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Welcome back to School Fall 2020!

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FINDING PHYSICAL BOOKS during COVID-19

@City-As-School

Students can place a hold on physical books at City-As by logging into our CAS catalog with their DOE username & password: nyclib16. Teachers use their DOE login & own password. Or email me at lissa@cityas.org.

City-As Grab and Go services start 10/1 in the courtyard: pick up a great selection of free books, crafting materials, and your CAS library holds. Build your home library and study space this fall. New genres & crafting materials every week with quarantining instructions included (see below).

@New York Public Library (NYPL)

  1. Get your NYPL library card on the app SimplyE. It is free.
  2. With that login and password, you can place holds on physical books at NYPL, and
  3. Pick them up at Hudson Park Library on Leroy Street (tutorial), a block away from school. Check out their new titles.
new books…..
reading, Uncategorized

Aidan E.’s reading recs on Personal Finance

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Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel (read for free)

A controversial book, but one which holds water. One of the main themes is that no type of analysis outperforms the market, or that no matter how hard you try to pick stocks, nothing will be stronger than simply purchasing the S&P 500 and holding onto it.

Specifically states that no prior knowledge is necessary for reading it, something I think points towards a positive.

Distinguishes Investing vs Speculating.

Will have to do more reading, but I would say this is a worthwhile purchase.

Burton Gordon Malkiel. A Random Walk down Wall Street : The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing. New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (read for free)

Likely the best investing book ever written, but very difficult and filled with jargon and terminology. 

Would recommend it only for advanced readers, but it truly is the best book for those who have that level of skill. Practically unmatched.

Somewhat more expensive than other books on the list, but the full 500 pages likely makes it worth it. 

Focuses not only on stocks, but on every area of investment, such as bonds.

Taught Warren Buffet how to invest

Believes in intrinsic value and trading based on intrinsic value

Formulaic approach to investing

Graham, Benjamin, et al. The Intelligent Investor : A Book of Practical Counsel. New York, Harper Collins, 2013.
The Richest Man in Babylon

The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clason

As much of a philosophical text as a financial one, The Richest Man in Babylon is a time tested classic, illustrating the path to wealth through hard work, frugal living, and wise investing.

This is told through the story of Arkad, a lowly scribe in Babylon’s Hall of Records. He observed the realities of the free market: having strength and value will make you earn money for others, and therefore yourself. And he shows you how he turned money into wealth, through saving and investing, repeatedly learning from his own and other’s mistakes.

This text provides a valuable understanding of wealth which anyone, struggling to earn and grow wealth, can benefit from. Living within your means will make those wins and vacations feel 10x better than when one enjoys them borrowed.

Clason, G S. The Richest Man in Babylon. Bn Publishing, 2008.
The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance: A Visual Reference for Everything You Need to Know

The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance by Michele Cagan & Elisabeth Lariviere

A picture filled, easy-to-understand book on understanding one’s own money. 

Encourages and helps young people to adapt the pillars of financial independence, which have been popularized by people like Dave Ramsey. You may not learn how to be Bill Gates with this book, but you will be able to build your wealth and make a solid plan for the future. 

Teaches that money is amoral, it can be used poorly or well. Start learning and gaining control of your money when you are young! You will never have to worry about it later.

Talks about investing, budgeting, insurance, financial planning, the whole nine yards.

Encouraged by veteran financial literacy teacher Tony, likely the most powerful and attention grabbing title on this list (From a layman’s standpoint).

Cagan, Michele, and Elisabeth Lariviere. The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance : A Visual Reference for Everything You Need to Know. New York, Adams Media, An Imprint Of Simon & Schuster, Inc, 2017.

Big thanks to Aidan for his passion, Naima for her guidance, and for Tony. All books are on order for our CAS collection. If CAS students would like them as an audiobook, please reach out via email to lissa@cityas.org.

writing

WEEKLY PICKS for reading & exploring

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Calling all YouTubers: Playlists are a kind of online binge watching. Perhaps. 

Mathematicians

Crafters/Fashion designers

Sushma is so clear in her handiwork and you learn so much in so little time!

Thinkers

Indiashastra knows how to augment reading into true learning. I appreciate the very old school humor also.

Writers 

Forget Youtube. Reading sentences will help you in writing sentences. So let’s get deep but basic with a pencil paper and you.

Our mantra, don’t give up on books!! 

“reading is not optional.” — walter dean myers

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Reading & Book clubbing at home

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Here are some of our folks at home, reading and participating in all things bookish. In our 3-day intensive, we had discussions on Meet, chatrooms, and reflected on our books via mindmaps and beautiful long pages of writing. Our Read-a-thoners created two collective poem, and you can see their book picks!

“A Month” by the Read-A-Thoners, composed 4/16:
Thoughts                                                

 Time           

Looking out, looking in                       

Distancing and connection


Insanity                                                                      Peace                         Change

Our collective quote poem, “Snatches of Truth”:

‘What should I believe?’ thought Shadow, and the voice came back to him from somewhere deep beneath the world, in a bass rumble: ‘Believe everything.’” (American Gods by Neil Gaiman-Matthew)  

“It’s like I’ve been walking up the walls of a tower my whole life,” “My body parallel to the ground, and then, the world turns and I’m standing straight up, and the tower is lying flat on the ground. Everything is now distorted but my head is up again, and I’m walking forward. But the truth is, I don’t know which way is up.” (Braised Pork by An Yu–Hayden)  

“The boy knelt by the hearth, his jacket sleeves rucked up on his wrists like an accordion.” (Anarchists’ Club by Alex Reeve–Nick)


  “Dusk is an uncomfortable time, the way the light is.” (Klickitat by Peter Rock-Lissa)  

“Just a little bomb and all these people would be gone…” (Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie–Cash)

“In major cities wracked by the drug war, [4 of 5] young African-American men are subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives” (The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander–Olivia)  

“You get to the other side of the tightrope….” (Love Hurts by Rodro Linzler–Desiree)  

“I was living in a self-destructive riot of sensuality, and while my schoolmates saw me as a leader, a devil of a fellow and a damned sharp and clever guy, deep inside me hid a timid soul fluttering with fear” (Demian by Herman Hesse–Hannah)

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WEEKLY PICKS for reading & exploring

saralissapaulson

Calling all writers: Join the Why I Rise Poetry contest: deadline is May 8th
“Turn a bad experience into something good” Details here.

