An architect argues to stay the wrecking ball and reuse older buildings, a historian recalls Martin Luther King Jr.’s timeless economic message, a master storyteller brings a new set of tales, an engineer conjures a children’s book with a robot’s-eye view of the deep ocean …

But hark! — yet more. Personal essays on nature spanning a biologist’s career, a best-selling author’s take on America’s unprecedented president, and a thoughtful book about books themselves, their past and their unwritten future. Plus jazz and classical recordings from faculty in the 91̽��School of Music.

As the year comes to a close and festivities abound, some 91̽�� faculty creations can make great gifts for the thinking Dawg on your giving list. Here’s a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by 91̽��talents in the last year or so.

Michael Honey, “To the Promised Land: Martin Luther King and the Fight for Economic Justice.”

Fifty years have passed since King’s 1968 assassination. In a new book, Honey, a 91̽��Tacoma historian, notes that economic justice and labor rights were always part of King’s progressive message. “He said in Memphis, ‘It’s a crime in a rich nation for people to receive starvation wages,’” Honey says. “That remains a basic issue right now across the country, where it seems like the economy is doing really well but there are millions of people in poverty.” Published by .

Dana Manalang, “.”

After years working on a cabled observatory that monitors the Pacific Northwest seafloor and water above, Manalang, an engineer with the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory, decided to share the wonder of the deep sea with younger audiences. The result is this new children’s book published by Virginia-based , which combines images of the deep ocean captured during 91̽��School of Oceanography research cruises with rhyming couplets and a cartoon robot illustrated by 91̽��designer .

Charles Johnson, “.”

A prolific author and 91̽��professor emeritus of English, Johnson spins a dozen yarns in this new story collection, from realism to light science fiction and beyond, laced gently with humor and philosophy. Calling him a “modern master,” Kirkus Reviews said his stories “can be as morally instructive as fables, as fancifully ingenious as Twilight Zone scripts, and as elegantly inscrutable as Zen riddles.” Asked how he knows when a story is done, Johnson said: “When I can’t add another line (or word) to it without disturbing the delicate balance of music and meaning, sound and sense that comes from relentless revisions.” Published by

Kathryn Rogers Merlino, “Building Reuse: Sustainability, Preservation, and the Value of Design”

Tearing down buildings and discarding the energy and materials embodied in them is contrary to the values of sustainability, writes Merlino, an associate professor of architecture in the 91̽��College of Built Environments. We avidly recycle and compost, but have no cultural ethic about reusing our largest manufactured goods — our buildings. “We quickly demolish buildings in the name of new, ‘green’ structures, rather than looking for the possibilities of how we can work with what exists,” Merlino says. To me there is an inherent conflict in there, and I think we can do better.” Published by .

David Shields, “No One Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention.”

In his latest release, Shields, a 91̽��professor of English and New York Times best-selling author, deconstructs the mind of the current president of the United States. The book, is “at once a psychological investigation of Trump, a philosophical meditation on the relationship between language and power,” publisher’s notes say, “and above all a dagger into the rhetoric of American political discourse — a dissection of the politesse that gave rise to and sustains Trump.” He calls it “a manual for beating bullies.” Published by .

Kenneth Pyle: “”

After the United States ended World War II by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it then conducted “the most intrusive international reconstruction of another nation in modern history,” writes Pyle, a 91̽��professor emeritus of international studies. Only now, amid geopolitical changes of the 21st century, is Japan pulling free from American dominance and constraints placed on it after the war. The book, distilling a lifetime of research, examines how Japan, with its conservative heritage, responded to the imposition of a new liberal order and tracks the now-changing relationship between the two nations. Published by .

