If you have an event happening at your local library, bookstore, or community space that you'd like published here, email Elizabeth Pearce (pearcee@aadl.org) with details!
Washtenaw Reads Author Event | Michelle Kuo
When: Wednesday January 16, 2019: 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Rackham Auditorium (915 E Washington St)
For Whom: Grade 9 - Adult
Description
Recently graduated from Harvard University, Michelle Kuo arrived in the rural town of Helena, Arkansas, as a Teach for America volunteer, bursting with optimism and drive. But she soon encountered the jarring realities of life in one of the poorest counties in America, still disabled by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of one student, Patrick Browning, and his remarkable literary and personal awakening. In her time reading with Patrick, Michelle is herself transformed, contending with the legacy of racism and the questions of what constitutes a “good” life and what the privileged owe to those with bleaker prospects. This event features a reading from the author followed by a Q & A and a book signing. Books will be for sale.
MICHELLE KUO taught English at an alternative school in the Arkansas Delta for two years. After teaching, she attended Harvard Law School as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, and worked at a nonprofit for undocumented immigrants in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, California on a Skadden Fellowship, with a focus on tenants' and workers' rights. She also clerked for a federal appeals court judge in the Ninth Circuit.
Other Washtenaw Reads events:
Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 7:30pm-8:30pm - Reading with Patrick Discussion with Reading Glasses Book Club at the Chelsea District Library--McKune Room
Copies available at the Chelsea checkout desk.
Thursday, January 10, 2019, 7:00pm-8:00pm - ABCs of Washtenaw Literacy at the Chelsea District Library--McKune Room
Registration required.
Would you like to help an adult learn to read, write, or communicate in English? The first step to becoming a volunteer tutor with Washtenaw Literacy is to attend a one-hour informational session, the ABCs of Washtenaw Literacy. This engaging session provides interested folks with all the information they need to get involved. Registration information will be shared with WLC. In partnership with Washtenaw Literacy Council
Monday, January 21, 2019, 6:00pm-8:00pm - MLK Day Film Screening of A Raisin in the Sun at the Chelsea District Library--McKune Room
Registration required.
Join us for a showing of the 2008 film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. Originally written by Lorraine Hansberry, it was one of the first plays written by an African American to be performed on Broadway, and it is featured in this year’s Washtenaw Reads book, Reading with Patrick.
Thursday, January 24, 6:00-7:30 pm - Vocational Village at the Dexter District Library
With the goal of providing a positive learning community for prisoners who are serious about completing Career and Technical Education, the Vocational Village at the Parnall Correctional Facility was developed. Join Warden Melinda Braman to hear about this first-of-its-kind skilled trades training program for prisoners who are serious about completing career and technical education. Registration requested.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019, 7:00pm-8:00pm - Washtenaw Reads Book Discussion at the Ann Arbor District Library--Downtown
Join AADL staff and community members for a discussion of the 2019 Washtenaw Reads title, Reading With Patrick, by Michelle Kuo.
Thursday, February 7, 7:00 - 8:30 pm - Light from the Cage: 25 Years in a Prison Classroom at the Dexter District Library
Judy Wenzel did not expect to spend more than two decades in jail after going back to school to get secondary certification in the mid 1980's. She taught English and social studies to students at the federal correctional institution in Milan, Michigan, the only program beyond GED in the country's nationwide prison system. Judy authored, Light from the Cage: 25 Years in a Prison Classroom and she will share stories about her students and talk about how extreme punitive policies are damaging our national identity. Registration requested.
Tuesday, February 12, 7:00pm-8:30pm - Literacy and the Transformative Power of Reading at the Ann Arbor District Library--Malletts Creek Branch
Learn more about literacy in Washtenaw County! Join Washtenaw Literacy Director Amy Goodman and several adult literacy learners and tutors as they provide a snapshot of literacy challenges in our area. Get inspired as you hear, first-hand, how improved literacy transforms the lives of students and the ways in which helping others has changed the lives of their tutors.
Tuesday, February 19, 6:30-8:00 pm - "The Address" at the Dexter District Library
Ken Burn’s “The Address” follows a group of special needs students from The Greenwood School in Putney, Vermont as they prepare to recite the Gettysburg Address. This 90-minute documentary explores the history, context and importance of President Lincoln’s most powerful address. Registration requested.
Community Discussion: Saturday, February 23 11:00am-12:30pm at Cultivate Coffee & Taproom, 307 N River St., Ypsilanti
Join community members for a discussion of Reading With Patrick, facilitated by Eastern Michigan University's Literature Senior Seminar and organized by Dr. John Staunton, of the Department of English Language and Literature at EMU
Monday, February 25, 7:00-8:00pm - Washtenaw Reads Book Discussion at Bethlehem United Church of Christ, 423 S. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor
Retired librarian Sue Wortman will lead a discussion of Reading With Patrick.