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Reader's Guide South Dakota Humanities Council South Dakota Humanities Council Presents the Presents the South Dakota Humanities Council South Dakota Humanities Council South2020 Dakota ONEPresents Humanities BOOK the Council SD 2020 ONEPresents BOOK the SD 2020 ONEPresents BOOK the SD - READER’S2020 ONE BOOK GUIDE SD - TABLE of CONTENTS About the One Book SD Program & South Dakota Festival of Books . 1 About the 2020 One Book, Unfollow . 3 About the Author, Megan Phelps-Roper. 5 Introduction . 7 Discussion Questions . 11 Praise for the Book . .. 14 Thank You to Sponsors & Board . 16 About the One Book Program, South Dakota Festival of Books Contact [email protected] or call 605-688-6113 with any questions. Festival of Books: ‘Bringing Readers and Writers Together’ The 2020 Festival of Books will be held Oct. 2–4 in Brookings, featuring authors and illustrators participating in readings, lectures, workshops, panel discussions and book signings. South Dakota’s premier annual literary event, the Festival includes more than 40 exhibitors and draws more than 5,000 session attendees, with an additional 5,000 students meeting children’s/YA authors and illustrators. Most Festival events are free, but each year there are a handful of ticketed events that can be purchased on our website. Since its inception in 2003, the South Dakota Festival of Books has featured award-winning authors in all genres: fiction authors Jane Smiley, Louise Erdrich, William Kent Krueger, and Tim O’Brien; children’s authors Gene Luen Yang and Kate DiCamillo; non-fiction authors Timothy Egan and Denise Kiernan, and many more. The event is produced by the South Dakota Humanities Council, a statewide non-profit whose sole purpose is to provide humanities programs for South Dakotans. As well as writing in various genres such as non-fiction, fiction and poetry, Festival of Books authors explore various humanities disciplines including history, language, literature and much more. Sign up for our e-newsletter at sdhumanities.org/news to stay up to date on details about the 2020 Festival of Books in Brookings! 1 About the One Book SD Program The One Book South Dakota is central to the Festival, where the year’s activities culminate in a keynote by the One Book author. Since 2003, the One Book South Dakota program has encouraged people across the state to read and discuss the same book through the year. Groups receive the current One Book on loan from the SDHC lending library and, optionally, can host a SDHC scholar for their event. To host a One Book South Dakota discussion featuring Unfollow and a scholar to lead it, please visit sdhumanities.org/onebook. Information about Megan Phelps-Roper’s 2020 One Book Tour is at sdhumanities.org/OB-tour. 2 About Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church In her memoir, the activist and TED speaker Megan Phelps-Roper reveals her life growing up in the most hated family in America. At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy. As Phelps-Roper grew up, she saw that church members were close companions and accomplished debaters, applying the logic of predestination and the language of the King James Bible to everyday life with aplomb—which, as the church’s Twitter spokeswoman, she learned to do with great skill. Soon, however, dialogue on Twitter caused her to begin doubting the church’s leaders and message: If humans were sinful and fallible, how could the church itself be so confident about its beliefs? As she digitally jousted with critics, she started to wonder if sometimes they had a point—and then she began exchanging messages with a man who would help change her life. A gripping memoir of escaping extremism and falling in love, Unfollow relates Phelps-Roper’s moral awakening, her departure from 3 the church, and how she exchanged the absolutes she grew up with for new forms of warmth and community. Rich with suspense and thoughtful reflection, Phelps-Roper’s life story exposes the dangers of black-and-white thinking and the need for true humility in a time of angry polarization. 4 About the Author Megan Phelps-Roper is a writer and activist. Formerly a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, she left the church in November 2012, a process she examines in her book, Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, which has been selected as the 2020 One Book South Dakota. Readers around the state, including those participating in SDHC-funded book club programs, will read and discuss Phelps-Roper’s book leading up to the Oct. 2-4, 2020 South Dakota Festival of Books. The granddaughter of infamous religious zealot and Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, Phelps-Roper grew up protesting funerals before leaving the Westboro Baptist Church — and by extension, most of her family — behind in 2012 and eventually moving to Clark, SD, where she lives with her husband Chad and daughter Sølvi. Unfollow chronicles her life in Kansas from childhood through adulthood, her departure from the church during her mid-20s, and the unlikely series of events that led her to South Dakota. Phelps-Roper is eager to share her story with fellow residents of the state she now calls home. “It was actually six years ago yesterday that I made South Dakota my home and I’m so, so excited to share with the beautiful people of this state how the power of civil dialogue changed my life for the better,” she said during a December 2019 unveiling of the book. “So, thank you again so much for this opportunity and I cannot wait to get started.” Having been featured on Good Morning America and excerpted in People magazine, Unfollow is on the national radar. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which said, “Phelps-Roper’s 5 intelligence and compassion shine throughout with electric prose ... She admirably explicates the worldview of the Westboro Baptist Church while humanizing its members and recounts a classic coming-of-age story without resorting to cliché or condescending to her former self.” Now an educator on topics related to overcoming ideological extremism and improving communication across religious and political divides, Phelps-Roper has spent much of her life in the national spotlight, from appearing on national news programs like The Tyra Banks Show during her protest days to performing a Ted Talk with more than eight million views after leaving the church. “We’re pleased to feature such an inspiring story of national significance, and we’re especially excited that it’s told by one of our state’s own residents,” said Jennifer Widman, director of the South Dakota Festival of Books, which hosted Phelps-Roper as a presenter in October 2019 as the book debuted. “This book will lead to valuable conversations about civil discourse and the miraculous ability of humans to change their minds and habits. Exploring what it means to be human is the cornerstone of our mission.” 6 Achieving a First-Rate Intelligence: Teachings of the 2020 One Book South Dakota Throughout the history of the One Book program, the South Dakota Humanities Council has selected books that propel our mission, helping us create a more well-read and, by extension, more engaged and thoughtful state of South Dakota. The 2020 One Book South Dakota accomplishes those things — and more. Not only was it written by a South Dakotan, but Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church may also be the first One Book in the program’s 18-year history to offer life lessons, learned firsthand by the author, Megan Phelps-Roper of Clark, SD, related to every facet of our mission statement: The South Dakota Humanities Council celebrates literature, promotes civil conversation, and tells the stories that define our state. Phelps-Roper celebrates literature, citing classic novels that paved her path to enlightenment. The portion of the memoir that unfolds in South Dakota briefly but firmly defines our state, which offers the Kansas transplant exactly what she needs: a rural haven with idyllic scenery, refuge, anonymity and “Midwest nice.” However, the most profound lesson — profound because of the author’s background as an ideological extremist — is on civil conversation. Discourse in 2020 is not often civil, as discussions of public policy, race, religion and all things political tend to devolve into vitriol and insults, as people gravitate toward extreme positions and refuse to consider middle ground. 7 How can we be better? Embracing civility is an oft-suggested solution to bringing together our increasingly fractured society. But one could argue that civility must be learned on more than a superficial level to be effective. Civility is deeply rooted in the humanities discipline, a form of humanities-driven intelligence developed through time devoted to reading and understanding and embracing other perspectives in literature and life. According to the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, to live this way — in consideration of others — is to live intellectually. “The test of a first- rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function,” he said. Having captured in fewer than 50,000 words the essence of American culture with The Great Gatsby, considered by many as the Great American Novel, Fitzgerald was an expert on human behavior and, by extension, the humanities.
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