In the episode of seinfeld titled library cop a Library Investigations officer named lieutenant bookman visits jerrys apartment the visit occurs because according to Library Records jerry had had henry millers tropic of cancer checked out since 1971. But according to jerry he returned it that same year. When he learns of the dilemma kramer is terrified. Do you know how much that comes to . Thats a nickel a day for 20 years. Its going to be 50,000. But when jerry corrects him, it doesnt work like that. Kramer gives voice to a fear that would have sent chills through my body as a child. Well if its a dime a day, its a hundred thousand dollars. When lieutenant bookman arrives on the scene he delivers perhaps the best monologue of the series. And im going to try to do it justice. Well, let me tell you something funny boy. You know that little stamp the one that says new york public library. Well that may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot to me. Sure. Go ahead laugh if you want to ive seen your type before flashy making the scene flaunting convention. Yeah. I know what youre thinking. Whats this guy making such a big stink about old Library Books. Well, let me give you a hint junior. Maybe we can live without libraries people like you and me, maybe sure were too old to change the world. But what about that kid sitting down opening a book right now and a branch at the local library and finding drawings of peoples and wee wees on the cat in the hat and the five chinese brothers. Doesnt he deserve better . Look if you think this is about overdue finds and missing books you better. Think again. Okay. At this point i know what youre thinking. What is she doing . Why shes starting with this . When will she stop . Well im afraid to tell you. I will never stop quoting seinfeld. As a jewish new yorker who grew up in the 90s. Im actually legally required to open every speech with a reference to seinfeld. I dont make the rules. But the reality is its beautiful special days like this. When so many of us get to get together and celebrate the written word that the truth of bookmans monologue comes to me. He might have been comically overzealous about his job. He had to live up to his name after all. But he also got something very right. Books are so much more than words on paper. For a lonely child they may well be her home her refuge her pipeline to a brighter future. I know this. Because i was that child. When i moved to america from china in 1994 everything i had ever known disappeared overnight. For the first time in my life. I found myself a racial minority and a land where i didnt speak the language on a continent where i knew no one but my parents. My parents professors in china were thrown into 14 hours shifts of physical labor at the sweatshop where we made pennies per article of clothing. At the sushi plant where my mothers skin turned purple from unrelenting exposure to ice water. Learning that i was newly quote unquote illegal. I walked the other way whenever i saw anyone in uniform cop or custodian. The first english word i learned was the slur for chinese a word that etched into my brain the certain knowledge that my race was repugnant. The memory of our first days in america still comes to me in a fog of fear loneliness and hunger. I still remember the confusion that enveloped me as i wondered how the chinese could call this land to make war. Literally translated beautiful country but Albert Einstein once said the only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library. And we call that managenius for a reason. When i found the branch of block away from my Elementary School one day. The fog and confusion dissipated and my world opened up again. I was no longer alone. The library could not restore my life in china. Give me back my family and friends, but it did supply new companions clifford the big red dog the very hungry caterpillar the berenstain bears Amelia Bedelia and soon the Babysitters Club and sweet valley high. Thanks to the library. I was no longer living alone with my parents in a single room sharing bathroom and kitchen with a rotate with a rotation of immigrant families instead. I was sitting in claudia quiches bedroom and stony brook, connecticut munching oreos hanging out with my friends and fielding babysitting calls. Just like any other american kid. Fans of the Babysitters Club may recall that claudia loved to hide junk food and hollow books. That reminded me of home. Growing up in a persecuted dissident family during chinas cultural revolution my father hid his favorite english books many of them banned under the floorboards of his often ransacked and raided home. He would later become an English Literature professor, but quickly found that even in his classrooms. He was not free to teach a students the critical thought and social commentary that hes so admired in the words of mark twain and charles dickens. You often told me returning frustrated from days of censor teaching with stacks of his favorite books under his arms. Narrative is power. And nothing matters more than the stories we tell. That message perhaps is more important now than ever before. Every time i heard this in china, i thought i knew what he meant. But i did not really feel it. Believe it or live it until i arrived in america and discovered the safety of books. As i taught myself english on