This program is postponed due to recommendations to restrict public gatherings as a public health concern.
Chosen Family: Men's & Women's Support Groups
by Northampton author Tom Weiner
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Northampton author Tom Weiner will read from his new book Chosen Family: Men’s and Women’s Support Groups, An Inside Look published by Human Error Publishing in August 2019. Weiner explores how people’s lives have been enriched by participating in support groups. His interviews with 27 men and women, between the ages of 28 and 68, reveal how group participation shapes self-perceptions, relationships, and inter-generational dynamics.
Admission
There is no admission fee.
Seating
Seating is First Come, First Served.
Location
Historic Northampton at 46 Bridge Street, Northampton, Massachusetts Books will be available for purchase for $18 and signing.
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Excerpt from Steve Pfarrer's review of Chosen Family,
Book Bag, Daily Hampshire Gazette, August 16, 2019:
Book Bag, Daily Hampshire Gazette, August 16, 2019:
For over 40 years, Northampton author and former Smith Campus School teacher Tom Weiner has been a member of a men’s group that’s been an important part of his life. In his new book, Chosen Family, Weiner interviews over two dozen men and women, from two different generations, who have been part of men’s and women’s groups to explore how their lives have been enriched through their participation.
Weiner notes that the men’s groups that began in the later 1970s, and which he was first part of, were inspired by the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The realization that so many women had labored under male oppression for so long, he writes, gave “pro-feminist” men’s groups a goal of making men less violent, more supportive and egalitarian with their wives and partners, and better parents.
Also key for these groups, writes Weiner, was that men become more open emotionally, not just with their wives, partners and children, but with each other.
Weiner’s first book, Called to Serve: Stories of Men and Women Confronted by the Vietnam War Draft, included extensive interviews with people whose lives had been affected, in various ways, by the Vietnam War. For Chosen Family, he interviewed 27 men and women, between the ages of 28 and 68, to get their read on how participation in men’s and women’s groups has shaped their lives, self-perception and relationships with others, and how the dynamics can differ between the different generations.
Weiner notes that the men’s groups that began in the later 1970s, and which he was first part of, were inspired by the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The realization that so many women had labored under male oppression for so long, he writes, gave “pro-feminist” men’s groups a goal of making men less violent, more supportive and egalitarian with their wives and partners, and better parents.
Also key for these groups, writes Weiner, was that men become more open emotionally, not just with their wives, partners and children, but with each other.
Weiner’s first book, Called to Serve: Stories of Men and Women Confronted by the Vietnam War Draft, included extensive interviews with people whose lives had been affected, in various ways, by the Vietnam War. For Chosen Family, he interviewed 27 men and women, between the ages of 28 and 68, to get their read on how participation in men’s and women’s groups has shaped their lives, self-perception and relationships with others, and how the dynamics can differ between the different generations.