Sarah loves pop culture

The African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa lost its entire library collection (1,000 books) in the Cedar Rapids flood.
Below is information from curator Susan Kuecker. She will happily accept monetary donations. Checks may be made out to the African American Historical Museum of Iowa, P.O. Box 1626, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-1626. Please write “Library Fund” in the memo line of the check.

The library will also accept books as described below. Please contact Kuecker at curator@blackiowa.org before sending anything.

From Susan Kuecker:

We are in the position to accept some books, but no more than 10 from any one source at any one time.

Some of the books that we lost that are the hardest to replace are older books considered to be classics in their field. We would accept paperbacks in good condition, but do prefer hardbacks. We am limiting books on fiction and poetry to African American authors with an Iowa connection - these will generally be attendees of the Iowa Writer’s workshop.

We are interested in older books that show by-gone attitudes and also books considered classics. We are not interested in biographies or autobiographies of African American celebrities, sports figures, or actors and actresses. We are most interested in histories of and about African Americans. They do not have to be written by African Americans and do not have to have an Iowa connection.

We are interested in slave narratives and histories of slavery, the slave trade, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement. We are only interested in books about the Civil War that have a strong African American connection such as Cornish’s “The Sable Arm.”

Iowa City is experiencing the worst floods ever in history. The University has closed–and we even get paid time off–through June 22. My library is dry, but we are going to be taking in evacuees from the Main Library when we reopen. So far, we have power & water but reports indicate we may lose water–the water plant was sandbagged all night.

I’ll update more later. Our house will be ok, if the sewer doesn’t back up.

I finally was able to do the group facilitator training at WRACand it was everything I expected and more. I am now (maybe?) ready to effectively facilitate group meetings. I am planning to offer a group at WRAC in the summer–I’m thinking a support group for those who live with the chronically ill would be a good topic for me.

One thing I also learned during my training is to use a lot of icebreakers to make people feel comfortable.

I have been working a lot of hours (even for me) for the past 6 months. I decided I needed a break before the beginning of the regular Spring semester, so John and I took an overnight trip to Des Moines & went to see my brother in Clarinda. Basically, the trip sucked and was NOT at all relaxing. The best part of the trip was seeing Dings Honk ‘n Holler–a drive up liquor store reminiscent of my youth (Bob’s Drive Thru).
We ate at Joe’s Crab Shack in Des Moines (my choice). Getting a big bucket of delicious crabs=priceless. Waiting 12 minutes for husband’s food to come = $17.95 reduction in the bill after complaining to the manager. Tacky decor had it’s charm.

We stayed at the Marriott Jordan Creek. As a 4-star hotel, it should have been a 2-star.
1. We were told our reservation included breakfasts, and it did for an extra charge.
Can you believe both of these breakfasts were the same price?
2. No towels at the pool, and the gym was closed for renovation.
3. The internet was broken, and after 20 minutes on hold for tech support John was told “it’s broken.”
We did get some extra points on our card after complaining. We’ll see if they get redeemed in time.