volume after volume learning about the parts of america. Otherwise inaccessible to me. I learned that i was not too different from the kids the book so often portrayed. And so as i write in beautiful country. From there. There was no saving me. I lived and breathed books. You see i actually think bookman may have understated the importance of books. He failed to say that books save lives. That books offer companionship for the lonely a roadmap for the lost. A refuge for the persecuted in the darkness of undocumented life our number one priority was blending in. My father told me early and he told me often if i could learn to speak english perfectly. Just like a native speaker. Then i could plausibly say that id been born here. Full and legitimate american and aroused no suspicion about my immigration status. If i could blend in and act as if i knew exactly what christmas was and what los angeles looked like. Then i would fit in just like another american kid. That information that access to safety and belonging was freely available to me in one place and one place alone. In my work now as an education lawyer. I see the sanctuary that books offer to the children the rest of our society seems to have forgotten. For the children who have no adult supervision after school no means of traveling around the world. No one telling them they are loved they are safe. They are worthy. Every single volume offers the voice the hope and the guidance. They need to dare to chart a different path to dream a bigger dream for themselves. And for those Children Books offer a home in the present and in the future this is even more true for children other children than at once was for me because i was fortunate to have landed in a large city where i could walk from library to library even bookstore to bookstore and avail myself of all of the Public Resources for free. I had countless books at my disposal i chose for myself the stories i wanted to read. And yet even in that freedom i felt at times lost. Reflections of my life came only in slivers and claudias asianamerican, but suburban households in the diary of anne frank whose identity meant that she too had to grow up in hiding. And through the eyes of jonas training under the giver. Seeing all that was invisible to others. Those glimmers of recognition were even more precious because they were rare. And under their scant light. I felt seen i hope that they signaled i might even be worthy. If america could love those characters, perhaps i too could be loved. Perhaps i was not so different. After all had i grown up in a different part of the United States or in a different time. Those glimmers may not have become available to me. And its worth returning at this point to my fathers sage words. Narrative is power. And nothing matters more than the stories we tell. Just days ago the American Library association reported that this past fall saw an unprecedented 330 challenges to their books. In november, i was fortunate to speak at a librarian convention where i was shocked to learn that the act of providing equal access to books and resources. Has become more politicized and exhausting than ever. The movement to bam books is not just happening in our classrooms. Its happening in our libraries across our nation and our discourse. Im sure you all remember a time in your childhood. When your parents were godlike . 200 feet tall allknowing allencompassing as long as they were around you were safe. For me that smoke screen faded early. When i landed at jfk airport at age seven i saw my parents shrink down to mere mortal size. Overnight they were reduced to fallible beings who were just as confused and afraid and lost as i was. But for me Library Books and their characters never lost that holy quality indeed over the years as i learned to fear all Authority Figures under the threat of discovery and thus deportation. I somehow never feared. Librarians for they were the host to my best friends the only beings with whom it was safe to be my true self. Those friends included charlotte and wilbur who to this day remain my north star for friendship. Julie of the wolves and matilda who still keep me company at times when i feel singularly odd. And when i feel that i alone have endured the stress of moving an abrupt and difficult conditions. I just need to think of mrs. Frisbee and the rats of nim it was through the library that i learned for the first time about the work of Thurgood Marshall and ruth bader ginsburg. And it was then in there some 25 years ago. That i resolved to become a lawyer just like them and change the stories our country chose to tell. In its courtrooms and its laws in its books neither that day nor that conviction has left me. For the treasures of the books that i discovered are etched into my being. My heart still mourns little ann and old dan from where the wet red. Fern grows still delights in the silliness the wayside school. Still steals itself with the feminism of a wrinkle in time. But most of all the honor of having found books that reflected me at a time when i needed them gave me a sense that perhaps despite all messaging. I was not singularly unwanted that perhaps i was just as worthy as the next child. To this day whenever i feel scared and lost there are a few things more comforting than the sight and smell of books. And because you are here at a book festival