Amaranth Borsuk, “ ”

Borsuk, a 91̽��Bothell assistant professor as well as a poet and book artist, explores the book, its past and possible futures in this compact volume. “Rather than bemoaning the death of books or creating a dichotomy between print and digital media,” she writes, “this guide points to continuities, positioning the book as a changing technology and highlighting the way artists in the 20th and 21st centuries have pushed us to rethink and redefine the term.” Published by

Jim Kenagy, “”

Kenagy, a professor emeritus of biology, presents a collection of 13 nature essays set in time across his life, from freshman field trips through his  dissertation and career at a major university. “These stories are not the scientific reports of a research professor, nor are they an attempt at popular science,” state publisher’s notes. “These are personal essays that spring forth from observation and discovery of what nature has to show anyone who is willing to pay attention.” Published by .

Pimone Triplett, “”

In her new book of poems, Triplett, a 91̽��associate professor of English and creative writing, says she explores “the thinning lines between responsibility and complicity, the tangled ‘supply chain’ that unnervingly connects the domestic to the political, personal memory to social practice, and our age-old familial discords to our new place in the anthropocentric world. Published by .

Multiple authors, “”

This reference book was first published in 1973 and became an instant classic for its innovative style and comprehensive illustrations. Now, botanists at the 91̽��Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture have created this updated second edition, which includes the reclassification or renaming of about 40 percent of the taxa covered by the first edition. Published by .

And to accompany your reading, here are some recent recordings from faculty in the 91̽��School of Music:

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “”

The latest CD by Vu, trumpeter and 91̽��Jazz Studies professor and chair — created with his “4-tet” — is landing on critics’ best-of lists for 2018. Guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Ted Poor, bassist Luke Bergman and Vu all contribute new music on this follow-up to the group’s 2017 album. A London Jazz News critic called the results “uniformly excellent.” Released by RareNoise Records.

Craig Sheppard, “” and “”

Sheppard, 91̽��professor of music, released two CDs this year, documenting live performances at Meany Hall. For one, he presents the revised score of Bach’s master work, left incomplete upon the composer’s death. The other is a deluxe collection of Brahms’s four sets of lyrical piano miniatures,
Opus 116 through 119. Released by Romeo Records.

Michael Partington, “”

An artist in residence at the 91̽��School of Music, Partington returns to the 19^th century repertoire that formed the basis of his early musical development in this collection, performed on a mid-1800s French Romantic guitar. Released by Rosewood Guitar.

As the 50th anniversary approaches of the murder of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, 91̽�� historian reminds us in a new book that economic justice and labor rights were always part of King’s progressive message.

Honey holds the Fred and Dorothy Haley Endowed Professorship of Humanities at 91̽��Tacoma, where he teaches African-American and labor history and Martin Luther King Studies. He has written five books, including “” (2007) and edited a book of King’s labor speeches, ““ (2011).

Honey’s new book, “,” will be published by W.W. Norton on April 3 — the day before the 50-year anniversary of King’s assassination.

Honey sat down with 91̽��News to discuss the book and the view of the slain civil rights leader that it reveals.

Is this a new view of King and his work?

M.H.: In some ways it’s not new, it’s been sidestepped when people talk or write about King. Most scholars of King know this material, but the general public does not, for the most part.

During the King holiday, mostly we hear that amazing , “I Have a Dream” of 1963. Students tend to think that King is endorsing the American system. Which is so far away from what King was actually saying and doing!

They become bored with it, particularly if they are upset about what they are experiencing as minority students, and/or as poor kids. They see King in a suit and tie, with perfect diction, seeming to talk about a colorblind society. But he was talking about it being 100 years since emancipation in 1963, yet millions of African Americans still live on a lonely island of poverty in the sea of an abundant society.

In this book, I put my emphasis on the roots of his family in slavery, so that the story starts with slavery. He was only the second generation removed from slavery, so his parents came from sharecropping and poverty. Due to the success of his father as a minister and King’s higher education, he escaped the cycle of racism and poverty that most black people suffered from, to become the person that most of us think of today.

Where does the book pick up the King chronology?

