“Art is transferring feeling from one heart to another”
~ Leo Tolstoy
These selections reflect the diversity of my past roles, interests, and skill sets and the tenacity of my passions and activism. They showcase the flexibility of my writing style, my approach to composition and the teaching of writing, and my personal beliefs and political ideals. In my strategic communications, classes, coaching, workshops, and editorial services, I draw from this broad scope and deep well to assist individuals and organizations, across multiple genres and platforms, to address a range of audiences.
I devote as much time as I can to honing my craft and pursue projects generated by diverse streams of inquiry and inspiration. I am currently plodding through six works-in-progress:
– Libraries Make Great Partners: A Multimedia, Resource-Rich, Interactive Guide to Public Library-Community Partnerships and Initiatives
– Fierce Illumination: Elemental Ravelings and Revelations
– Flight of the Beautiful Days: A Chronicle of the Radical Women Who Ignited Bay Area Cultural and Social Movements
– “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong with the Way She Moves”: The Experience and Influence of Women in the Grateful Dead
– Ivy Grows in the Garden of Eden: A Branch Leaves a Family Tree
– An Apprentice to Words: Why I Write, Why I Teach
In my slim spare time, I enjoy making art of all kinds. I’ve included some of that work as well.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please do not cite, reproduce, or excerpt any of the material on this page without author’s explicit permission. Please contact Rachel Rosekind at rosekindness@gmail.com to inquire.
CREATIVE WRITING
These pieces demonstrate the versatility of my writing and the breadth of my creative process and output.
~ Poem, “Souls of My Feet”
~ Poem, “paradise burns”
~ Poem, “Overture”
~ Poem, “phantom limbs and fallen branches”
~ Essay, Using a Compass Without a Map: The Journey of a Mother-Educator, published in Hybrid Pedagogy, 10 May 2016
~ Essay, Making Our Words Matter: Reawakening the Radical Imagination
~ Biographical fragment (for grant proposal)
~ Arts Residency Proposal (Finalist)
WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
In “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With The Way She Moves”: The Experience and Influence of Women in the Grateful Dead, I examine the varied roles women played in the production, management, representation, legacy preservation, and documentation of the Grateful Dead. A precis of the project follows:
~ “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With The Way She Moves: the Experience and Influence of Women in the Grateful Dead”: Project Precis and Future Directions
ACADEMIC WORK
These pieces reflect my scholarly work and achievements. I include the Introduction to my dissertation, entitled Between the Country House and the Kitchenette: Literary Excavations of Space and Self in the Work of Henry James and Gwendolyn Brooks; an excerpt from Chapter Seven of my dissertation, entitled “In the Center of Stillness: the Creative Life of Maud Martha’s Interior;” and a book review of Adam Green’s Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955, published in the Economic History Review.
~ Introduction, Between the Country House and the Kitchenette: Literary Excavations of Space and Self in the Work of Henry James and Gwendolyn Brooks
~ “In the Center of Stillness: The Creative Life of Maud Martha’s Interior,” Dissertation Chapter Seven, excerpt
~ Review of Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955, by Adam Green, Economic History Review, 60 (November 2007): 862-864.
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM AND POLITICAL ADVOCACY
Over the course of my career, I have written hundreds of advocacy letters and public remarks. I selected the following because they document the scope and consistency of my political positions and social concerns and are not part of compensated workstreams. Although sometimes rendered in an “official” voice and/or in “officiated spaces,” these statements echo and distill the harmonies and high notes that resonate in the varied teaching, learning, and community spaces in which I exchange words and thoughts with others. These statements were all issued during 2022 and 2023 – I have limited to this period for the sake of currency.
~ Rachel Rosekind_FY 23-24 Budget Hearing_Public Comment_4.25.2023
~ Rachel Rosekind_FY23-24 Budget Hearing_Public Comment_4.24.2023
~ Rachel Rosekind Public Comment_Measure X Allocations_Board of Supervisors_2.22.2022
~ Rachel Rosekind Public Comment_Final Budget Hearing_Board of Supervisors_4.12.2022
~ Rachel Rosekind Public Comment_Library Foundation of Contra Costa_Board of Supervisors_June 2022
~ Rachel Rosekind Public Comment_El Cerrito Housing Element Draft Report_August 2022
~ Rachel Rosekind Public Comment_Item D4 Measure X Housing Fund_Board of Supervisors Meeting_9.20.2022
~ Rachel Rosekind_El Cerrito Library Study Session_City Council Live Comment_2.23.2023
TEACHING MATERIALS
I have taught a variety of subjects in multiple educational settings. Presented here are two course syllabi, “The Automobile as American Culture” and “Black Literature and the Urban Experience,” a comprehensive curricular unit on F. Scott Fitzergald’s The Great Gatsby geared toward 11th grade students, and a course hand-out I composed on “How to Do a Close Reading.”
~ Course Syllabus, “The Automobile as American Culture”
~ Course Syllabus, “Black Literature and the Urban Experience”
~ Curricular Unit Plan, The Great Gatsby
~ “How to Do a Close Reading” Hand-out
PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL
I have produced a variety of brochures, grant proposals, commemorative booklets, and other promotional material for clients in many sectors – academic, corporate, institutional/non-profit, artistic, etc. Included here is one sample of this more targeted composition: a Director’s Brief advocating for implementation of a school library makerspace.
~ Director’s Brief: Implementing a School Library Makerspace
MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION
I have created many websites for personal use and written copy for other entities, including corporate and entrepreneurial clients. I include here a site I produced to explore the social and historical context (and joy!) of Astrid Lindgren’s beloved tale, Pippi Longstocking.
~ Stone Creek Engineering Website
SELECTED PAINTINGS
~ Moonlit Glow
~ Fiery Cast
~ Swaying Sunset
Flight of the Beautiful Days: A Chronicle of the Radical Women Who Transformed Bay Area Cultural and Social Movements
© Rachel Rosekind, PhD, MLIS
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