AMY NATHAN's Web Site
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Amy Nathan is available for presentations and author visits on women's history, Civil Rights, and music & dance education. She is also available for book signings at bookstores or book festivals.

The following presentations on WOMEN’S HISTORY and MUSIC EDUCATION have been well received by a range of audiences: elementary school, middle school, high school, and adult. She was a teacher for many years (and also a professional actress for a time) and is comfortable relating to audiences of all kinds.

Presentations can be tailored to the specific needs of each group. Most talks involve Power Point, although they could be done without Power Point.
For fees and availability: AmyNbooks@​gmail.com

See below for descriptions of these presentations:

** PRESENTATION ON MUSIC EDUCATION **
------ BEATING THOSE PRACTICE-TIME BLUES

** PRESENTATIONS ON WOMEN'S HISTORY **
------ THE STORY OF THE WASP PILOTS OF WWII
------ WOMEN TO COUNT ON
------ SHE WOULD NOT BE MOVED
------ WOMEN OF COURAGE

DESCRIPTIONS OF PRESENTATIONS:

** PRESENTATION ON MUSIC EDUCATION **
-- BEATING THOSE PRACTICE-TIME BLUES:
When today’s prize-winning musicians were kids, did they always like to practice? No way! They grumbled and griped about practicing just like kids today. Some pros weren’t very regular practicers at first either — and did a certain amount of instrument switching before they found the right match for them. But there came a time with each of them when something clicked between them, their instrument and the music they loved — and practicing became much less of a chore. It still had its boring parts, but they found ways to make practicing less of a drag. This presentation encourages audience members (kids or adults) to air their gripes about practicing (or performing). Then audience members can dip their hands into grab-bags of “tips” to learn of practical, down-to-earth strategies from some of today’s top performers (the musicians featured in the author’s music books) that can help kids deal with the gripes they have. When possible the author likes to have student groups perform at these presentations and encourages these polished young performers to share their practice tips, too.

** PRESENTATIONS ON WOMEN'S HISTORY **
-- THE STORY OF THE WASP PILOTS OF WWII:
This presentation tells of the WASPs, gutsy women pilots who in the 1940s did something women weren’t expected to do back then: They flew fighter planes, bombers, and every other kind of plane the Army had, making important contributions to the war effort during World War II. This presentation highlights their courageous spirit, their determination to follow their dreams no matter what, the exuberant fun they had flying those amazing planes — and also the crushing disappointment they felt when the WASP program was shut down early through no fault of these excellent female pilots, highlighting how different things were for women not so very long ago. Women would not be allowed to fly again for the U.S. military or the airlines for nearly 30 years.

-- WOMEN TO COUNT ON:
This presentation gives an overview of women who have served (often in the face of strong opposition) with the military throughout U.S. history, from the Revolutionary War right up through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, women who — with their “can do” spirit — have proved that, as Col. Mary Hallaren said during World War II: “You don’t have to be six foot and male to have a brain and know how to use it.” The presentation includes profiles of several women from each era.

-- SHE WOULD NOT BE MOVED:
This presentation tells the story of Sarah Keys Evans, an unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement who did what Rosa Parks did — three years BEFORE Ms. Parks. There were quite a few early Civil Rights foot soldiers like Mrs. Evans, people who had the courage to stand up to Jim Crow years before the Martin Luther King, Jr., era and who helped prepare the way for the great victories that would come in the 1960s. Mrs. Evans achieved a victory of her own in 1955 when she protested her arrest three years earlier for not moving to the back of a bus. Her victory was a ruling by the ICC that effectively outlawed race-based seating in inter-state bus and train travel, a ruling that was generally obeyed in most parts of the country. Her ICC ruling was announced with great fanfare in newspapers around the nation just one week before Rosa Parks took her historic stand on a local bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The presentation will also briefly tell of others of these early unsung heroes.

-- WOMEN OF COURAGE:
This presentation will tell the stories of several women who faced difficult challenges in their lives and found ways to overcome so they could be builders of dreams and opportunities for those to follow. These women are not famous, but that is a key point of this presentation: That history isn’t made only by a few famous people, that in extraordinary times many “ordinary” folks step up and achieve remarkable things. Some of the women featured in this presentation include: Susie King Taylor (a teenaged former slave who served as a nurse and a tutor to African American troops during the Civil War); Dr. Mary Walker (a pants-wearing Civil War doctor and prisoner of war — and the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor); Aileen Cole Stewart (an African-American nurse who against great odds finally managed to become an Army nurse in the aftermath of World War I); Gene Shaffer Fitzpatrick (one of the WASP pilots of World War II whose mother was against her becoming a pilot because it wasn’t “ladylike”); Sarah Keys Evans (unsung hero of the Civil Rights movement).

To arrange a visit: AmyNBooks@​gmail.com


Some recent appearances:
Book Signings:
-- Manhattan School of Music, Pre-College Parents Association -- accompanying a presentation to the Parents Association focusing on some of the terrific tips from professional musicians who are feature in THE YOUNG MUSICIAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE
-- National Air and Space Museum book-signing for YANKEE DOODLE GALS at which three of the WASP pilots of WWII participated -- and received warm congratulations (from all who stopped by) on the WASP at long last earning the Congressional Gold Medal

-- Women's Memorial for YANKEE DOODLE GALS and COUNT ON US in conjunction with Fly Girls, a new exhibit on the WASP pilots of WWII at the Memorial, located at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery

-- New Rochelle (NY) Public Library's National Library Week Celebration

-- Book Festival at New Rochelle High School

-- New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts, Avery Fisher Hall, New York City

-- Hoff Barthelson Music School, Scarsdale, NY

-- Thurnauer School of Music, Tenafly, NJ

-- Westchester Conservatory of Music's Spring Fair - White Plains, NY

-- Suzuki Summer Workshop, Manhattanville College

-- Barnes and Noble, at Lincoln Center in NYC

-- Borders, White Plains, NY


PRESENTATIONS AND SCHOOL VISITS:

-- Womens History Month Presentation, Hamilton High School West, Hamilton, NJ

-- Keynote address for Women's History Month celebration at Western High School, Baltimore, MD

-- YANKEE DOODLE GALS Presentation at Hommocks Middle School, Larchmont, NY

-- Women's History Month Presentation on COUNT ON US at Department of Veteran Affairs, Washington, D.C.

-- Presentation on COUNT ON US at Forum on Women Veteran Issues sponsored by Disabled American Veterans and Department of Veteran Affairs, Washington, D.C.

-- Women's History Month Presentations on COUNT ON US and YANKEE DOODLE GALS at Larchmont Historical Society, Larchmont, NY

-- Women's History Month Presentation on YANKEE DOODLE GALS at FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY -- broadcast on C-SPAN 2.

-- Music education presentations on THE YOUNG MUSICIAN'S SURVIVAL GUIDE have been given at the Westchester Philharmonic and Chicago Arts Festival.

-- Presentations on YANKEE DOODLE GALS and on COUNT ON US given at Murray Avenue Elementary School and Chatsworth Elementary School in Larchmont, NY.