Bread and Roses on 08/20/10

Hosted by Gabriele Ross

Joshunda Sanders is a writer for the Statesman, in Austin, TX. Her previous journalism experiences included working for the Houston Chronicle, the Beaumont Enterprise, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her creative nonfiction essays have appeared in “Secrets and Confidences: The Complicated Truth About Women’s Friendships,” (Seal Press) and “My Soul To His Spirit: Soulful Expressions from Black Daughters To Their Fathers,” (SoulDictates Publishing), and “Homelands” (Seal Press). She attended Vassar College in 2000, where she majored in creative writing. She holds a Masters of Science in Information Studies from the University of Texas.

She will discuss her recently published article “Eat, Pray, Spend.” In it Sanders takes on “anti-feminist privilege literature and film” such as Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Sex in the City, as she examines the “genre’s destructive cacophony of insecurity, spending, and false wellness.”

Dr. Donna Beegle grew up in generational migrant labor poverty, left school for marriage at 15 and had two children. At age 25 she found herself with no husband, little education, no job skills and continuing to cope with poverty. In the course of 10 years she obtained a G.E.D., an A.A. in Journalism, a B.A. in Communications, a Master’s Degree in Communication with a minor in Gender Studies, and a Doctorate Degree.

An internationally recognized lecturer, Donna is now president of Communication Across Barriers. Beegle is the founder and CEO of the new nonprofit, PovertyBridge, which is dedicated to changing lives for people in poverty.

She will talk about educational barriers for students who come from poverty and what educators could do to help ALL students be successful.