First Tuesday: John Basinger

Every first Tuesday of the month, Broad Street Books hosts a featured poet and an open mic. Come to March's First Tuesday this Tuesday, March 3rd.

The featured poet this month will be John Basinger. According to Broad Street's Brian Mitchard, "Best known for his performances of Milton's Paradise Lost, John is going to surprise us!"

What: John Basinger as featured poet, and open mic (everyone welcome to read, recite, perform)
When: March 3rd at 7:00pm
Where: Broad Street Books

Broad Street Books Event: Professor Kauanui Reads From "Hawaiian Blood"

Anthropology and American Studies Professor J. Kehaulani Kauanui will read from her book Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity.

Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity is a detailed scholarly account of how blood quantum politics has emerged as a colonial policy of the US government, a history of the contemporary legal definition of what it means to be “native Hawaiian” and how Kanaka Maoli (the Hawaiian people) contest that term, which is incommensurable with indigenous genealogical modes of reckoning identity and degrades Hawaiian sovereignty claims to land and nationhood.

Where: Broad Street Books
When: Tuesday, February 10th at 5:00 PM

Buying and Selling Books

If you're looking to buy or sell books, the way to make the most and get the cheapest books is generally by selling them to other students. There are two easy ways of doing this: the Facebook Marketplace and the Wesleyan Classifieds. Both are essentially identical in functionality: you list an item with a short description, price, and an optional picture and people contact you if they're interested in what you're selling.

The problem right now is that very few people are using either of them. Changes to Facebook have made the Marketplace much less visible over the past year. I bought all of my books my fall semester last year from people on the Facebook Marketplace--there were several pages of books being listed for the fall semester. Now instead of a few pages of books there are only a few books in total. The Wesleyan Classifieds are only a little better. They're a relatively new creation and pretty convenient, but the link has been hidden quite well in the walls of text that are our e-portfolios. (If you're looking for the link, it's all the way to the right, in the 'Tools & Links' section near the top.)

So if you have old books you no longer need, list them. If you're looking for books, take a look through what's available. Hopefully that list will grow at least a bit over the next few days. And remember that you can return books to Broad Street until the 28th of January if you've already bought them--just make sure you have the receipt.

University Already Screwing You Enough? Sell Your Books Back to Someone Else!

Craig Ewer '10 writes in to tell us about another option for selling your books:

Broadstreet won't take your book?

Belltower Books is buying back every book you have!

We pay Cash-money!

Go to to www.belltowerbooks.com to make an appointment or look around campus for our tables.

Craig adds that you can make appointments and they will actually come to your door, and I'll add that while you're probably going to get just as ripped off, at least it won't the University who gets the pleasure of doing it.

Broad Street's First Tuesday Poetry Series

Brian Mitchard at Broad Street Books writes:

Broad Street Books hosts a monthly poetry reading, with a featured poet followed by an open mic, on the first Tuesday of every month.

Our featured poet for May is Faith Vicinanza. She is a poet, visiting artist, editor, publisher (Hanover Press), founder of the Wednesday Night Poetry Series, and was the event facilitator/creator of the Connecticut Poetry Festival. She's read from San Francisco to Stockholm and has several books of poetry out including "Faith Vicinanza: Greatest Hits" from Pudding House Press.

She and her late husband Peter rode touring bicycles from Key West Florida to St. Stephens, Canada and a book on their three-month journey is in the works. You can read the trip blog.

Date: Tuesday, May 6
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Broad Street Books