The story in “To the Promised Land” starts with his speech the night before he was killed. In Memphis, sanitation workers were on strike — in the midst of a huge crisis going on in that city. He was in the midst of trying to organize a poor people’s campaign to confront the federal government about racism, poverty and runaway militarism in 1968.

King had come out strongly against the Vietnam War one year to the day before his death. He wanted to channel the money that was going into the military into housing, health care, education, jobs — and sustainable incomes for all people.

What were King’s economic goals, his message?

He said in Memphis: “It’s a crime in a rich nation for people to receive starvation wages.” That remains a basic issue right now across the country, where it seems like the economy is doing really well but there are millions of people — about 40 million people — in poverty. There were 40 million people in poverty in 1968. And today there’s probably another one-third of the population always on the edge of falling into poverty.

Economically, things for poor people and working class people are probably worse in some ways now than in his time. The unionized, industrial jobs that created the black middle class in places like Memphis are mostly gone.

He came to Memphis to try to resolve that. One of the fundamental issues was: Do we make a way forward by paying cheap wages and keeping people without power on the job? King said the best anti-poverty program is a union. Where you can fight for your own agenda — somebody doesn’t have to hand it to you. But you have to be organized to do that. King always supported unions. He gave his life in that cause, in a sense.

Many workers in this country recognize King as a labor hero. “We can get more together than we can apart,” King said in Memphis. He always said we have a common destiny, and he put it in an economic framework. And we so need that.

What solutions did he suggest for economic justice?

His essential idea was a labor and civil rights coalition. And then he moved beyond that, to not only organizing for labor and civil rights, but organizing poor people. and others are trying today to replicate King’s campaign, and the Fight for $15, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — the union King fought for in Memphis — are trying to use the memory of King’s economic justice campaigns to move mountains again today.

King warned the AFL-CIO in 1961 that the right-wing business, military, corporate interests and racist interests in the south — the solid south, it was Democrats then now it’s Republicans — are forming a center-right coalition, and they’re going to take power. And that’s what’s happened. That is the Republican Party today.

His idea was that if you take the economic interests of poor people, Appalachian whites, Native Americans, African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, on down the line — and working class white people — you have a majority coalition. But for people to be able to do that they have to get clear in their own minds that that’s where their interests lie.

That we are better off together than isolated?

Right. And one must see that this right-wing coalition forming is not in your interests. One of the things that the coalition wants is the so-called “right-to-work” laws, which have spread all over the country. That’s a disaster for unions. King fought against them. “They provide no rights, and no work,” he said.

King put out red flags like crazy in the ‘60s. The way he looked at it, the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in ‘64 and ‘65 were just the opening to a larger freedom movement for the American people. He called that Phase One of the Freedom Movement. Phase Two is what he called in Memphis, “economic equality.”

He said economic equality doesn’t mean that we all make the same wages or that we are all in the same class. It means that everybody has an equal chance to live a good life. That means education, health care, jobs, housing — all the basic things that everybody should have. He said in the richest country in the world there’s no reason we can’t do that and eliminate dire poverty.

People would say, “Well it costs too much.” Yet how many trillions of dollars do we spend on these forever wars? How many trillions do we spend on bank bailouts and corporate bailouts? You could have done away with poverty in the world, probably, if you used that money differently.

And that’s what he was saying then. His last book was “ He said these are your choices. Lots of people are aware of all of this. But, it’s good to bring it into focus, and that’s what I hope this book will do.

What got this project started?

The last big book I wrote on King was called “Going Down Jericho Road,” a 500-word tome about King’s last campaign and the Memphis sanitation strike. It won the Robert F. Kennedy and other book awards. But I thought we needed something more readily accessible to students and to people who aren’t historians. “To the Promised Land” provides an opportunity to look back and reassess and rethink. Every chapter is framed around an idea and a quote from King — so it looks at King through what he was doing and what he was saying. It’s not a biography — other people have written fabulous biographies of King, and it’s not that.

