Author Archives: beth

“True Grit” Film screening @West Brighton Library

Sat, Oct 28th, 2pm at West Brighton Branch Library, 976 Castleton Ave, SINY 10310

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True GRIT: Roots, Folk & Country Songs


Friday Oct 27,7:30pm at Every Thing Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay St, SINY 10301

Presented in collaboration with the musicians of Staten Island Acoustic Music Society.

The Staten Island Acoustic Music Society (SIAMS) team up with Staten Island OutLOUD to present “True Grit: Roots, Folk, and Country Songs inspired by the novel True Grit by Charles Portis.”

Great thanks to SIAMS and Every Thing Goes Cafe for partnering with OutLOUD to present this evening of country music of the American West.

Co-hosted by Staten Island OutLOUD, Elle La Forge, Rob Landsman & the True GRIT Band: Noel Catti (lead guitar & vocals), Steve DeRosa (bass guitar & vocals), Phil Sussman (mandolin), Elle La Forge (tenor guitar & vocals), Rob Landsman (guitar & vocals).

Spoken word performance by Vincent Vok & Melanie Randall.
Free, fun & fabulous.  Book & bandana giveaway!

Mattie 2010 Greys vertical

TRUE GRIT

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True Grit Community Book Chat

Thurs Oct 26, 11:30am at West New Brighton Library, 976 Castleton Ave, SINY 10310

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Readings for Kidz – OutLOUD

Wed, Oct 18, 4pm at Todt Hill-Westerleight Library, 2550 Victory Blvd, SINY 10314

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Music of the Pioneers @Decker Farm

Sun, Oct 22,, 2pm at Decker Farm, 435 Richmond Hill Road, SINY 10314

Parking is very tight @Decker Farm. Easiest if you park at Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Ave, SINY 10306 – Take the free shuttle to Decker Farm.  It leaves every 10 min & takes visitors back & forth all afternoon.

Staten Island OutLOUD continues its autumn series on Charles Portis’ short novel, “True Grit”.  Music by Gary & Joan Moore of Allergic To B’s.  They’ll perform songs by Black & Latino cowboys. Book giveaway.

Fun & family-friendly.

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The True Grit of the Suffragettes

Sun, Oct 15, 3pm at Historic Richmond Town’s Courthouse, 441 Clarke Ave, SINY 10306.

Staten Island OutLOUD presents this special event in collaboration with the Association of American University Women, its President Claire Regan, its past President Edwina Martin, and historian Patricia Salmon.

Join us as we honor the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New York State. The right to vote was hard won by a coalition of courageous women who endured injury, economic hardship and personal loss. This event takes place in the second-floor courthouse at Historic Richmond Town.

True Grit, Charles Portis’ compelling novel, is a story of female empowerment, courage, perseverance and discovering one’s personal resources.  Mattie Ross, the 14 year-old heroine of the story, undertakes an almost-impossible task: she sets off from her family’s farm in Arkansas in the 1870s, to seek her father’s killer in Oklahoma Territory.  Though True Grit does not specifically place the adult Mattie in the women’s suffrage movement, we know that she becomes an enterprising, thoroughly independent person – a model for the “new woman” of the early 20th century.  We think that Mattie is an example of the spirit of many suffragists, women of courage who lent their strength, intelligence and their “true grit” to a civil rights revolution that won the vote for women.  2017 is the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York State, so we created this event as one way of reflecting on the meaning of “true grit”.

Free & open to the public. Good for all ages.  Book giveaway.

Please note: This is a neighborly, non-partisan event.

Suffrage March NYC Oct 2015 Evening World

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Paws & Read OutLOUD – For Kidz

Wed, Oct 4, 4pm at Port Richmond Library, 77 Bennett St, SINY 10302

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Paws & Read OutLOUD – For Kidz

RESCHEDULED DUE TO ILLNESS.  Though our event was originally set for Tues, Oct 3, 4pm at Richmondtown Library, 200 Clarke Ave, SINY 10306 – WE MUST RESCHEDULE – OUR READER HAS A BAD COLD & SHE DOESN’T WANT TO PASS IT ALONG TO ANY OF THE KIDS.  WE’LL POST NEW DATE/TIME INFORMATION SHORTLY. THANKS!

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Pioneering Women: True Grit & the vision of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Sunday Oct 1, 2pm at Alice Austen House Museum, 2 Hylan Blvd, SINY 10305

In his novel True Grit, Charles Portis gives a narrative of female empowerment, the Western Expansion, a girl’s coming of age, and survival in a challenging environment.  Laura Ingalls Wilder explores the same themes, and gives another narrative of survival in Little House on the Prairie and her related novels.

Island writer Eileen Monreale will examine those contrasting narratives of the American experience with Staten Island OutLOUD.  It is fitting that we present this special event at the Alice Austen House Museum, because Alice was a contemporary of Ms. Wilder – and we know that Alice Austen herself was a woman of “true grit”.

We’ll meet in Alice’s bedroom on the second floor of the historic house – It is not often open to the public, and we are pleased that our friends at the Alice Austen House Museum have planned this special visit for us.  Free and open to the public, but we hope you’ll make a contribution to the museum that day.

4 women and sod house on prairie

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True Grit: Snake Bite! Did she survive?

Sat, Sept 23, 2pm at Blue Heron Pond Park, 222 Poillon Ave, SINY 10312

Staten Island OutLOUD’s series on the novel True Grit for the NEA/The Big Read continues. Free & family friendly.
In one of Charles Portis’ dramatic chapters in True Grit, the young heroine Mattie Ross stumbles into a snake pit. No help in sight. Does she survive a rattlesnake attack? Book giveaway.
Rattlesnake 1
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