Food for Thought Books has recently announced its contribution to the community-building efforts sparked by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: the store will be hosting talks by several nationally-recognized politically progressive authors during the month of October.

The first talk, scheduled for October 4, at 7:00p.m. in the bookshop, will be given by Agostin Lao Montes, an Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at the Univerity of Massachusetts. He is the co-editor of a recently released book, Mambo Montage: the Latinization of New York City. The lecture, according to a press release, will draw on the themes of this book, and will be “a report on the state of Latino politics and culture in New York-the most populous and diverse Latino City in the United States.”

The book is an anthology of articles, which, according to the release, “map out the main conceptions of Latino identity as well as the historical process of Latinization in New York.”

Joan Barberich, the Events Coordinator at Food for Thought, commented, “I think what he’ll talk about is the degree to which Latin culture is getting absorbed into general New York culture, and how the Latino and Latina culture is growing exponentially, as their population grows. [Lao-Montes] is going to talk about what this means for the city.”

Barberich said that Lao-Montes was selected because “he’s a wonderful guy and a regular customer.” She added, “we arranged this [event] before the terrible things happened in New York, but it seems like it would be nice to have some type of forum to talk about New York culture, at this time especially.”

On Friday, October 5, Bill Ayers will be reading from his recent book, entitled Fugitive Days. According to Barberich, Ayers was co-founder of a radical political group in the 1960’s called the Weathermen. The group protested the war in Vietnam “by any means necessary,” even carrying out what Barberich called a “bloodless bombing” on the Pentagon.

Barberich said that these past experiences have had ominous ramifications for the author in recent times: “I think he has drawn a lot of people anyway, but now he’s drawing a lot of negative press.” Barberich cited last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, which she said characterized Ayers as a “terrorist,” a label she called “unfair.”

Barberich went on, “[Ayers’ writing] is so controversial that he’s going to draw people from the left and the right” to the event on October 5.

On Wednesday, October 17, at 7 pm, Boston author Ann Wadsworth will read from her debut novel, Light, Coming Back. According to a review by Elizabeth Stark, the book “is an exquisitely honest love story that reveals the delicate and steely threads that bind us to those few we connect with deeply. Unafraid of complexity and full of vitality, this is a tale that should have been told before now.”

Said Barberich,”[Wadsworth] is published by a gay/lesbian press called Allison Press, and we agreed to have her come because we want to support that press. It’s a wonderful, strong alternative press that supports a lot of progressive authors.” Barberich also pointed out that Wadsworth is middle-aged, which she said makes her first book, “special…it’s really interesting when someone has a lot of life experience and then writes a book.”

The book, according to Barberich, is has “crossover” appeal. “Anyone would like this book. It’s mainly about finding your true path in life.”

On October 18, Eric Thomas Chester, will discuss his book, Rag-tags, Scum Riff-raff and Commies: The U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966. According to Barberich, “This…uses a lot of recently declassified documents to prove that the CIA and the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon really suppressed the people’s rebellion [in the Dominican Republic] to make sure that the outcome was going to be profitable for the United States.”

On October 19, Food for Thought will have a visit from Tom Hayden, described by Barberich as a “famous anti-war, civil rights, environmental leader” who later served as a California state senator for 18 years. His book is a memoir about coalition building between different activist groups called Irish on the Inside. The book explores how the story of the Irish Potato Famine and Irish immigration give contemporary Irish-Americans a unique capability to understand the racism that happens to other groups.

Said Barberich, “[Hayden] is saying that we should work together to overcome that.”

More talks will be announced throughout the fall and winter. The talks are a regular attraction at Food for Thought. According to Barberich, “we have a really active reading series, sometimes as many as three or four authors a week.” Further information can be found at www~foodforthoughtbooks.com. A newsletter about the reading series is also available at Food For Thought, located on North Pleasant Street in Amherst.