What would the world be like if the economic justice that King preached all came true? What would be the working parts of such an economic reality?

The Poor People’s Campaign said everybody should have health care, everybody should have a median level of income — not poverty income, a median level of income, such that you can live a normal life. And education, and housing, and jobs at union wages. King thought the role of government is to bring about social justice.

To those who say it’s not the government’s job, King would ask, Well, what is the job of government? Just to benefit the rich?

Was he saying the government should provide income as a sort of entitlement program?

I wouldn’t put it that way. First, he was a social critic. He said if you don’t know what the ills are, you can’t come up with a cure. Second, he said, these are the things that people need. These are the assets we have as a country. We can solve these problems — but I’m not the government. I’m not the politicians — you guys have to figure that out.

If jobs are disappearing because of mechanization or offshoring to other countries you don’t just leave people shackled in poverty. Most other wealthy countries don’t do that. People talking today about an alternative minimum income tax. It’s not a welfare program, it’s based on the tax structure.

Finally — and maybe it’s not fair to ask — but what might King have made of our chaotic times?

He’d be disgusted, at the least. He would say the Trump and Republican agenda is obscene. It takes the right wing threat beyond what he expected, although he also wrote in 1968 that he feared racism would lead to an American form of fascism.

He also said, extreme poverty is like cannibalism — it’s something that once existed that should never exist again.

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For more information about Honey and his work, contact him at 253-692-4454 or mhoney@uw.edu.

91̽��historian has teamed with cinematographer and filmmaker to produce a documentary about the life of Methodist minister and civil rights activist .

“” will be shown at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Ethnic Cultural Theater, 3940 Brooklyn Ave. NE. The screening is free and the public is welcome.

A panel discussion will follow the film with Honey and , 91̽��assistant professor of political science, as well as Black Lives Matter activist Michael Moynihan and immigrant rights activist Diana Betancourt.

Honey, a professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at 91̽��Tacoma and affiliate of the UW’s , said the film is a product of his long work on the interconnection between labor and civil rights history.

The film premiered in Tacoma in February, and it will be shown again at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at 91̽��Tacoma’s Carwein Auditorium.

Lawson, 87, is a lifelong activist in the civil rights and workers movements. He knew and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, studied the nonviolence resistance of Mahatma Gandhi and advised and was allied with — even jailed with — the . From 1974 until his retirement in 1999 Lawson led Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles.

“He just turned 86 when I interviewed (Lawson) for the film,” Honey said. “His life takes us back to his imprisonment as a conscientious objector during the Korean War, as a student of Gandhi in India, as the teacher of nonviolent direct action in the Nashville sit-in movement and the Freedom Rides in 1960, mass movements throughout the South, and then the Memphis sanitation strike. He brought King into that struggle and they ultimately won, despite King’s assassination.”

Honey co-produced the film with Webber, a cinematographer who won an Academy Award for his cinematography on the short 2010 film “.” Honey said Adam Nolan, a graduate in history from 91̽��Tacoma, did research for the documentary as well.

Honey said the 38-minute film weaves together three basic “strands”: civil rights, immigrants and labor organizing.

“The film helps us get a grasp on how racism and structures of power are interconnected,” Honey said. “It especially speaks to organizing poor workers in the civil rights movement tradition of direct action to challenge economic and racial inequality and oppression.”

In comments cited on the film’s website, Premilla Nadasen, associate professor of history at Columbia University, called it “a must see for students, teachers and activists to think about the legacy of civil rights activism and to understand the roots of contemporary political organizing.”

Honey said he believes Lawson’s philosophy of love and solidarity “applies to all people organizing for nonviolent social change.”

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For more information, contact Honey at mhoney@uw.edu or 253-692-4454.

Watch a preview of “Love and Solidarity”:

Participants will explore the political roots and consequences of the crisis of inequality and discuss possible solutions to empower workers and make government more responsive.

