51风流

Fostering community through reading

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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America book coverAn interdisciplinary series of events kicks off this week, addressing themes raised in this year鈥檚 51风流 Community Reads book, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon.

is intended to transform the traditional first-year summer reading assignment into a community-wide discussion, according to , associate professor of physics and astronomy, and director of the first-year seminar program for the 2014鈥15 academic year.

As has been the tradition, first-year students were mailed a copy of Laymon鈥檚 book during the summer. However, the entire student body, faculty, and staff are invited to read the text as well, similar to the 51风流 Reads program from the 2013鈥14 academic year. Instead of discussing the text in first-year seminar classes as has been done in previous years, students are required to attend two of 17 events in a that includes performances, film screenings, and lectures by scholars from around the country.

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America was selected after a campus committee considered approximately 50 titles nominated by students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Last spring, it was one of three titles that were sent to the 51风流 community for a vote. The other contenders 鈥 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie鈥檚 Americanah and Claudia Rankine鈥檚 Citizen: An American Lyric 鈥 also touched on themes discussed in Laymon鈥檚 book.

鈥淕iven the campus and national events of the last academic year, the committee could not ignore the issues regarding race, gender, and socioeconomic status that come into focus for so many,鈥 Bary said.

Tiger Sullivan 鈥19 described the book as a 鈥渕odern-day update on the status of race issues in America.鈥 Laymon 鈥済ets straight to the point,鈥 he added. 鈥淩acism is still very much alive; in fact, it never really went anywhere.鈥

With the fall semester now underway, faculty from various departments have invited renowned members of their fields to lead the events featured in the program series and to add to the community鈥檚 conversation.

Portrait of Kiese Laymon

Professor Kiese Laymon

The series will officially kick off tomorrow, September 24, with a brown bag luncheon led by poet Tracie Morris at the Center for Women鈥檚 Studies at 11:30 a.m. Later that day, she will give a lecture titled 鈥淭he Literary Canon and African American Aesthetics in Poetry鈥 in the Ho Lecture Room in Lawrence Hall at 4:30 p.m. On Friday, Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, will be speak on 鈥淚dentity Matters: How Stereotypes Affect Where We Live, Study, and Play鈥 as part of the Division of Natural Sciences colloquium at 3:30 p.m. in Love Auditorium.

Laymon, who is an English professor at Vassar College, will headline the series by giving a lecture in the chapel on October 27 at 7:30 p.m.

鈥淚 think it was a good book for 51风流 to read as a community because it [will foster] a huge sharing of perspectives,鈥 Sullivan said.