Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Samantha Ellis in conversation with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System discus sing her book\, "Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Cu lture."
\nRegistration not requir ed. Click on the YouTube video linked below to stream the program live or watch the recording later.
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About the Book: \;
\nSamantha&rsquo\;s mother tongue is dying out. The daughter of Iraqi Jewish refugees\, Samantha grew up surrounded by the noisy\, viv id\, hot sounds of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. A language that&rsquo\;s now on the verge of extinction.
\nThe realization that she won&rsquo\;t be abl e to tell her son he&rsquo\;s "living in the days of the aubergines" or "c hopping onions on my heart" or reminding him to "always carry salt" opens the floodgates. The questions keep coming. How can she pass on this herita ge without passing on the trauma of displacement? Will her son ever love m ango pickle?
\nIn her search for answers Samantha encounters demon b owls\, the perils of kohl\, and the unexpected joys of fusion food. Her jo urney transports us from the clamour of Noah&rsquo\;s Ark to the calm of t he British Museum\, from the Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages to the banks of the River Tigris. As Samantha considers what we lose and keep\, she also asks what we might need to let go of to preserve our culture and ourselves.
\nAlways Carry Salt \;is an immersive and moving medi tation on the words and traditions that shape us and what we carry forward into future generations.
\nFind the book in our collection: Book | eB ook | eAudiobook
\nAbout t he author: \;
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The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish refugees\, Samantha Ellis is the author of "How to be a H eroine" and Take Courage. Her plays include "How to Date a Feminist\," "Cl ing to Me Like Ivy\," and "Operation Magic Carpet." Her journalism has app eared in the Guardian\, the TLS\, the Spectator\, Literary Review and more . She worked on the first two Paddington films. She lives in London.
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