An Evening of Sharing and Celebration of Our Lives and Stories
Chicago Public Library Harold Washington Library Center Cindy Pritzker Auditorium June 24, 2005 ♦♦♦ 7:00 pm
Reception and Book Signing will Follow
Many Voices, One Nation @ your library ® is an initiative of 2004-2005 American Library Association President Carol Brey-Casiano that celebrates the diverse voices in the literature of our nation and the unifying role that libraries play in building a literate nation. Program
Welcome ………………………………………………………………….. Carol Brey-Casiano
Master of Ceremonies ………………………..…………………… …………. José Aponte
Dance Movement ……………………. Morton East High School Folkloric Dancers
Authors Listed in Order of Appearance:
tatiana de la tierra
Darrell H.Y. Lum
Rebecca Kohn
Lost Boys of the Sudan: Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, and Benjamin Ajak
Etan Thomas
INTERMISSION ……………featuring Morton East High School Break-Dancers
Malachy McCourt
Craig Womack
Janis Kearney
Reginald Harris
Young Chicago Authors: Emilio Tostado and Phloe Dilla
Many Voices, One Nation (Chicago) Coordinating Committee: Molly Morris (Chair); Camila Alire; Kawanna Bright; Carol Brey-Casiano (ALA President); Loida Garcia-Febo; Tracie Hall (ALA staff- liaison); Reinette Jones; Monica Kirby; Norice Lee; Betty Long; Mahealani Merryman; Marilyn Myers; James Przepasniak; Zora Sampson; and Victor Schill.
Biographical Statements
Master of Ceremonies José Aponte is director of the San Diego County Library system. His mother, a library administrator, planted the seeds of his twenty-eight year career in libraries when she gave him his first job (at the age of eight) reading stories to children who could not read. In 2002, Aponte received a White House appointment to the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries Advisory Council and in 2004 a Presidential appointment to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Sciences. More recently, Aponte received the REFORMA 2004 Trejo Librarian of the Year Award for “outstanding library work, locally and nationwide…and the promotion of Latino culture”.
Many Voices, One Nation Authors In Order of Appearance: tatiana de la tierra is a bilingual and bicultural writer originally from Colombia. She is author of For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology /Para las duras: Una fenomenología lesbiana (Calaca/Chibcha Press, 2002) and of the chapbooks Porcupine Love and Other Tales from My Papaya (Chibcha, 2004) and Píntame una mujer peligrosa (Paint Me a Dangerous Woman, Chibcha, 2005). Tatiana de la tierra is currently an information literacy librarian at the University at Buffalo.
Darrell Lum, fiction writer and playwright, is one of the pioneering voices of Hawai’i literature. He has had six plays produced by Kumu Kahua Theatre and Honolulu Theatre for Youth and has published two collections of short fiction: Sun: Short Stories and Drama and Pass On, No Pass Back which was awarded the 1992 Asian American Studies Book award. In 1991 he received the Cades Award and in 1996 the Hawai’i Award for Literature, the state’s highest award. Lum co-founded Bamboo Ridge Press in 1978 and has served as an editor for the past 20 years. He holds a PhD in Education from the University of Hawai’i and is an academic advisor in the Student Support Services Program.
Rebecca Kohn , born and raised in the Chicago area, knew that she wanted to be a writer from a young age. She was educated at the University of Chicago and graduated with high honors in English. She worked for a number of years as an editor in textbook publishing. Today, in addition to writing, Rebecca is active at her local synagogue and is a serious student of modern dance. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, economist Meir Kohn, and their daughter, Leah . The Gilded Chamber is her first novel.
Lost Boys of the Sudan: Alephonsion and Benson Deng , and their cousin Benjamin Ajak were all under the age of seven when they left their homes after terrifying attacks on their villages during the Sudanese civil war. After living as refugees since 1987, they were relocated from the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya to the United States as part of an international refugee relief program in 2001. Arriving in this country, they began to fill composition books with their memoirs of chaos and cultural uprooting. Residents of San Diego, the three authors of They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky , which was named a Book Sense Pick in June 2005, speak regularly on a regional and national level about their experiences.
Etan Thomas center for the NBA’s Washington Wizards, defies the stereotype of the apolitical athlete with the release of his first poetry collection, More than an Athlete: Poems . More Than An Athlete is a compelling statement about a generation. Thomas writes in the lineage of literary elders Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, and in the tradition of contemporary poets, Tony Medina and Asha Bandele. Thomas has leant his voice to the work of the Congressional Black Caucus, and as a vocal opponent of the death penalty, he has worked with the American Civil Liberties Union. Thomas has performed alongside Nikki Giovanni, The Last Poets, Jessica Care Moore and others.
Malachy McCourt, born in 1931, lives in New York City with his wife Diana. At the age of three his family moved to Limerick, Ireland, where he was raised. In 1952, at the age of 21, McCourt returned to the United States and founded America’s first singles bar, Malachy’s, in Manhattan. McCourt has had an illustrious career on stage, screen and television. His theater credits include Playboy of the Western World, Da, and Remembrance. Currently, he appears on the HBO show, OZ. Mr. McCourt has also appeared on screen in Reversal of Fortune , Bonfire of the Vanities , and The Devil’s Own. In addition to his new book, Malachy McCourt’s History of Ireland, to be released in October, McCourt has authored, The Claddagh Ring, Voices of Ireland: Classic Writings of a Rich and Rare Land , the New York Times bestseller A Monk Swimming, Singing My Him Song, and Danny Boy: The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad .
Craig Womack is the author of Red on Red , a literary history of the Muskogee Creek Nation, and Drowning in Fire , a novel from which he is reading tonight. He teaches American Indian literature in the English department at the University of Oklahoma.
Janis F. Kearney , author and publisher of Cotton Field of Dreams: A Memoir , is an Arkansas native. In 1987 she purchased the Arkansas State Press from civil rights activist Daisy Bates and published the statewide weekly newspaper for 5 years. President Clinton appointed Kearney, Director of Public Affairs and Communications for the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1993. Two years later Kearney served as President Clinton’s Diarist. In 2003, she was appointed Chancellor’s Lecturer at Chicago City Colleges and awarded the PUSH for Excellence Award for contributions in communications. She is completing a Visiting Fellowship at DePaul University's Humanities Center and at work on an oral biography of President Clinton's race legacy.
Reginald Harris, head of the Information Technology Support Department for the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, was a finalist for both ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award and a 2003 Lambda Literary Award for his first book, 10 Tongues . Harris has also received the Individual Artist Awards for both Poetry and Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council. His work has appeared in a variety of publications including 5AM , African-American Review , Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review , Obsidian II , Sou’wester and the anthologies of Black Silk , Brown Sugar , Bum Rush the Page and Role Call .
Young Chicago Authors (YCA) is a dynamic organization that encourages self- expression and literacy among Chicago’s youth through creative writing, performance and publication. The young authors performing tonight are Emilio Tostado , a member of YCA’s Saturday Writing Program, and Phloe Dilla , a student at El Cuarto Año High School. Phloe is a member of YCA’s Word Crew.
Morton East High School has two dance groups performing tonight. The Morton East Folkloric Dancers are directed by Michelle Murphy, Director of Dance at Morton East High School in Cicero, Illinois. Since their formation in 1988, the students have studied with renowned Mexican choreographers and performed at various community venues in the Chicago area. The second dance group, Ground Illusions, is comprised of students who perform their own break-dance choreography. The group has been in existence for the past 7 years, and has attended national break-dance conferences and competitions.