This is a short doc about the Why I Rise movement:

Along with ART, we celebrate the EARTH with the Staten Island Museum–April 25th at noon a whole playlist of How-to videos will drop….how to make ink with walnuts, how to make a hydroponics system using a recycled 5-gallon water bottle, how to infuse cooking oils with seeds and herbs, and much more!

NY Wild Film Festival – Watch films about our EARTH….check out the free streaming movies on darkness and endangered “language of light” of fireflies celebrating WILD NYC:

Brilliant Darkness: Hotaru in the Night from BonSci Films on Vimeo.

NYC’s 520 miles of waterfront!:


And, as always, find some time each day to immerse yourself in a book to de-stress, empathize with others and know you are not alone…..Here is a curated list of ebook & audiobooks for City-As-School students & staff. For access for those outside of our community, please send a request!

 

 

 

YA lit

after my one hour/per day of news….

saralissapaulson

talking books, instead: what are you reading? 

i’m reading…..

Now many people who live with HIV are undetectable, and therefore can’t transmit the disease, but are still living with shame and real fear of rejection despite their caution, their honesty. Meet three guys with three different statuses, whose lives intersect at an HIV clinic in Brazil…..and walk in their shoes for a while….and enter their world…..for fans of Raziel Reid’s jaw-dropping, unforgettable When Everything Feels like the Movies .

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Queer New Year at City-As-School with Kelly Fernandez

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Comic book artist Kelly Fernandez came to give our student artists a glimpse into the ways young artists move with integrity, hope, and poise into the publishing world. She was warm, creative in her presentation and very hands-on in her demo of zine making. With the funds from the NYCDOE grant to support our Respect for All events to promote underrepresented voices, we were able to invite her and give students a copy of Latinx comic anthology Tales from La Vida. 

The students said her talk was VERY helpful–here is a glimpse. Can’t wait for her debut graphic novel, Manu, in Fall 2020.

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Our CAS Reads Reading and Discussion Club

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Dear Readers&Writers,

Abdii of the Beacon Program and I are co-hosting a discussion and writing group around speculative fiction. Come join us Wednesdays and Thursdays at lunch. We will send stories out a week in advance and meet to discuss them together or write together using prompts.

For our first week of cycle 2 (Wed Nov 20 & Thur Nov 21), we will discuss the 1-2 of stories we read cycle 1: 
“There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury
“Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktock Man” by Harlan Ellison (request pdf via email–email me to get a copy!)
“A Descent into the Maelstrom” by Edgar Allan Poe
“Was it a Dream” by Guy de Maupassant
“The River” by Adrienne Maree Brown (request pdf via email–email me to get a copy!)

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Cyrus and the Importance of, One In A Minyan

saralissapaulson

by Raven K.

Last month, the Disney Channel made history by having the character Cyrus Goodman on their show, Andi Mack, state that he is gay. Cyrus Goodman had previously stated that he was interested in boys twice (in the episodes, “Hey, Who Wants Pizza?” and, “Cyrus’ Bash-Mitzvah!”). The first time was to his best friend Buffy (echoing the groundbreaking coming-out scene in Buffy The Vampire Slayer when Willow tells Buffy she was into Tara 19 years ago), but he never said explicitly that he was gay until “Once in a Minyan.”

 

Andi Mack isn’t new to breaking new ground in children’s entertainment. They have been tackling topics like teenage pregnancy, mental health, different cultures and learning disabilities for a while now. One such instance was when the show’s love interest at the time, Jonah Beck dealt with panic attacks (which is another thing that also happens in this episode).

 

The episode, “Once in a Minyan,” now available on the DisneyNow website and app, is about Cyrus’ bubbe’s (or grandmother’s) shiva (funeral) which is tackled with grace and respect as are all of the things this show takes on. He tells his friends that he wished his bubbe would’ve seen the gay part of him before she passed, which then inspires him to come out to his former crush/friend by saying the words, “I’m gay.”

 

I was a year younger than Cyrus when my bubbe died. Much like his, mine was my role model and my biggest supporter. She’d watch all of my theater performances even though we all knew that they were garbage, she’d read all of my stories and had taken care of me when others couldn’t, but I never got to tell her I was a lesbian. She died before I learned to accept myself. It never was a confusion about what she would’ve said (she wore crop tops in her 70’s)–she would’ve said that she loved me no matter what–but I still wish I could’ve said the words even now, more than 5 years later. But much like the first gay character on the United States Disney Channel, I used my bubbe’s memory to come out. Not at her shiva like Cyrus, but at my bat mitzvah where members of my family and congregation could see me embrace my authentic self.

 

Andi Mack has been a show in which many people have seen themselves on the screen when they hadn’t growing up, including me. Not only has this show been the winner of a GLAAD media award, but it has been also nominated and has won other accolades over the two years it’s been airing. It has not been renewed for season 4 yet – so I implore you to reach out to Disney and keep watching to let them know that this is a show that’s important and tells kids that they “may be weird, but [they] are no different.”

 

** Andi Mack’s next episode won’t air for another month for editing out a certain actor which you can read about elsewhere. But this also gives everyone time to catch up! Here is a masterpost with links for every episode.