Here is the Goodreads summary:

An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esme Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well. Opening with the journey toward her diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, Wang discusses the medical community’s own disagreement about labels and procedures for diagnosing those with mental illness, and then follows an arc that examines the manifestations of schizophrenia in her life. In essays that range from using fashion to present as high-functioning to the depths of a rare form of psychosis, and from the failures of the higher education system and the dangers of institutionalization to the complexity of compounding factors such as PTSD and Lyme disease, Wang’s analytical eye, honed as a former lab researcher at Stanford, allows her to balance research with personal narrative. An essay collection of undeniable power, The Collected Schizophrenias dispels misconceptions and provides insight into a condition long misunderstood.

(Peak illumination of the Hunter’s Moon)

6:30-7:45 pm CT

Franklin Park at Roe Ave & Somerset Dr, Prairie Village, KS 66208

Meet at the parking lot off of Roe Ave in front of the picnic pavilion (look for The Resilient Activist signs)

Rain Date: Friday October 18th, same time

 

Join local bat enthusiast and The Resilient Activist board member Briana Anderson for a bat-watching walk in the park. Learn about the importance of bats and what we can do to support them as we search for bats flitting amongst the trees.

As the full moon rises, The Resilient Activist board member and founder of Mindfulness in the Heartland Amy Zoe Schonhoff will lead a meditation on the significance of the full moon, the transition into autumn, and our connections to our batty friends.

10 – 1:00 CT

Marlborough Neighborhood, Kansas City, MO

 

Nourish yourself and your local community by joining the Marlborough neighborhood and Bridging the Gap to plant trees throughout Kansas City!

Trees slow traffic speeds, filter air and water pollutants, and provide shade to cool the rising temperatures in summer. Over time, trees help slow climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

Here is the Goodreads summary:

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America,” tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.

“This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can’t. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.

After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom.”

—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America

Time: 3-7 pm CT

Location: Crafted Fair Trade (formerly Ten Thousand Villages)

Join The Resilient Activist in this public shopping event at Crafted Fair Trade in Overland Park!

15% of all sales during this event will be donated to The Resilient Activist to support our emotional resiliency programming into 2025 and beyond.

As this store is a verified member of the Fair Trade Federation, all goods purchased will support better working conditions, a fairer deal for workers in low-income countries, and increased control over their lives and livelihoods.

So as you shop for ethically-crafted gifts for loved ones this holiday season, know you’re supporting better international working conditions and more resiliency programming for environmental activists! 🎉

The Resilient Activist will be tabling at Crafted Fair Trade, so feel free to stop by our booth and chat, share your experience with the climate crisis, ask questions, and connect with our incredible team members.

Crafted Fair Trade strives to create a global marketplace that connects people, communities and cultures through sustainable products and ideas that foster equity and compassion. At their storefront, you’ll find handcrafted clothing, jewelry, home décor, rugs, specialty food, and beverages by artisans and farmers from over 40 countries.

Here is the Goodreads summary:

A breathtaking mix of memoir, nature writing and social history: this is Kerri ní Dochartaigh’s story of a wild Ireland, an invisible border, an old conflict and the healing power of the natural world

Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a grey and impoverished council estate on the wrong side of town. But for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year they were forced out of two homes and when she was eleven a homemade petrol bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like Kerri’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape.

In Thin Places, a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, Kerri explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard, and terror to creep back in. Kerri asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map, more than housing estates and parliament buildings – it will always be ours but, at the same time, it never really was.