REBELLION, 1967 by Janet Luongo - REVIEW & GIVEAWAY

It's 1967. Janet Luongo is a white seventeen year-old. Her dreams of going to college are dimmed by her family's neglect and lack of interest. Her mother believes "without men, women are nothing," a belief Janet doesn't embrace. In her memoir, REBELLION, 1967 (SheWritesPress) Janet Luongo finds her community in a very unlikely place.

Janet first wonders who is she? A difficult, rebellious, bookworm, creative artist, dependent daughter and independent woman. She dreams of being something bigger than herself and this leads her to Freedom House - a hang-out for politically active black people. In a society that frowns upon whites and blacks interacting, Janet embraces the teachings of her upbringing in the Unitarian Universalist seekers of truth.

Janet Luongo's memoir is one year out of her life in which she explores racial injustice, troubled teenagers and artists at risk. Not much has changed. It could be today. Compelling characters, complex relationships and honesty take readers on a dangerous journey where to survive, Janet has to have the courage to escape. I felt Janet's writing trustworthy, loyal, fair and sincere. It's one of the most powerful memoirs I've ever read.

Janet Luongo creates stories and art, gives speeches and workshops, and works for racial and gender justice. Janet spent a decade  — first with writing groups and editors and then on her own –completing her coming of age story, Rebellion, 1967: A Memoir. Her first book, 365 Daily Affirmation for Creativity, with a foreword by Jack Canfield, was published in five countries and led to bookings as far away as Xian, China.  Janet served as president of the New York Metro chapter of the National Speakers Association. She taught art to students from college to kindergarten; exhibited paintings in New York, Geneva, and Paris; and designed programs in Connecticut museums to connect urban and suburban students, programs that garnered awards and media.

She founded a nonprofit for feminist artists in Connecticut, a chapter of Women’s Caucus for Art, and in fifteen years, they mounted forty exhibits and produced Women Make Art, a film screened at a UNIFEM festival. Born in New York City, Janet lived in Switzerland for eight years and moved to Connecticut in 1986. She returned to the faith of her childhood in joining the Westport Unitarian Universalist congregation, who honored her in 2020 as a Leading Light for her lay ministry and activism for democracy.

In her sixties, Janet climbed a 14,000 foot mountain; and earned three certificates: yoga and meditation, health coaching, and Integrative Nutrition from Teachers College, Columbia University. She resides in Norwalk, Connecticut, with her husband Jim, also a writer, and their cat Lucky. They enjoy family and friends, yoga, reading, films, plays, museums, and hiking with their son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter in the Rockies.

Thanks to SheWritesPress/BookSparks we have one copy to giveaway. Just tell us about your childhood/teen years. We'll choose a winner soon. Good luck.

GIVEAWAY: USA only please