Yaa Gyasi in Charlotte
Yaa Gyasi and Dr. Valerie Kinloch, President of Johnson C. Smith University, at the Knight Theater
The other week, I got to see Yaa Gyasi at the closing event for a NEA Big Read program, coordinated by the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Hooray for a new friend who knew about it and invited me! (Too bad I didn’t know about the initiative until the end of it and too bad that I never finished Homegoing when my book club in Dublin read it just as we were preparing to move back to the US. Guess life got busy, but I will rectify that soon especially now that I have a signed copy…)
I love thinking about the intermingling between “people” and “reading,” and of course a community-wide read is a fab initiative to see that to fruition. But it happens on a smaller scale too. Like, check out Carrie’s copy of Homegoing with all those post-its! I first met her through a mutual friend, and at that first meeting she brought up Homegoing. And then she brought it up again when we saw her at a concert. She really, really, really loves this book. In fact, I think she’d say it was transformative for her. There is nothing better than hearing about a book that does that for someone. Yeah, a more formal “book event” can bring people together, but it’s often the serendipitous and casual interactions that provide the real click. Because the impassioned enthusiasm for a book that felt life-changing to someone is pretty much the best reco there is.
(Also shout out to the woman who was at the bitter end of the book-signing line with us which resulted in us passing a lottttt of time chit chatting about all sorts of things, including books. That was a lovely connection too. Hope you’re having a great day wherever you may be, Gina!)
{This reminded me about something I wrote 10 years ago that was my first foray into trying to suss out this idea of communal reading. It’s a bit about my Irish book club, a bit about stupid corporate bios, and a bit about The Children Act by Ian McEwan.}
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