Queen Anne-based author Hadiyah Joan Carlyle will read from her memoir “Torch in the Dark: One Woman’s Journey” at Queen Anne Books, 1811 Queen Anne Ave. N. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m.
Carlyle’s book tells the story of how she, as a single mother, was one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to arrive at last at Fairhaven Shipyard in Bellingham. For Carlyle, welding became both a path to self-reliance and economic survival and a metaphor for healing from early childhood trauma. “As one of the first female welders in the West Coast shipyards, Carlyle paved the way for women working in the trades today,” comments Arleen Williams, author of “The Thirty-Ninth Victim.”
The story of Carlyle’s journey offers inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and oppression. In addition, the book provides perspective on the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. “No one has even come close to the depth and detail of the sixties that Carlyle reaches,” says Jack Remick, author of “The Deification and Blood.”
Activist, hiker, grandmother, Carlyle is the mother of Washington State 36th District Legislator Reuven Carlyle. More information about Torch in the Dark is available at www.torchinthedark.com.
On October 19, 6:30 p.m. Queen Anne Books will host Queen Anne resident, scholar and author Douglas Smith in a reading and discussion of his new book, “Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy.”
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