An important revelation came to me last summer. I realized the time had come for my daughter to learn more about her city. Yes, she visits museums, landmarks, and all of the parks. But I wanted BOLD, so I ditched the car and decided to take mass transit to school. (What a cost saver, too!) Actually, I was worried about the rat race she would have to endure and how she would adapt. The short answer, it has been the ultimate learning experience for her.
My daughter and I on the E-Train. Squished! 
I tell my daughter to walk with a pen and her writer’s notebook because we never know what we will walk into, literally. She points out to me the funny, the sad, the weird, the shake-your-head stories, and the stories of compassion.
They are all down there, beneath NYC!
For example, last week there was an elderly woman standing on the escalator in the walk lane. My daughter, her face exploding with laughter, whispered to me, “Mom. Look.” I turned around and sure enough, the older woman appeared feeble and stopped the ‘walkers’ in their tracks. She was on the wrong side and never turned around to see the angry, frustrated faces of busy commuters, trying in vain to pass her. But you know what? The ‘wanna-be-walkers’ were all relatively patient for the 15-seconds it took for us to ascend to the next leg of the journey. And for us it was the 6-train. It was also pretty funny. Oh, I forgot to mention, my daughter and I NEVER walk in the walk lane on the escalator. There’s too much we’ll miss.
What better way to have breakfast, fresh 'squeezed' between passengers.
If it’s not the friendly folks handing out free morning newspapers, inspiring riders with encouraging words, “Hi Ma! [he says to me] STAY POSITIVE! IT’S YOUR DAY! STAY IN SCHOOL! MAKE IT A GOOD ONE [they say to her]!” It’s the bongo drummers on Lexington Avenue, whose beats, force strap hangers to ’shimmy‘ their way to and from work. Yes, I take the train back and forth! The train back and forth and I love it! <<sounds like a song.
Even when it’s crowded, the stories unfold. Those are actually the best stories. Who’s pushing? Who isn’t? Who gets up for the elderly or persons with disabilities? Who doesn’t? My question is ALWAYS who’s reading what?
By: Amy Bowllan,
on 6/6/2010
Blog: Bowllan's Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Uncategorized, bowllan's blog, Writers Against Racism, 2010 NDLC, Add a tag
Have you registered yet for the 2010 National Diversity in Libraries Conference at Princeton University?
I’m one of the panel speakers and would LOVE to have you join in on our discussion.
Amy Bowllan who writes as a community blogger on the School Library Journal website will discuss how blogging about a thought can grow into a transformative project anywhere on the globe. She will describe how to maintain an effective online presence and how this information acquired here can effectively transform how we teach.
Claiming the center: Online community, activism and advocacy – LaTonya Baldwin, Amy Bodden Bowllan, Edith Campbell, Doret Canton
What are you doing to improve your professional online presence? Are you blogging? Tweeting? Through the creation of blogs, wikis and websites individual members of marginalized groups are using the Internet to connect and mobilize with readers, writers, educators and other literacy advocates around the country/globe. Meet the members of our community, learn about the resources we share and the work we do to promote authors of color, provide book reviews, debate issues and rally together in dynamic projects such as Writers Against Racism (W.A.R.). Witness how our individual interests have grown into community platforms.
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By: Amy Bowllan,
on 6/4/2010
Blog: Bowllan's Blog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Uncategorized, amy bowllan, bowllan's blog, Add a tag
I’m sure my new name is quickly becoming, P A I N, since I have been toiling through this new blog platform with loads of questions for the tech department. Kudos to Brian Kenney who has the patience of a saint, while this migration is still underway.
Here’s my new contact info:
Amy Bowllan
Bowllan’s Blog at School Library Journal
[email protected]
http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/bowllansblog
http://twitter.com/abowllan
Find me on Facebook
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By: Aline Pereira,
on 9/10/2009
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: racism, Reading the World, The Tiger's Treasures, Laura Atkins, Amy Bowllan, Bowllan's Blog, Writers Against Racism, Add a tag
Amy Bowllan at Bowllan’s Blog has a series of posts titled “Writers Against Racism,” in which she asks authors about their experiences of racism and their opinion on the ways in which literature can be used to combat its effects. The ongoing series so far includes interviews with Zetta Elliot, Mitali Perkins, David Yoo, Neesha Meminger, Tanita S. Davis, and many more. In one of the August installments, Bowllan interviewed children’s literature specialist—and PaperTigers contributor/consultant—Laura Atkins. Laura’s views on the topic are very interesting, and partly informed by years of working in the children’s publishing industry developing multicultural picture books (her insightful paper “What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Literature,” has recently become available online).
Laura says on her blog of the “Writers Against Racism” series: “The questions and answers reveal how the personal and the political are intimately linked. Each person has their own experiences, their own stories to tell—and all of us have connected to and through literature as a way of combating racism.” I can’t imagine a more effective weapon than literature in this worthwhile battle. Can you?