What can the League do to protect our immigrant communities?
Join LWVMA on Zoom on February 11 at 7:00 PM, when Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), will discuss MIRA’s work, offer ideas about how League members can support immigrant protections, and take your questions. Register HERE.
At the 2023 League of Women Voters of Massachusetts (LWVMA) Convention, the LWV Amherst proposed a study of reparations to determine whether the LWVMA should adopt, by consensus, a position on reparations. Delegates voted by a wide margin to form a study committee. The study committee was tasked with studying four questions: Why are reparations needed? Who should receive reparations? What reparations should be provided? How should reparations be provided? The culmination of that study resulted in the preparation of two study reports: (1) a Study Guide with consensus questions, background, and arguments in favor and against and (2) a Study Report addressing the four questions: Why, Who, What, and How.
Local leagues are being asked to form local reparation study groups and conduct consensus meetings to review these two reports and give the state league its consensus on the four questions presented in the reports.
LWVN has formed a reparations study committee and will be holding a consensus meeting on Sunday, March 2, 2025, after which it will submit to LWVMA its consensus (or the collective opinion or general agreement of its members) on the four questions being asked by the reparations study. The Consensus Meeting will take place at the Durant-Kenrick House & Grounds, 286 Waverly Avenue, Newton from 3:00-5:00pm.
Special newsletters with digested information from the Study Report and Study Guide are being sent to members throughout January and February. Please keep a look out for these newsletters. These are only summaries and are intended to give you a sense of what the study materials include. We encourage everyone to review the reparations study materials. If you would like to share your thoughts in advance of the Consensus Meeting, please email us (we will keep all opinions shared in advance of the meeting confidential).
See our first special newsletter, sent January 20, 2025: Consensus Study on Reparations Part I.
See our second special newsletter, sent February 3, 2025: Consensus Study on Reparations Part II.
See our third special newsletter, sent February 17, 2025: Consensus Study on Reparations Part III.
If you would like to get involved with this study, or have any comments or questions regarding the study, please Contact Us.
See the LWVMA Reparations Study Page for more information.
James Book Group Discussion. About 20 community members gathered at the Waban Library Center on Sunday, December 8, 2023, to participate in a book group discussion on the book James. We had an interesting and lively discussion of the book, the harshness and realities of slavery in that time period, code switching and the use of different dialects to give meaning and advance the story, the relationship of the book to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, whether this book or Huck Finn should be taught at the middle or high school levels, and people’s personal experience reading or listening to the book. Following the discussion, we enjoyed a delicious spread of refreshments.
We thank LWVN member Neil Kulick for so ably leading the discussion with the enthusiasm and pointed questions of a true former English teacher. And we thank the Waban Library for the use of their beautiful library.
On Monday, January 29, 2024 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) is sponsoring an In-District Meeting with State Senator Cynthia Creem, State Representatives from Newton Ruth Balsar and Kay Khan, as well as the state representative from Wellesley, Alice Peisch. The meeting will address housing and mental health justice and will be held at the Union Church in Waban, 14 Collins Road, Waban, MA 02468. This is not a religious meeting and has no connection with a given church, synagogue, or mosque.
See the flyer for this event.
See the legislation description.
Gender Queer Book Group Discussion. About 15 LWVN members gathered at the Waban Library Center on Sunday, December 3, 2023, to participate in a book group discussion on the book Gender Queer and on banned books. We had an interesting and lively discussion on the book, the struggles the author faced confronting er sexuality and gender identity, the use of pronouns, whether this was a book that should be banned, and whether the League should take a position on banned books generally. The discussion was coupled with a nice spread of refreshments and holiday cheer.
We thank the Waban Library for the use of their beautiful library. We appreciated the warmth, coziness and intimacy of the setting as well as (unbeknownst to us beforehand) their display of banned books and their support of providing access to banned books.
For those who could not join us, below is some information on the book Gender Queer, and on banned books generally.
The Board intends on exploring further the question of whether the League should have a position on banned books. If you have an opinion on this, or if you have encountered a book ban anywhere in the Newton library system (whether at public libraries or school libraries), please Contact Us.
According to the American Library Association (ALA), “Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. For more than 40 years, the annual event has brought together the entire book community — librarians, teachers, booksellers, publishers, writers, journalists, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.”
ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. The unparalleled number of reported book challenges in 2022 nearly doubles the 729 book challenges reported in 2021.
PEN America counted school book bans in the 2022-2023 school year, and found 3,362 book bans affecting 1,557 unique titles, with more than 40% of the bans occurring in Florida.
We invite you to take action on “Let Freedom Read” Day – October 7, 2023!
To better explore the issue of banned books, LWVN is inviting all community members to join us in a December book group discussion on one of the most banned books of the last two years, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. We will be discussing the book (and other books on the banned books list, if you are inclined to read others), why it has caused so many schools and libraries to remove it from the shelves, whether LWVN or any League should take a position on book banning, and more.
Following the discussion, we invite all to celebrate with us the holiday season and join in some holiday cheer. More details to follow.
For more information on Banned Books, read below.