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Book City ★ Roanoke

Book City Media

Authors, readers, and resident city builders gather in BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke to discuss how the written word shapes our identity and helps us act in the world. BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke projects explore engagement and equity at the intersection of books and place.

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Top 10 Book City ★ Roanoke Episodes

Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened

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01/16/20 • 28 min

Season two of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast launches with a conversation with freelance journalist and local foods advocate Christina Nifong. In her profiles of Roanoke area residents, Nifong plays the cinematographer. "I'm always trying to decide when to go in tight and when to pull back," she says. The telling detail help us understand her subject, and these individual stories help us understand the broader place.

Nifong recently penned a story for The Roanoker, "What Makes Roanoke, Roanoke?" In this episode she talks about what she found out in the many conversations she had in writing it and she talks about the changes and trajectory of her own life as mother and professional.

Follow Christina Nifong's writing and projects in her Nourishing Stories newsletter available at christinanifong.com.

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Book No Further, an independent book store on Roanoke's Historic City Market.

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01/16/20 • 28 min

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Our exploration of Identity and Action wraps with podcast producer Brad Stephens. In this episode, Brad and Douglas Jackson look back at the entire season. Of course, we'll talk about books, many of this seasons' guests and what these conversations are adding up to, touching on the following and more:

  • empathy and books,
  • books and the unlikeable,
  • writing and wisdom, and
  • the complexity of the self

Brad has worked for years in finding ways to encourage positive action and support ambitious efforts to improve our community. He's also a good reader and in this episode, he shares some of the books from his shelf and even one he hasn't been able to make it through. He also tells of his journaling strategy, which might make an impression on you.

www.bookcityroanoke.com

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09/29/19 • 29 min

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The exploration of Identity and Action continues with Writer Jeanne Larsen. With the poet, novelist, and essayist we explore how the written word shapes our sense of self and how we put that into work in the world around us. "You need to find the words that put who you are as you perceive yourself out there into the world," says Larsen.

Jeanne Larsen, writer, spent a career at Hollins University and is now professor emeritus. She is most recently the author of What Penelope Chooses (Cider Press Review, 2019). She describes the work as a "sassy lyrical footnotes to Homer" in which she responds to characters from The Odyssey and The Iliad.

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09/20/19 • 24 min

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Identity and Action: We continue exploring how the written word shapes our sense of self and how we put that into work in the world around us with a conversation with City of Roanoke Vice Mayor Joe Cobb. In this episode Joe discusses three books that weave through his way of being in the world. We touch on hospitality and fear, on seeing ourselves and on the power of claiming our bodies.

"Living this life...," Joe says "is not about what or who we ought to be according to someone else, but who we come to know ourselves to be. And for me, love is the guiding force in shaping that."

Joe Cobb is the co-author with Leigh Anne Taylor of Our Family Outing: A Memoir of Coming Out and Coming Through (self-published in 2011). This summer he marked one year of service on Roanoke's City Council. He has served in the past as pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge, and currently he’s a chaplain for hermitage Roanoke and Outreach Coordinator for Highland Park Elementary School.

The three titles discussed in this episode:

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09/12/19 • 29 min

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09/05/19 • 25 min

Identity and Action: Season one of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with poet Ashley Rhame. Ashley writes and performs with astonishing frequency. She's active in bringing people together in The Speakeasy, evenings of music and poetry. She is the program lead for Girls Rock Roanoke, and she works full time for Roanoke Public Libraries at the new Melrose Branch.

"Without poetry, I don't know who I would be," says Rhame.

In this episode, Rhame performs the poem "The Color of My Soul", a poem through which Rhame uncovered aspects of who she is in the world. It's a topic she uses to engage young people, who she says, need to know who they are to navigate the world around around them. Words help.

Listen to this City Builder, and share her joy for writing, performing, and caring for the people sharing the neighborhood and the world around her.