at 9 am on a saturday. I suspect you can relate. So now that you know a little bit about me. I think it may be safe for me to share a confession. You see im actually not that different from jerry. Sometime over the winter and the fifth grade in 1997 or 1998. I too had a missing overdue book. As i checked out a new batch of books one afternoon. The librarian said that there was a problem. I appeared to have a book out that was quickly accruing fines. I said i remembered returning it the week before but the system had no record of it. When i heard this i all but sank into the ground what would happen would i not be allowed to borrow books anymore . Would i get me and my parents thrown into prison from the debt from my overdue fees . What i get to read in prison. Would i be . Worst of all if i went home and indeed no longer had the book whether because i had lost it or because i returned it without record. What would happen did the library have other copies or would i forever deprive the other children of that branch of that volume . What had i done . The fear was particularly weighty because the book in question had been number 82 in the Babysitters Club series. Dont worry, you might not have the numbers memorized like i do, but that just means youre a normal person. Number 82 in the bsc series was called jesse and the troublemaker. If primarily followed jessica ramseys frustrations and adventures with one sitting charge danielle roberts. Both of these characters meant the absolute world to me. Jesse was the only black member of the Babysitters Club and it felt like her family was the only black family in town. Like claudia the only asian member jesse hit upon things like prejudice and ignorance that were all too common in my life. Meanwhile, danielle was a child with leukemia. And while i was fortunate enough not to have endured anything like what danielle went through. I had a sick mother and we were terrified of all attention from doctors hospitals or otherwise in jessies and daniels experiences a part and then together. I found in a book reflections of my reality. And now i had gone and misplaced that book. So no other child who was struggling with similar issues could find the comfort that i did. And that to me was the absolute worst consequ. In the end, of course my librarian was far more lenient than kramer would have suggested. There would be no 100,000 charge for me. She said that they would flag the book in the system and give it six months to reemerge. I promise that i would return home and look thoroughly just in case i really forgotten it somewhere. And seeing the tears in my eyes. She choked back a laugh and said dont worry dear. It always turns up. And of course she was right. It had not been at home, but a few months later when i inquired about the book at checkout and i always did its absence had become Something Like a new pet. I could not stop thinking about. Relief poured over me as i was told that yes, the book had been found. The book had been found the flag had been removed from my account and the overdue charges that had been growing if not in the system than certainly in my brain were wiped clean. I was free. But that experience stayed with me. Because even in a branch full of books even in a series with endless volumes even for a child who was always reading five books at once. Every individual book mattered because of what it portrayed because of the message it shared because of the hearts. It is uniquely positioned to touch. And that was the idea that motivated me to write my book. The belief that my story and my life might matter to just one person. Perhaps i could signal to an immigrant child still living in hunger that she too deserved to be on shelves. Perhaps i might dare to hope for my book to one day connect with just one person out there. To tell them that they are worthy of being seen. And is in debt that after all why so many of us here today are drawn to read. To write to commune in the power of storytelling but what happens to the fabric of our society our empathy . Our connection our communities when we remove one book then another. And then another like a row of dominoes they collapse on each other. And were the children teens and adults go then to feel less lonely. Less adrift so as you walk around. On this book festival and beautiful savannah today i hope you will take a moment to soak it all in. What an immense privilege and joy it is to be immersed and so many stories. So many perspectives so many ideas you dont have to agree with them all but you are free to hear them all. And this is our country at its greatest at its most beautiful. This is the kind of day that shows us how very fortunate we are to live in these United States. How empowered we are by words to change the world. And how we might go forward and share all the stories. We are fortunate to hear. Todays events indeed are not unlike one big sprawling library. And it was jorge luis borges. Who said ive always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. Well as you walk around paradise today. I hope you might think about all of the ways that you can preserve and share a piece of this paradise. With your community and the people all around you and the weeks and months to come. You have the power to rally for change whether thats by donating or volunteering at your library, or calling upon