{"id":10611,"date":"2015-05-06T18:12:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T22:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10611"},"modified":"2015-05-06T18:12:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T22:12:06","slug":"one-book-one-aurora-invites-you-on-virtual-trip-to-burma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/one-book-one-aurora-invites-you-on-virtual-trip-to-burma\/","title":{"rendered":"One Book One Aurora invites you on virtual trip to Burma"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, people across Aurora delved into one resident\u2019s harrowing tale of imprisonment in revolution-ravaged Tehran and her life thereafter through the Aurora Public Library\u2019s \u201cOne Book One Aurora\u201d campaign. In the second annual program, Aurorans are invited to indulge in \u201cBurmese Lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beginning next month, portable libraries will be set up at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, Aurora Town Hall, the Aurora Cultural Centre, and at the Library itself, each brimming with copies of Toronto author Karen Connelly\u2019s acclaimed memoir, \u201cBurmese Lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Books from these libraries will be available free of charge for residents to pick up, enjoy, and either return or pass along to new readers, in an effort to get all of Aurora on the same page in a Town-wide dialogue on passions, travel, and upheaval. <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be put off by recent events in the South Asian nation; \u201cBurmese Lessons\u201d bills itself as a love story. An unconventional one, perhaps, but a love story nonetheless of a Canadian woman finding herself in Burma. Its beauty, and the generosity of it citizens, coupled with the political turmoil engulfing the country, was a potent mix, but love blossoms between Connelly and a man dedicated to fostering political change.<\/p>\n

Selecting this year\u2019s book to build on the success of last year\u2019s program was almost too easy for Reccia Mandelcorn and the rest of the Aurora Public Library team. Having worked with Ms. Connelly on other projects, Ms. Mandelcorn said she had read the book three times, before she suggested it as the centrepiece for this year\u2019s celebration of the written word.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted something that was a good piece of literature, that had the depth of programming around that, and we wanted it to be Canadian,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe wanted to have something with which we could make connections within the community. Having studied under Karen, I know how engaging she is. She is one of my favourite Canadian authors and I knew we could have something pretty momentous for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

With elections coming up this fall in Canada as well as Burma, \u201cBurmese Lessons\u201d is a book that can go a long way in stimulating an important community-wide conversation about freedom, fighting for democracy, and a number of particularly timely topics. <\/p>\n

Having done a quiet soft-launch of the book earlier this year to various local book clubs, that potential to generate that conversation has already become evident, says the Library\u2019s Cindy Shaver.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really enjoying it,\u201d says Ms. Shaver. \u201cSome people have said it is a little bit more risqu\u00e9 than maybe they thought it would be, but once you\u2019re into it, you\u2019re absorbed. You\u2019re right in there and sense that passion Karen has in the moment and how it becomes her life. She doesn\u2019t necessarily feel like she is Canadian anymore. She is in there and she is just as invested as everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013As part of the One Book One Aurora Campaign, Ms. Mandelcorn and Ms. Shaver have built a series of events developed around the themes of the book.
\nOnce the books have three months to circulate around Aurora, discussion begins in earnest with a special screening of the documentary Burma VJ on September 17, hosted by Burmese activist Zaw Wai Kyaw. Burma VJ, nominated for Best Documentary at the 2009 Academy Awards, follows Burmese video journalists caught in the mist of the 2007 so-called Saffron Revolution.<\/p>\n

Burmese Lessons will also be the centrepiece of talks hosted by the Library\u2019s Tuesday Philosophy Club on October 6. Here, participants will have an enlightening discussion on important philosophical questions raised by the book, including what justifies \u201cstate\u201d, when civil disobedience is justified, and whether civil disobedience is even a \u201cresponsibility\u201d against state oppression and control.<\/p>\n

If the written word of Karen Connelly wasn\u2019t enough, the Colleen Abbott Gallery will be turned over to an exhibition of her photography from October 7 to October 24, before the program culminates with Ms. Connelly herself on Saturday, October 24 when the author presents her novel and engages in a question and answer session with the audience at the Aurora Public Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is really excited about it,\u201d says Ms. Mandelcorn of Ms. Connelly\u2019s participation. \u201cShe generally doesn\u2019t do book talks anymore, but she wanted to bring forth social issues. She herself is an activist and right now she is doing a lot of work on missing and murdered aboriginal women. She saw this as a way not only of promoting the book she wrote, but taking something that is very important and bringing it to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more on One Book One Aurora 2015, and to keep up-to-date on a growing list of activities surrounding Burmese Lessons \u2013 or even to suggest an event yourself \u2013 visit www.onebookoneaurora.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, people across Aurora delved into one resident\u2019s harrowing tale of imprisonment in revolution-ravaged Tehran and her life thereafter through the Aurora Public Library\u2019s \u201cOne Book One Aurora\u201d campaign. In the second annual program, Aurorans are invited to indulge in \u201cBurmese Lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2015-05-07-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2L9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 12:52:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}