Al and Tipper Gore To Speak This Evening
at Harvard Graduate School of Education
By Susie Davidson
CORRESPONDENT
This evening at 6 p.m., as part of the Harvard Book Store and the
Harvard Graduate School of Education’s collaborative series, Al and Tipper
Gore will speak at the Longfellow Building, Askwith Hall, at 13 Appian Way in
Harvard Square. The event requires no tickets and is open to the public, who
would be advised to show up early for good seats.
“We have anticipated a large turnout,” said Harvard
Book Store owner Frank Kramer, “by making arrangements to accommodate
over 1200 people.”
The Gores will be signing copies of their two recent,
simultaneously-released books, Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the
American Family, an exploration of the evolving dynamics of the contemporary
American family, and The Spirit of Family, a collection of 250 photographs
providing a panoramic complement to the written study.
With personal anecdotes as well as input from historians, sociologists, psychologists and educators, the Gores’ examination is as inclusive and topically relevant as are both the diverse families they present and the universal issues they explore. These include demographic and social factors such as divorce rate, time management, income inequalities and communication, as well as gender, color and age disparities reflected within the past half century’s significant transformation of traditional family structures. Their belief in the family foundation remains steadfast throughout the work, which has been acclaimed by, among others, authors Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone), Isabel Allende and Barbara Kingsolver and psychologist Robert Coles.
"For us, as for most Americans,” the Gores wrote,
“family is our bedrock, and we believe the strength of the American
family is the nation's bedrock.”
Former Vice President and Harvard alum Al Gore also wrote the 1992
New York Times bestseller Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.
Currently a professor at both Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State
University, where he teaches “Family-Centered Community Building,”
he has long sought to both identify and work toward innovative ways to fulfill
changing family and community needs.
From 1993 to 2001, his wife, born Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson and
called Tipper by her mother, was an an Advisor to the President on Mental
Health Policy. She previously authored 1987’s Raising PG Kids in an
X-Rated Society and 1996’s photography collection Picture This, the
proceeds of which were donated to the National Health Care for the Homeless
Council. She has a 1970 Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Boston
University and a 1975 Master’s degree in Psychology from Vanderbilt
University, was a newspaper photographer for the Nashville Tennessean, chaired
the Congressional Wives Task Force in 1978 and 1979 and co-founded the
parenting and media group Parents’ Music Resource Center in 1985. She
co-founded and chaired Families for the Homeless in 1986, and in 1990 founded
the mental health advocacy group Tennessee Voices for Children. She served as
Special Advisor to the Interagency Council on the Homeless during the
Clinton-Gore years, formed the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign in
2000, and produced 1998-2001’s national photo exhibit Homeless in
America: A Photographic Project.
The Gores, who married in 1970, have four children and two
grandchildren, and live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have organized a two-day
“Family Re-Union” for the past 11 years.
“We're thrilled to be hosting the Gores,” said Harvard
Book Store Academic Marketing Coordinator Amanda Darling, “not only
because of Al and Tipper's political and cultural importance, but because
Joined at the Heart and The Spirit of Family are such thoughtful and inspiring
books.”
Harvard Book Store is Publishers Weekly 2002 Bookseller of the
Year, Boston Magazine's Best Bookstore in the Best of Boston 2002, and won the
Boston Phoenix's 2002 Reader's Choice Award for Best Used and Best New
Bookstore.
This season, HBS/GSE’s series speakers have included Gary
Hart and Umberto Eco. The next event on Dec. 12 will feature Poet Laureate
Billy Collins.
Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family and
The Spirit of Family are published by Henry Holt and Co.
Al and Tipper Gore: Dec. 6, 6 p.m., Longfellow Building, Askwith
Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge. The talk is free and open to the public. No
reservations or tickets are required.
Former Vice President and bestselling author Al Gore collaborates
with his wife, Tipper, on a groundbreaking book about the changing face of the
American family Al and Tipper Gore have long considered family their bedrock.
They've also spent many years studying the American family, and now, in this
provocative and personal book, they explore the myriad ways in which the idea
of family is being redefined.
hholt.com,tracy.locke@hholt.com