Lighthouse Day to feature Mayor Breed and New Blindness Book Author, June 10

Each year we gather friends to celebrate Lighthouse Day, honoring our 119 years of service and looking forward into the future.

For the second year we will use Zoom to keep social distance as we gather, electronically, celebrating how LightHouse has grown and diversified and reassert our belief in our community and pride in our work.

To help us do this we have invited blind author Dr. M. Leona Godin who will discuss her just-released book, There Plant Eyes: a Personal and Cultural History of Blindness.

We invite you to a conversation between Dr. Godin and LightHouse CEO Bryan Bashin to discuss the main themes in the book and learn of the author spending much of her life in San Francisco and beginning her journey into blindness there. This conversation will be a key part of the LightHouse Day celebration.

What: Lighthouse Day

When: Thursday, June 10 from noon to 1:00 pm Pacific

Where: via Zoom or phone

RSVP: To events@lighthouse-sf.org or call Andrea Vecchione at 415-694-7311. The first 10 folks to RSVP will receive a box of Quail Point chocolates, which are delicious, we can vouch for that!

From the book jacket:

From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight.

There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocular centric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blind-ness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil).

Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history.

Adaptations LightHouse Day Discount

Don’t forget to visit Adaptations.org for all your LightHouse gear! To celebrate 119 years of service to the blind and low vision community,  Adaptations is giving 10% off during the entire month of June on all LightHouse hoodies, t-shirts and tote bags! Use the  discount code LH10 at checkout to receive your discount. Happy shopping!