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09/05/19 • 25 min

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Identity and Action: Season one of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with Gregory Samantha Rosenthal. Dr. Rosenthal, an assistant professor of public history at Roanoke College, has led the charge in reviving and building the Roanoke LGBT Memorial Library at the Roanoke Diversity Center.

Rosenthal says they learned of the pieces of past libraries even before moving to the region in 2015. "I wanted to see it," they said. The conversation highlights the power and community benefit of individual efforts, and explores the changing roles of books and technology in identity and self exploration. "The books seem anachronistic" to young volunteers, but oral histories show just how important they were for the community in the past.

Rosenthal founded the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project, a community-based queer public history initiative. The effort has resulted in the LGBTQ History Collection at the Virginia Room of the Roanoke Public Library, as well as a digital archive. Students and community members have recorded oral histories with LGBTQ+ elders. And the group offers monthly walking tours of Downtown Roanoke and Old Southwest, Roanoke’s historic gayborbood.

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08/29/19 • 26 min

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Identity and Action: Season one of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with Roanoke County Director of Library Services Shari Henry. This season we’re looking at our engagement with the written word—how it shapes our identity and how we put that into action in the world around us. Libraries are a center of this engagement for individuals and for communities and they play a variety of roles.

Shari Henry has been in the Roanoke region for more than two years. In her role, she’s thoughtfully exploring the role of the library as the “marketplace of ideas” to better understand how we access good information, how technology works in our lives, and how a community responds to the needs of its residents in a timely and coordinated fashion. In an era of divisive public conversations, false news stories, and overwhelming access to information, libraries and their stewards are more important than ever.

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08/22/19 • 26 min

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Identity and Action: Season one of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with writer, artist, and professor Cathryn Hankla, author most recently of Lost Places: On Losing and Finding Home (Mercer University Press, 2018). The works brings together memoir, criticism, and descriptive writing toward a mosaic of our relationship to place and home in a collection of interwoven essays.

This season of the podcast we're looking at our engagement with the written word—how it shapes our identity and how we put that into action in the world around us. Hankla considers place in that process as well. "Many people think they can solve their problems by doing a geographic, " she says, "but I think oppositely--you've got to dig in where you are, go deeper with it, find the connections and the web of experiences and people that are right there..."

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08/15/19 • 26 min

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Identity and Action: Season one of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with a conversation with Marisa Mazek Blankinship, Roanoke Public Libraries staff member, writer, reader, and point person in the city's collective literacy action. She coordinates the collaborative third grade-level equivalency effort Star City Reads, now bringing together more than 30 organizations effecting measurable change.

This season of the podcast we're looking at our engagement with the written word—how it shapes our identity and how we put that into action in the world around us. As Blankinship says, " What we read, especially at a young age, shapes our perceptions of the world. It shapes how we interact with others. It shapes how we think about ourselves."

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08/08/19 • 25 min

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Season two of the BOOK CITY ★ Roanoke podcast continues with a conversation with four-term Roanoke City Council Member Bill Bestpitch. Bestpitch offers reflections on his reading life, Roanoke's progress, and the exchange of perspectives over shared reading.

Bestpitch entered public life through his active participation in the Old Southwest neighborhood in the early 90s and is active in a number of civic and reading groups in the community.

This season of the podcast is sponsored by Book No Further, an independent book store on Roanoke's Historic City Market.

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01/23/20 • 25 min

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FAQ

How many episodes does Book City ★ Roanoke have?

Book City ★ Roanoke currently has 34 episodes available.

What topics does Book City ★ Roanoke cover?

The podcast is about Podcasts, Books and Arts.

What is the most popular episode on Book City ★ Roanoke?

The episode title 'Journalist Christina Nifong ★ Gathering Nourishing Stories' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Book City ★ Roanoke?

The average episode length on Book City ★ Roanoke is 29 minutes.

How often are episodes of Book City ★ Roanoke released?

Episodes of Book City ★ Roanoke are typically released every 8 days.

When was the first episode of Book City ★ Roanoke?

The first episode of Book City ★ Roanoke was released on Jul 14, 2019.

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