Library Video of the Week, February 27, 2012.

When I Rise, an Alpheus Media Production.  Directed by Mat Hames; Executive Producer, Don Carleton. Library Call Number: E185.93.T4W44 2011.

          This riveting documentary chronicles the extraordinary life of Barbara Smith Conrad, a world renowned operatic mezzo-soprano.  In 1957, at the University of Texas-Austin, she was chosen to play the female lead in the opera Dido and Aeneas, opposite a white male singer.  That decision caused turmoil throughout the state of Texas and culminated in the state Legislature passing a bill which barred her from performing.  The young girl from East Texas was subjected to hatred and bigotry out of all proportion, yet continued on at the University, despite the humiliation heaped on her, and went on to become a premier performer in international opera.  Revisiting that moment in the present day, Smith Conrad’s grace, poise and capacity for forgiveness reveal more than words can tell about the venality and petty hatreds of that sad era in American history.  The film, selected for screening at numerous film festivals, won several awards for its inspirational story.
This video is shelved on the fith floor of the library.

Browsing Area Book of the Week, April 18, 2011.

Half-Broke Horses: A true-life novel by Jeannette Walls.
Library Call Number: PS3623.A3644 H35 2009.
          Author Walls introduces us to her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, by way of an autobiographical/fictional rendition of her life. Growing up in the early 20th century on a ranch in Texas, Lily’s first home was a dugout in the bank of a creek, with a sod roof browsing goats occasionally stepped through and walls that gophers, snakes and scorpions would regularly pierce. Helping her father break horses by the age of six, Lily fought for the education that led her to become a schoolteacher, grew up during the Great Depression and eventually settled on an Arizona ranch. Replete with real-life drama and tragedy, the stories of Lily and her family provide a wonderful and evocative glimpse into western America in the early to mid-20th century and illuminate much of the self-reliance and self-discipline necessary to survive in that era. From the flash flood in the opening chapter to the tragedies of her later years, this is a modest American woman worthy of great respect.