PORT TOWNSEND — Belonging, race, family and generational healing are among the ideas to be explored in a free discussion group hosted online by the Port Townsend Library this month.
“Blended: Perspectives on Belonging,” local author Velda Thomas’ memoir, is the fuel for the one-hour sessions at 10 a.m. on three Saturdays: this coming one and on Feb. 19 and Feb. 26.
Participants will receive a free copy of “Blended,” which the writer designed as a participatory notebook; along with short chapters and linocut illustrations, it contains questions and open pages for the reader to use to process and reflect.
Thomas, a longtime Port Townsend resident, calls this “a book to open hearts.”
Attendees who sign up for the library’s group are asked to commit to joining all three of the Zoom meetings. The facilitator is Tonia Burkett, a sociologist and owner of Usawa Consulting.
“My areas of specialty are social inequality, medical sociology and mental health. I have been an anti-oppression activist, organizer and educator for over 30 years,” Burkett writes in the announcement for the “Blended” discussion group.
To register, visit www.ptpubliclibrary.org and look for the “Blended” discussion group link under Upcoming Events.
Potential attendees also can find out more by contacting Port Townsend Library Director Melody Sky Weaver at meisler@cityofpt.us.
For more about “Blended” and its author, visit www.veldathomas.com. Copies of the book are available for checkout from the library and for purchase at Imprint Books and Seal Dog Coffee in Port Townsend.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
