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"The book Harris refers to as ""EQ"" is an eclectic, unique set of essays that combine storytelling with data, sociology with dreamscapes, scholarship with flights of fancy. Along with the diverse and unexpected subject matter, bits of Harris' biography can be glimpsed: educator and rebel; data analyst and intuitive speculator; father and vagabond, scholar and sinner ........ ""EQ"" contains all of this and more as Harris tackles election politics, orthodox ideas about Big Data and War, The 7 Deadly Sins then and now, and an examination of language as manifested in the clich�s we use to keep ourselves from falling into the abyss. In the story destined to be a creative non-fiction classic, ""Mendacity"", Harris gives us a taxonomy of lying, the landscape of the story ranging from Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof to adventures with his daughter in Disneyland, depositing us in a modern day high school classroom where a group of rebellious and brilliant kids redefine truth, accuracy and concepts like blame and responsibility, leaving the author, 29 years old at the time, realizing: To be late was no longer a factual assertion; the clock was now subject to the Uncertainty Principle. I was in unknown territory, a place with its own logic that rejected Truth as a rigid and tyrannical tool of imperialists. Despite my best efforts at sharing power and appointing a student ombudsman to represent their interests, I was part of a system of oppression, obsolete before I had turned thirty. I was somehow in the role of an authority in a place which reveled in anti-authoritarianism (San Francisco) and a time in which institutions were being considered for the wrecking ball. And all I had done was try to enforce a tardy policy meant to protect learning, a policy they helped shape, voted on and endorsed. 'I look for the unique, the authentic, and the bizarre to illuminate the depth and mystery of this world - looking to write that one true thing that will have it all make sense, ' Harris has said. 'It's a lifetime pursuit.'"

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"Donn K. Harris has lived an edgy, diverse life, much of which is chronicled in this book of essays he refers to as ""EQ."" A school drop-out who later became a nationally recognized leader of schools for gifted, creative public school students, a street kid who chaired and sat on the California Arts Council from 2014-2021, a pacifist who served with distinction in the U.S. Air Force, a public figure who went off to the wilderness in this latest phase of his life, in ""EQ"" Harris gives us glimpses of his diverse experiences -- but what the book really gives us is a unique and eloquent view of many of the phenomena of the millennial era: public education; creativity; hypocrisy; The 7 Deadly Sins, then and now; Big Data; the rejection of outliers ...... in 375 pages in an 8.5 x 11 format, Harris gives us a big book of big ideas for a ravaged time that requires this level of boldness and audacity.Professionally, Harris had a diverse career in arts education and non-profit administration in Northern California. He served the San Francisco public schools as the Director of Creativity (2016-2019) and as Principal of the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (2001-2008), bracketed around nearly a decade as the CEO and Artistic Director of Gov. Jerry Brown's Oakland School for the Arts. From his perch on three acres in California's Sierra Nevada foothills, Harris currently serves on the Nevada County Arts Council, the SF African-American Shakespeare Company's Board of Directors, and is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of the Sierra foothills social justice non-profit, Color Me Human. He is the father of two daughters, both arts schools graduates, a Creative Writer and a Taiko Drummer. Harris served in the U.S. Air Force as an Air Traffic Defense Specialist from 1976-1980, and was proud to have been the State Arts Council Chair when the Veterans in the Arts program was introduced in 2015."

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