Edwidge Danticat offers insights to the Haitian experience through her books
http://haitiwebs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24
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New Paltz Loves Books
By Brittany Bell, Contributing Writer
One Book One New Paltz 2006 is a community-wide on-going event aimed at uniting the college campus with the outside community through Edwidge Danticat?s novel ?The Dewbreaker? and a series of events taking place in October.
In 1988, a Seattle librarian conceived the idea of a community-wide reading project that would unite the city, called ?If All of Seattle Read the Same Book.? Since then, community reading programs in the same vein have been surfacing in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Last year, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences Gerald Benjamin decided that New Paltz should join in on the fun, and One Book One New Paltz was born. The program took place in the first week of November with the ?The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time? by Mark Haddon.
According to the program coordinator, Rachel Rigolino, New Paltz is an ideal town for a One Book project because it ?has attracted a diverse populace from taxidermists to vegans, from IBMers to artists,? and despite ?moments of tensions the spirit of New Paltz is essentially one of tolerance.?
She said that ?this willingness to hear what someone else has to say, the ability to listen to another?s point of view is one reason New Paltz is a great One Book town.?
This year?s selection, ?The Dewbreaker,? is a collection of nine stories that relate the harsh political life of Haiti in the 1960s and 1970s and connects the Haitian community and culture in New York.
SUNY New Paltz freshman Pierce Lydon had to read ?The Dewbreaker? for his freshman composition class and said he plans to attend at least one of the many planned events in town and on campus.
?I think it will be a good way for me to bond with classmates and meet people both on and off campus,? he said. ?It will be interesting to see what so many different people bring to the discussion of the book.?
Lydon isn?t alone. Freshman Lisa Burdzy said, ?I saw the flyer in Starbucks with my friend who lives off-campus, and we?re going to read the book together.?
While One Book One New Paltz was a success last year, there is even more to look forward to this time around: author Edwidge Danticat will be speaking on campus. Other events include Daniel Morel?s photography exhibit about Haiti in the Samuel Dorsky Museum, a multimedia event in the Lecture Center hosted by Morel and documentary filmmaker Jane Regan, a discussion about Haitian Creole hosted by Dr. Arthur Spears, an art exhibit, concert and discussion groups both in town and in residence halls on campus.
If you would like to find out more about One Book One New Paltz, ?The Dewbreaker,? or to volunteer, go to the website at
http://www.onebookonenewpaltz.org.
E-mail Brittany at
bell187@newpaltz.edu
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