The conference will feature several 91̽��faculty: of history and 91̽��Tacoma, of global health, of political science, of 91̽��Bothell and of American ethnic studies. Faculty also will attend from the City University of New York, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Toronto.

Also attending will be union leaders and representatives of campaigns for fast food workers, day laborers, hotel workers, port truckers, taxi drivers, adjunct university faculty and advocates for a higher minimum wage.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative journalist also will participate. Johnston’s most recent book is “The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use ‘Plain English’ to Rob You Blind” in 2013.

Harry Bridges Center organizers say the program is designed to promote discussions among experts, activists, organizers and an audience composed of students, faculty and the public.

Advance notes say the conference will “document the problems and pose the tough questions” — such as how inequality and political deadlock are connected, what happens when job security drops, and “what is being done to stem the tide.” The event, notes say, will provide “a framework for understanding the cluster of policy and economic failures that now threaten American democracy.”

The conference will be held from 1 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 25, in Room 250 of the HUB. The event is free and open to the public. Learn more at the conference .

Cloud Gate
8 p.m., March 6-8 | Meany Hall
Returning to the Northwest for the first time since Vancouver’s 2010 Cultural Olympiad, Cloud Gate makes its Seattle debut with Lin Hwai-min’s “Songs of the Wanderers,” a visually stunning work inspired by Siddhartha’s quest for enlightenment and brought to life on a set of three and a half tons of shimmering golden grains of rice. .

Circle of Friends: Music of Brahms, Schumann, and Mendelssohn
4:30 p.m., March 9 | Brechemin Auditorium
This series, produced by piano professor Robin McCabe, features samplings from their rich and prolific repertoires, with historical context offered in commentary and narration.  This program features a pre-concert lecture by George Bozarth, professor of music history.

“The Arabian Nights“
Through March 9 | Jones Playhouse
A world full of movement and music emerges as Scheherazade’s stories unfold from the secret crevices and dark shadows on stage. The trappings of a Persian palace help transport audiences to another time and place where the young Scheherazade tells a story every night to postpone the death sentence imposed by her husband, King Shahryar. 

“Map of Virtue“
Through March 9 | Hutchinson Hall, Cabaret Theater
An exploration of the extremities of human relationships and the beauty of language, this play is a study in symmetry that switches between interview, poetry, scenes, and silence. Presented by the Undergraduate Theater Society. 

Dino Day
10 a.m., March 8 | Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
Get an up-close view of the museum’s paleontology collections. See and touch fossils, try out a fossil dig pit and more. Plus, learn from paleontologists about the end of the dinosaur era and the emergence of flowering plants. See for the first time several Triceratops from Montana and Wyoming, the dinosaur precursor Asilisaurus from Tanzania, and other fossils that play a vital role in research both in the Northwest and around the world.

ArtVENTURES: Dig In!
2 p.m., March 9 | Henry Art Gallery
Dig into the sculptures of Katinka Bock and excavate themes of history and archaeology in the exhibition “Katinka Bock: A and I.”  Adults and children are invited to explore the transformation of natural materials in an interactive way.

Studio Jazz Ensemble and Modern Band
7:30 p.m., March 10 | Meany Hall
Led by Fred Radke, the ensemble performs selections from the big band repertoire, including “Straight Out,” and “Looking Through the Back Door,” plus an original work by the band’s own trombonist and vocalist, Kevin Jenson. The Modern Band, led by Cuong Vu, performs original music by band member Raymond Larsen, trumpet, including a large-scale composition, “New Studies of the Starry Skies,” and a setting of three poems by Emily Dickinson.

Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band
7:30 p.m., March 11 | Meany Hall
Enjoy “Short Stories,” by Joel Puckett, a concerto for string quartet and wind ensemble; Symphony in B flat; by Paul Hindemith; Prelude and Fugue in G minor, by J.S. Bach, and others.