your elected officials to fight for more Public Resources. And i end as i am legally required to open. With that seinfeld quote maybe we can live without libraries people like you and me. Maybe sure were too old to change the world. But what about that kid . Sitting down opening a book right now. You can be the voice. The champion that helps remind her that her story, too. Is what makes america beautiful . Thank you so much. Now very happy to take questions if you could come to the mic in the middle of the room and and keep six feet apart. I was told to say one one question per person too. So. If no one asks anything, im gonna have to sing and im tone deaf. Just warning you not a threat. Hi. Thank you so much for coming today. You mentioned now that you work as an education lawyer. Did your love of reading influence that decision to go into that field . Absolutely and im fortunate enough to be a lawyer and have seen inside are legal system and our judicial system and as i practiced over the years it became. Very apparent to me that the route to systemic change to foundational change to progress is in our Education System is to availing all children of more resources of the power of literacy and imbuing them with that love early and often so it was all of the my experiences and my childhood as well as my experiences and my adulthood practicing law that pointed me to the direction of educational law and seeing that that was probably the greatest public good that i could contribute to. Thank you. Hi. Your first barnes noble gift card kind of got wasted on a workbook and a dictionary. So if you were to get 50 to barnes noble today, what would you spend it on . I would have to spend it on i dont know how much they go for now, but at least five to ten of the Babysitters Club series. Theyve all recently been recast as graphic novels, which i havent been able to expose myself to because i didnt want to ruin tarnish the original experience i had with them through words, but i would be very curious to read those as well. Thank you. I wish i wish i could get that certificate back. Good morning. My question was i was saddened when i was reading your book that the parallels to grow and translation by gene kwok when i believe her immigrant experience was 25 years probably previous to yours now. Im just curious as to what you see as immigrant experiences now, i think you said 94 for you. So like 28 years later. How are the immigrant experiences for people now coming from china . Thank you for asking that question and jean cox book of seminole, and shes good friend of mine. So im honored to be compared to her. I mean the sad truth is that i dont see a huge change. I see advances in the way that we talk about immigrants and resources that we make available to new immigrants, but so often of what i see on the ground in chinatown or even just Walking Around new york city. As much as the same conditions, i mean the problem with the American Dream is that things may have materially changed for me. But as im walking from my fancy home to my fancy law office. On the way there. I still see young immigrant children going through the trash with their parents. Still seeing in their eyes some of the same pains and fears that i myself grapples with decades ago and in those moments, i so want to pick up that child and say itll be okay. You are seen and there are people out there fighting for you, but im afraid that would terrify the child more. And so theres all its all i can do to just keep working and waking up every day and pushing for that change, but it often in those moments. The survivors guilt follows me and swallows me up and and theres it feels like not enough that i can do every day to take away some of the reality that that child still faces. My Book Club Read your book and we were curious as to why you ended it when you did, you know, were like oh, but theres a whole lot more life. So just a question. So i always wanted this book to focus on those five years. I know its odd to say of a memoir, but i really didnt think of my book as being about me or my life. I wanted it to be a celebration and a tribute to new immigrants to children that very special and almost universal time in our childhoods. Where we go out in the world and we dont understand what is going on and were so incredibly open and vulnerable. And we learn to become guarded and we learn the things that can save us in the things that are dangerous to us. I wanted to really hone in into those precious years because when you peel back all the adulthood layers that little child inside all of us that drives so many of our decisions and the way we engage with each other and interact with the world and when i looked i was that that seven year old child is very much me and probably the most practical reason is that im only 34 and i dont trust myself to have the wisdom yet to have enough important things to say about the later years, but a lot of people have asked me that question and so now im thinking about possibly a followon book. Loved your talk. Thank you very much. So i grew up in a very small Rural Community and we had a bookmobile, but when i became of school age my primary means of having a book was the school library. I mean that was really for me for most of you know until i went to law school, too, but so im just curious what youre feeling is because you are