Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland welcomes acclaimed local journalist and author Dennis Bernstein to the store to read from and sign his new poetry collection, Special Ed: Voices From a Hidden Classroom, on Sunday, April 29th at 3pm.
Welcome to the special ed classroom, where the kids who don't fit in anywhere else spend their day. For these kids - real kids Dennis J. Bernstein taught in the New York City public schools before he became an internationally known investigative journalist - pistols, switchblades, police cars and hunger are more instructive than textbooks. We come to know the book's subjects intimately: Gloria, whose mother was disappeared in Guatemala and whose friendship with Marilyn rescues her from trauma-induced silence; Paulie, who "finds tears in the mirror's eyes" but thinks of himself as tough; Regina, who sells nickel bags before class and gets high alone in the gym.
Dennis J. Bernstein lives in San Francisco and has been a longtime front-line reporter specializing in Human Rights. His articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, New York Times, The Progressive, and The Nation, among others. His artist's books, co-authored with Warren Lehrer, are in the Special Books Collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and other major museums around the world. Bernstein's poetry has appeared in the New York Quarterly, Chimaera, Bat City Review, The Progressive, Texas Observer, and ZYZZYVA. Special Ed is his first full collection of poetry.