'Sitting In Circles with Rich White Girls' and Learning from Failure

Megan Sukys
05/12/2008

As a young, gay black man who struggled with bulimia, Chad Goller Sojourner tells us why he looked at treatment as "Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls". We also get stories of triumph and defeat in the boxing ring from Carla Wilcox and book reviews from Nancy Pearl.


At 2:05 p.m. – Robert Wrigley
In this literary archive segment, Idaho–based poet Robert Wrigley reads two poems from his seventh collection, Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems. "For the Last Summer" and "Cigarettes" meditate on youth and reflect on how we become the people we are now. Robert Wrigley has published six award–winning collections previously, and teaches writing at the University of Idaho. Recorded on 12/5/06 at Open Books: A Poem Emporium.

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• Robert Wrigley reads in La Conner, May 16 and 17, 2008

At 2:20 p.m. – Carla Wilcox
In battling illness, professional, or personal challenges, we sometimes find surprising new tools, talents, and inspiring people who help us in our struggles. Carla Wilcox runs the Wilcox Boxing Studio on Capitol Hill in Seattle. In her 12 years as a professional fighter and coach Carla has risen to the heights of the boxing world, and suffered crushing defeats. It's in those failures, she says, that she's learned lessons that have changed her life, and those of her students.

At 2:40 p.m. – Nancy Pearl Book Reviews
Our weekly visit with Public Radio librarian and author of More Book Lust, Nancy Pearl

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• Nancy Pearl's website
• Nancy Pearl's Recent Picks

At 2:50 p.m. – Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls
According to The American Psychiatric Association, women are four to ten times more likely than men to develop the eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa. So, growing up, Chad Goller Sojourner thought of bulimia as a "rich white girl's disease." But it's something he struggled with as a young, gay black man. He talks about the causes and the treatment of his eating disorder in a new one–man show, Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls. For Chad, problems with food started when he was just three years old.

Related Event:
Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoirs of a Bulimic Black Boy, Saturday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m. in Broadway Performance Hall.

Related Links:
KUOW does not endorse nor control the content viewed on these links as they appear now or in the future.

• Chad Goller Sojourner's Website
• Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls