Public Historian Gregory Samantha Rosenthal ★ Lesbian cat fiction and a collected past in the Roanoke LGBT Memorial Library

08/29/19 • 26 min

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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Roanoke County Libraries' Shari Henry ★ Technology and Empathy in the Library's Welcoming Space (Episode 1.6)

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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Poet Ashley Rhame ★ Uncovering ourselves through poetry

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.