|
Next Author Event:
|
| Cheryl Carpinello |
| http://www.voicesofrealit... |
Aurora, CO
09/03/2010 Through 09/03/2010
07:00 pm |
| View all events
|
|
|
|
|
Dear Self
A Year In The Life Of A Welfare Mother
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
view image of cover
|
|
|
|
|
Ms. Mitchell was born in the rural south, the daughter of an African American sharecropper. She would venture to the northern ghetto of Philadelphia to enhance her educational opportunities. Hence, her early life was shaped by the twin forces defining African American life in the Twentieth Century, the rural south and the urban north. An honor student in high school, Ms. Mitchell's promising academic career was curtailed by an eventually failed marriage that led to a set of circumstances which rendered her a single mother of seven children living in a sprawling public housing project in New Britain, Connecticut. Forced to deal with the humiliation of public assistance, she chronicled a year of her life, 1973, in this penetrating journal. This book is a valuable resource for all of those seeking to understand the reality faced by millions of Americans whose plight rarely finds an informed and articulate voice such as that possessed by Ms. Mitchell. Though written over thirty years ago, her intimate experience with and intricate insights into the reality faced by an expanding American underclass are as relevant today as they were then. She sheds an informing and penetrating light on race relations, poverty, mothering, gender relations and many other pertinent issues.
Foreword Magazine's Book of The Year Award
http://www.forewordmagazine.com/botya/search2k7.aspxsrchtype=title&srchval=dear%20self
|
|
|
|
| Foreword Clairon Reviews: | | Richelene Whitaker Mitchell was born in rural Georgia and spent her teen years in South Philly before settling in New Britain, Connecticut. She was more than the sum of her statuses. She faced uncertainty with grace, dignity and a daily page of insight. Through adversity, she sent up flares so her Self could find the way back. A mother of seven and a critical thinker, capsized slowly, left a record. Dear Self is a worthy read." |
| Library Journal Book Reviews: | | "In December 1972, prolific letter writer Mitchell, a divorced African American mother of seven living in poverty in Connecticut, made a New Year's resolution to keep a journal. Here is that diary, her perspective from over 30 years ago. She discusses workaday concerns, including the price of groceries, her children's education, and her anxiety about her daughter's early motherhood. But she doesn't avoid more complex, intellectual matters, e.g., her frustrations with everyday racism, the question of "liberated" womanhood, and her analysis of books she is reading. A good addition to libraries with a focus on African American social history..." |
| Betty Wright, a High School Teacher: | | Dear Self is a posthumous work of non-fiction in which the writer, Richalene Mitchell communicates to herself in a daily dialogue over a one year period. She is an intelligent, attractive, multi-talented, strong welfare mother, and single parent struggling with an all consuming web of economic deprivation, societal bias, crippling racism and pulverized dreams. She writes of the self-abnegating care that she struggles with to raise seven children in the projects of New Britain, Connecticut. Daily, she laments the loneliness, hopeliness and failures that have brought her to the point of despair. Antonymously, Richalene also celebrates life. The reader is allowed to participate in the happy and loving moments with her children and the joyous events that did not come often, but did exist. She documents her hopes and dreams for each of her children. Despite the modicum of achievements they witness in the projects, Richalene instills in them the zeal to succeed. The author is a prolific writer who is able to captivate her readers into a massive cocoon of emotions. This true story superlatively imparts depth, conviction and passion. The reader is so paralyzed by the events of each day and desires to read on without interruption. Dear Self magnetizes us all into Richalene Mitchell's world of meager, yet determined existence. |
| Library Member: | Beautiful book
I happen to come across this book quite by accident at the library one day. I couldn't check it out at the time, but once I could, I went right back and got that book, and I tell you, this is no ordinary welfare mother, but then again, who is? or who isn't? Richeline was born in Georgia, finished high school in South Philadelphia, got married and ended up in New Britain, Connecticut with seven kids. She resolved for 1973 to write a journal of her life and concerns, and that she did. One of the entries while discussing her financial woes, she muses if she sold this journal what would it profit? sadly, she didn't live to see the results. She speaks of not being able to work for herself(although she does work parttime at a dry cleaners)and giving her body to science as a sort of payback, writing letters to the local newspaper editor and seeing them published as well. She yearns that her children would break the cycle and become better adults, and at the end of the book, there is a section on what happened to her children. She also talks about her health. She suffered from seizures, and she valiantly tried to keep it from her kids. Nevertheless, after reading this book, one would think twice about labeling someone a welfare queen or what have you. Richeline Mitchell may have been a welfare mother, but I believe she was far more than that. A great book and highly recommended for all.
|
| Suzanne Derani, High School Teacher: | Amazing
The book Dear Self is an excellent book that everyone should read. It really draws the reader into never wanting to put it down. It appeals to people of every upbringing, age, and culture. The reader will feel as though they have experienced what the very writer has gone through. The emotions of sadness, happiness, and times of struggle have an immense affect on any person who reads this book. Superbly put together, Dear Self proves that with struggle there is ease. Richelene Mitchell, who documents these stories in a diary, proves that, although everyone has struggles or difficulties in life, with determination, patience, and acceptance of those struggles, one will succeed. What I found amazing about the writer was the fact that she never expressed pain throughout her illness of epilepsy. She continued to provide for her seven children, with endless love and support. This is most definitely a book that everyone can learn at least one lesson from, especially through the writer's strength, patience, and courage.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Visitor's Notes:
Post a note! Read this book? Tell us what you thought. Want to read it? Tell us why. Know the author? Tell us a funny story. Comment on how pretty the cover is. Whatever you have to say about this book, we want to hear it!
|
|
|
Tariq Subhani:
The dictionary defines the word welfare as Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need. But does meaning portray in true terms what someone on welfare really goes through every single day in this country. I would argue that it does not. In order to get a working understanding of someone on welfare in this country, one needs to go no further than reading Dear Self. This is a journal written over three decades ago by a phenomenal woman in a span of one year. Richelene Mitchell, a welfare mother of seven allows us to enter a world through her journal most of us have not experienced. A world of humiliation, poverty, racism, anxiety and frustration. But this story is not all about the disappointments of life but about elevating the human spirit and having the ability to live with such difficult life experiences with dignity, fortitude, mettle, and class. Ms. Mitchell's story tells us that life can throw many obstacles but know that we all have the potential for greatness regardless of our social standings. It's about patiently persevering through trials and tribulations. She was truly a remarkable woman and it was an honor to have shared a year of her life. If you want to be inspired, I highly encourage you to read this book.
|
|
|
|
|
Meet the new MiBookBox Widget! You can now make this book browseable and available from any website, blog, forum... or anywhere HTML is allowed! Help the author sell this great book by posting the MiBookBox Widget on your blog or website today!
Exclusively from AuthorsBookshop.com!
|
|
To place the MiBookBox Widget, simply copy and paste the following HTML code:
|
|
|
|
|
