lalita was born in southern california. and their home louisiana west maintained a noncalifornia edge. she's always been interested in her family stories especially ones about here great grand mother emily who died with a life savings hidden in her mattress. lalita level her position at sun miko systems to seresearch her family. she had no choice but to write about the amazing people. the result was "cane river" her novel based on the lives of slave women in louisiana women who whom she descended. the second book, red river published in january of 2007. my pleasure to welcome lalita tademy and scott shafer. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. out of curiousity a show of hands how many of you have read the book? wow? >> you will have a chance to ask questions as well. bear with us. i don't think i need to summarize the back. sounds like everyone -- this is great. we heard a summary there. this is a story of resilience and about the brutality of slavery and the resourcefulness of your family going back several generations.

lalita was born in southern california. and their home louisiana west maintained a noncalifornia edge. she's always been interested in her family stories especially ones about here great grand mother emily who died with a life savings hidden

. >> we have time for one more question and lalita will with in the lobby signing books. >> i had an opportunity to be in horn lake, mississippi this year this summer i was at a hotel with my family. jim crow was gone. this was at a time there was a little league tournament and children were playing with children of all races the accommodations were integrated. i had an occasion to drive further to the delta and i stopped in a diner and the most epifet was used this woman was born 1965. in her 40's. and i wondered what i was seeing. i wonder through your lenses if you could comment on that. things were better, progress had been made but on one level this woman had not heard the story. >> i'm not speaking for all black people here, actually that's i have tremendous hope and tremendous dismay at the same time. it's the constant place i live because it's not gone. we have made tremendous progress and you see something like that and it's not an anomaly it's there. it will be there for generations i believe. and you think it's died out and you see it coming back and people that are young.

. >> all right, i invite you to join lalita in the lobby after that. thank you for coming and thank you for writing such a great book. >> thank you. >> [applause]. >> >> we will go ahead and get started. can you hear me in the back? >> good. >> good morning and welcome to the community building break out session conference. my name is una and i'm the program director of san francisco safe. san francisco safe is a nonprofit that has been serving the san francisco community since 1977. we build communities through crime prevention, and neighborhood watch. there's a lot of brochures if you want more information about neighborhood watch or san francisco safe i point you in that direction. i'm honored and excited to be the moderator on the session and be on the stage with the finest of san san francisco's community organizers. throughout process of putting together this workshop we realize we have a lot of things we share in common. one is a belief with more than one person a whole community can come together and build strength and power and make changes. t