The NEA Big Read at Columbia College Chicago hosts four programs this week around our featured reading selection, Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat, including two presentations by the author.

Students, faculty and their classes are encouraged to attend, and all programs are FREE. For more information about Columbia College Chicago’s NEA Big Read, click here.

On Tuesday, April 23rd at 2pm,  a discussion of Brother, I’m Dying will be held on the Library’s third floor.  Sonya Smalley (formerly of Follett’s Bookstore, now retired) returns to campus leading the discussion of this important work. Students, faculty and and their classes are encouraged to attend.

On Thursday, April 25th at 4:30pm,  The Columbia College Chicago Assembly hosts a program featuring a panel of faculty, staff and students discussing student activism in today’s political environment. Entitled, “Student Activism in a Divided Nation,” panelists will examine the role of college students as agents for social change on issues that matter specifically to them. The panel will be moderated by Columbia College Chicago adjunct professor Stan West and will take place at Film Row Cinema, immediately before the NEA Big Read keynote event.

On Thursday, April 25th at 6:00pm, we welcome author Edwidge Danticat for our NEA Big Read Keynote, “The American Dream Reconsidered” in which the concept and meaning of the American Dream in the time of the Trump Administration is explored. Ms. Danticat will be interviewed on stage by Dr. Karen Richman, Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame University and author of the book, Migration and Vodou (University Press of Florida Press). This program is sponsored in part by Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Columbia College Chicago.  The program will be held at Film Row Cinema.

On Friday, April 26th, we welcome Edwidge Danticat back for our NEA Big Read Community Event, “What Makes America Great?: Immigration Policy and Chicago”. Here, Ms. Danticat reflects on the role immigration has played and continues to play in shaping Chicago and in cities across the United States. Respondents include Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, U.S. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky,  Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste and Loyola University Professor, Dr. Eliana Vāgālāu.  The program will be held at Film Row Cinema, and be followed by a celebration of Haitian culture, including food, beverages and entertainment.

The NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.