This January, UCF will celebrate The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, the debut novel of African journalist and MacArthur Foundation Fellow Dinaw Mengestu. Events include an art exhibition, play, book clubs, lectures, artist talks and book signing. Woven throughout these events is the goal of revitalizing reading as a shared community initiative.
UCF, in collaboration with the Seminole Public Library, received a grant to host the NEA Big Read in Orlando. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read “broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.” UCF is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading.
“We are delighted to have received such a prestigious grant,” said project director Keri Watson, assistant professor of art history at UCF. “With this grant, we join a select few ‘repeat readers’ who have received the grant more than once.” In 2017, UCF celebrated John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath, and in 2016 honored Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God.
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears follows the story of Sepha Stephanos, an immigrant living in Washington, D.C., who finds himself stuck between his identity as an Ethiopian and his identity as an American immigrant. Through his struggles with his failing grocery store and introspective dialogues, Sepha must find a way to move forward in life without forgetting his roots. The New York Times reviewed: “What more potent setting is there than Washington for a novel about the architecture of hope and memory?” The novel has won several awards such as The Guardian First Book Prize, listed as one of The New York Times Notable Books of 2007, National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35”, and Seattle Reads Selection of 2008.
Mengestu is an Ethiopian immigrant who escaped a communist revolution to Illinois in the 1970s. He went on to graduate from Georgetown University and Columbia University before traveling throughout sub-Saharan Africa as a journalist. His writing focuses on the lives of those in war-torn areas such as Sudan, Uganda and Congo. As immigration continues to be passionately debated throughout the world, UCF’s Big Read programming highlights individuals’ stories and the effects of displacement.
Activities for the Big Read at UCF kick off Jan. 8 with a book distribution for the UCF community at the John C. Hitt Library and an exhibit at the UCF Art Gallery entitled Finding Home: The Global Refugee Crisis. On Jan. 16, poet, journalist, biographer and literary critic Obi Nwakanma will read in the gallery from his latest collection of poetry. Mengestu will hold a reading and book signing in the gallery Jan. 18. Theatre UCF’s production of David Edgar’s play Pentecost opens Jan. 26 and runs through Feb. 4. Internationally renowned artist Hiwa K will discuss his work featured in the gallery exhibition in an artist talk Feb. 1. Seminole County Public Library will also have book clubs and a “Welcome to the Neighborhood”-themed program for its K-5th grade Library Explorers Clubs. “Through the NEA Big Read we are bringing contemporary works to communities across the country, helping us better understand the diverse voices and perspectives that come with it,” said NEA chairman Jane Chu. “These 75 organizations have developed unique plans to celebrate these works, including numerous opportunities for exploration and conversation.”
The Big Read supports organizations across the country in developing communitywide reading programs that encourage reading and participation by diverse audiences. Organizations selected to participate in The Big Read receive a grant, access to online training resources and opportunities, and educational and promotional materials designed to support widespread community involvement.
The NEA inaugurated The Big Read as a pilot project in 2006 with 10 communities featuring four books. The Big Read continues to expand to include more communities and additional books. To date, more than 1,100 grants have been awarded to communities in the United States to host Big Reads since the program’s national launch.
A full listing of activities isvailable at http://bigread.cah.ucf.edu/.
To learn more about the NEA Big Read, visit https://www.arts.gov/partnerships/nea-big-read.
Here are UCF’s events to commemorate the Big Read:
UCF Art Gallery Presents Finding Home: The Global Refugee Crisis
- Monday, Jan. 8 to Friday, Feb. 2
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
12400 Aquarius Agora Drive, Orlando; Visual Arts Building, Room 140
407-823-5470 | Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. | gallery.cah.ucf.edu | @UCFgallery
Featuring work by Reem Bassous, Alex Callender, Adrienne Der Marderosian, Pam Cooper, Joe Cory, Lauren Greenwald, Hiwa K, Hyung-in Kim, George Lorio, Casey McGuire, Vukasin Nedeljkovic, Binod Shrestha, Eun-Kyung Suh and Lance Winn, the exhibition explores borders as geographical and symbolic dividing lines; displacement, asylum seeking and migration; refugee camps and detention centers; resettlement cities; and political responses to the global refugee crisis.
Exhibition Reception: Thursday, Jan. 18, 6-8 p.m.
Poetry Reading by Obi Nwakanma
- Tuesday, Jan. 16, noon-1 p.m.
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
Poet, journalist, biographer and literary critic Obi Nwakanma will read from his latest collection of poetry. Thirsting for Sunlight, his biography of the tragic modernist poet Christopher Okigbo, was published in 2010. His collection of poems, The Horsemen & Other Poems, was published in 2007. Nwakanma’s first collection of poems, The Roped Urn, was awarded the Cadbury Prize in 1996.
Reading and Book Signing: Dinaw Mengestu
- Thursday, Jan. 18, 5-6 p.m.
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
Enjoy a reading and book signing by Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (2007) and How to Read the Air (2010). Mengestu is a graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s MFA program in fiction and the recipient of a 5 Under 35 award from the National Book Foundation, a 20 Under 40 award from The New Yorker, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
Theatre UCF presents: Pentecost
- 25, 26, 27, Feb. 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m.
- Jan. 28, Feb. 4 at 2 p.m.
By David Edgar
Directed by Christopher Niess
This powerful play by the Tony Award-winning adaptor of Nicholas Nickleby and author of numerous plays won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play of 1995.
A fresco that could revolutionize western art is unearthed in an abandoned church in Eastern Europe. The discovery causes a dramatic struggle as representatives from the worlds of art history, religion and politics stake their claims for the ultimate prize. The unexpected arrival of 12 refugees sets events spiraling toward an explosive climax.
$20 standard, $10 UCF ID
Main Stage, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando.
407-823-1500 | http://theatre.ucf.edu | boxoffice@ucf.edu
Post-show reception with the cast and crew following the opening night performance on Thursday, Jan. 25
Post-show talkback on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 10 p.m. with Christopher Niess (UCF faculty and director of Pentecost) and Margaret Zaho (UCF faculty specializing in Italian Renaissance Fresco Cycles)
Staged Reading of “The Refugee Plays”
- Friday, January 26, 2018, 5-6:30 p.m.
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
Directed by Mark Brotherton, The Refugee Plays is a series of short plays that explores the experiences of refugees and undocumented immigrants in the United States, shining a carefully placed spotlight on certain legal, social and economic difficulties faced by this population and humanizing an oft-misunderstood group.
The “Orient” in the “West” and Beyond: Reflections on Contemporary Refugee Politics
- Tuesday, Jan. 30,4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
Güneş Murat Tezcür, the Jalal Talabani chair of Kurdish Political Studies at UCF and the author of Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey: The Paradox of Moderation (University of Texas Press, 2010), will give a lecture on the contemporary refugee crisis. Tezcür’s research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Artist Talk by Casey McGuire and Lauren Greenwald (formerly Hiwa K)
- Thursday, Feb. 1, 4-5 p.m.
University of Central Florida Art Gallery
Casey McGuire, Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of West Georgia, and Lauren Greenwald, Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of South Carolina, will discuss their recent work, which is included in Finding Home: The Global Refugee Crisis.
Editor’s note 1/18/17: This event was formally with artist Hiwa K.
Related: UCF is One of 75 Organizations Nationwide to Receive Big Read Grant