Current and Upcoming Events at

The W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library

• Current Exhibitions
• University Libraries Events Calendar
• Crimson Calendar

• Past Events and Exhibits

Please note --- because of the success of our events, and the beautiful facilities in Gorgas Library room 205, we are holding many events that are directly Hoole-related in that venue. Please consult the libraries-wide events calendar for information on all the UA Libraries events scheduled for Spring 2008. All events will also appear on the UA calendar and in will be publicized widely to the UA community and beyond! We hope to see you!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, 2nd Floor Mary Harmon Bryant Hall at 4:30 pm
Edward Tang, Associate Professor of American Studies, The University of Alabama

Turning Japanese: How Winnifred Eaton became Onoto Watanna in Victorian America [flier for event here]

An exhibit of the works by Eaton/Wattana from the Hoole Special Collections will be on display in the Hoole Library lobby. In conjunction with Sakura Festival 2008

Eaton became one of the first known writers of Asian descent to be published in America. It was in Chicago that she published her first novel, Mrs. Nume of Japan (1899), which told the story of a romance involving two couples, one American and one Japanese, who switch partners during a series of romantic and tragic encounters. It was an immediate success. From then on she published almost a novel a year. Moving to New York she wrote her next novel, A Japanese Nightingale in 1901. It was translated into many languages and was even made into a Broadway play and film (1919). She lived in New York until 1917. During that time, she married and divorced Bertrand Babcock with whom she had four children. She had much financial and writing success. In 1910, she wrote the bestseller Tama. Her novels, written during her time in New York, were mainly set in Japan. Most of them featured romantic scenarios of a Japanese woman and American man. Her novel, Me, A Book of Remembrance, in which she created a story about a girl named Nora Ascouth, is a thinly disguised memoir. This book, through the story of Nora's life, shows Eaton's attempt at covering up her Chinese ancestry. The novel created a small scandal partly because it discussed her many romances and friendships with men and partly because everyone was trying to guess the identity of the author.

Wednesday April 2, 2008 7:30 p.m. W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, 2nd Floor Mary Harmon Bryant Hall

The Rose Gladney Lecture for Justice and Social Change with Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake

Rev. Dr. Blake will speak on “Continuities and Changes”. Rev. Blake was the first head of the African American Studies Program at the University of Alabama, and was the first full-time African-American Male faculty member (1972-1977 at UA). Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake is the Presiding Minister of The Church for The Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 1944 during a time of local, national, and global tension and conflict, The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples is the nation's first interracial, interfaith congregation. Its mission, as articulated by co-founding pastors, Dr. Howard Thurman and Dr. Alfred Fisk, and visionary members, was to create a religious fellowship that transcended artificial barriers of race, nation, culture, gender, and social distinctions.

In establishing the context for the lecture series, Rose Gladney has written: "This great experiment in democratic governance which we call America draws strength from multiple human struggles to create not only a more physically comfortable life, but also a just and equitable society. I am fortunate to have grown into adulthood in the midst of the 20th century's greatest examples of such struggle: the African-American liberation movement, the women's liberation movement, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender liberation movements—all symbols and symptoms of the larger human struggle for justice and social change." Dr. Rose Gladney is a retired UA Professor of American Studies. The Rose Gladney Lecture for Justice and Social Change was endowed in her honor.

The events listed here are to be held at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, 2nd floor Mary Harmon Bryant Hall (500 Hackberry Lane) on the UA campus.

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