Chamber Singers and University Chorale
7:30 p.m., March 12 | Meany Hall
Among other works on the program, the Chorale performs works by composers from Argentina, Venezuela, United States, and more. The Chamber Singers preview their upcoming Northwest Choral Conductors Association conference appearance with their set entitled “….and we beheld again the stars,” featuring works by Claudio Monteverdi, Ingvar Lidhold and School of Music alumnus Eric Barnum. 

Artist Lecture: Geoffrey Farmer
7 p.m., March 13 | Henry Art Gallery
The 91̽��School of Art and the Nebula Project present this Canadian guest sculptor and photographer as part of the Winter Quarter 2014 artist lecture series. 

Book events: Michael Honey’s “Sharecropper’s Troubadour”
3:30, 7 p.m., March 13 | 230 Communications / University Temple, United Methodist Church
The 91̽��Tacoma professor of history gives presentations and musical performances based on his latest book, about folk singer and labor organizer John Handcox.

• .

His new book, “” was published in November by Palgrave Macmillan. He answered a few questions about the book for 91̽��Today.

Q: What’s the concept behind this book?

A: The book is about the power of song and the human spirit. John Handcox, born in eastern Arkansas in 1904, grew up at one of the worst times and in one of the worst places to be black in America. He used his African-American song traditions to help desperately poor white and black agricultural workers organize together in Ku Klux Klan country during the Great Depression. They created one of the most remarkable social movements in American history. John showed that music is a powerful force to unite people for change.

Q: How did you come to write about John Handcox?

A: Folklorist and musician Pete Seeger introduced me to John in 1985 at a labor arts forum held outside of Washington, D.C. Ralph Rinzler, the director of the folklife program at the Smithsonian Institution, asked me to interview John about his life and music. The rest, as they say, is history.

Q: You write, “Much as rap artists did in later years, John weaponized the spoken word.” It’s a powerful phrase — would you expand on your meaning?

John painted word pictures to help people to see their plight and do something about it. He wrote:

“The planter lives off the sweat of the sharecropper’s brow,
How the sharecropper lives, the planter cares not how.
The Sharecropper works and he toils and sweats,
The planter brings him out in debt.

Planter what the heaven is the matter with you?
What has your labor ever done to you?
Upon his back you just sit and ride.
Don’t you think your labor gonna ever get tired?”

Q: Handcox disappeared from public life for decades. What were the circumstances of his departure and his return?

A: Plantation holders and their henchmen gathered a lynch mob to get him and John wanted to shoot it out, but his mother convinced him that the whole family would be killed if he did. John fled Arkansas for Memphis in 1937 and began writing songs.

He became a traveling organizer, poet, singer and songwriter for the Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union.  Jail, arrests, beatings and murder destroyed the union. John and his family went west to San Diego, and people in the union movement thought he had died. He worked as a carpenter and selling produce from his backyard until folklorists rediscovered him nearly 50 years later.

Q: You quote Handcox late in life saying, “What workers need today is more unity and less union.” What caused this comment from him, and what is its meaning? Did it signal a change in his overall attitude toward unions?

A: To maintain the privileges of white workers, the carpenters union in San Diego first excluded him from work and then made him work at lower pay, until he broke down their barriers of racial discrimination. “More unity and less union” is what he demanded.

The existence of racial discrimination in the work world did not dim John’s support for unions — quite the contrary — and he continued to sing “Solidarity Forever” as well as his composition, “Roll the Union On.”

Q: Finally, what do you hope will be the legacy of John Handcox, assisted by this book?

A: John Handcox wanted us to remember and celebrate the fact that people can unite even under the worst of conditions and that song can help them to do it. His life and his songs and poems stand as a testament to this fact. Even as multinational corporations make inordinate profits by driving down the wages and living standards of workers today, it is always possible, John believed, “to make this a better world.”

Watch a video of John Handcox talking and singing “I Live On.