an education lawyer as well the fact that the last two years so many children have not been able to actually be physically in a school with perhaps access to the school library, which is the only place that they can get books now that theyre going back. We cant predict what might happen next year or the year after so your thoughts on that because the School Libraries are so important. I mean the pandemic magnified social economic divides. When covid19 was first announced my first thought were the children who get meals in schools because i relied on those free meals. And once youre not required to be there every day, its may no longer be feasible or may no longer feel safe to go out to get that meal. So what happens to those children who dont have food at home who dont have books at home who dont even have Internet Access and what i have seen from engaging with community librarians, including my childhood branch Chatham Square is that these librarians are working on having loan out ipads and computers were children can be able to access pdf resources and books online. Theyre sending out virtual resources every day and making sure that families are attuned to them. The librarians have really become the front lines of the pandemic for that underserved community, but even so work at my firm. Ive seen a lot of developmental delays and as we know, you know one year of miseducation two years of miseducation has ripple effects across the childs future and so it is everything that we are focusing on to minimize those delays minimize those gaps and discrepancies, but it is its a valid concern and i would just say that making those Public Resources as widely available as possible even for those who may not necessarily have Internet Access have access to Electronic Devices should be of first and foremost goal of our government and our agencies and libraries and Community Members like you thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Nice. Oh. Im curious. Im only about halfway through your book, but im curious. With all the contacts you had as a child the good and the bad. Have you ever have you run into any of those people as a grownup . Do you mean that like everyone in the teachers everybody teachers the other students the little girl that you want to translate for you and just any of those influences that you had so many yeah that as an adult if you have ever run into any of them again, i was fortunate to have found a very close knit and tight knit community as you say of both good bad, but also very good people and and support and actually i am leaving from here to go straight to the airport because my best friend from the third grade elaine in the book is getting married tomorrow, and i am officiating so im very excited. Im never officiated before so i hope i dont mess it up the book also brought me back to ps 124 where i went to Elementary School and i spoke to a lot of the teachers there including my second grade teacher who still teaching there as well as some of my former classmates who are now teachers and they also had some choice words to say about the teacher. I describe as mr. Kane. Ive gotten a lot of reader emails but moaning teachers like him, but you know teaching is a hard job so i dont i dont bring grudge him at all. Im not connected with him, but most special. Perhaps is my third grade teacher the principal at ps 124 put us in touch and i send her photos of the charlottes web copy that she gave me when i eight years old and she could not believe that i had kept it all of these years, but then she sent me copies of cards that i gave her just often full of gibberish that she kept for 28 years 30 years and i did not remember, i mean, i guess i remembered a little bit if you read my book how much of a snarky sneaky kid i was but in in one of the cards, i i was purportingly apologizing for what i had gotten in trouble with which was speaking chinese and i said it wasnt my fault. My friend was the one who did it and then there was it was followed by a riddle. Like what do you call a witch on a beach . I i think i copied it from somewhere and to think that she thought that that, you know line of random ramblings was special enough to keep it made me cry instantaneously. Its just so very special and she now has children of her own and were planning to meet up in brooklyn when when everything gets a little bit less hectic, but this book has brought about so many. Developments and connections that i could not have even fathomed and i just feel like the luckiest person in the world and and the most special has been connecting with readers all of everyone like you who with whom it the book has resonated more than i could have. Thought because it really does prove my initial hypothesis with writing beautiful country and its that when you peel back all the labels. Were really not different at all. Thank you so much. Lydia kang is an author of fiction poetry and nonfiction. She graduated from Columbia University and New York University school of medicine. And practices internal medicine at the university of nebraska medical center. Her poetry and nonfiction have been published in jama the annuals annals of internal medicine and great weather for media. Shes also the alcoa author of quackery a brief history of the worst ways to kill cure everything
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.