their own right and in their own time. Just as wisdom must be built through knowledge, experience, and time, these truths are revealed in a similar fashion. They lie in our collective history, our stories, our science, our cultures, and it is our job to study these. EFARS exists for the sole purpose of building community around the pursuit of these truths, for knowledge without the ability to share and refine it is useless.

[close] Reading all the things, summer 2020!