FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT PETER EVERETT AT 203-332-5074
ACCLAIMED AUTHOR JERALD WALKER TO SPEAK MARCH 3 AT HCC
BRIDGEPORT – Jerald Walker, author
of the acclaimed Street
Shadows: a Memoir of Race, Rebellion and Redemption, will speak
at Housatonic Community College Wednesday, March 3, 2010.
In
the book, Walker, professor of English at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts,
recounts his renunciation of the “thug life” he embraced at a teenager
on Chicago’s South Side in favor of the middle class life his parents had
always dreamed of for their children. By turns humorous, angry and poignant,
the memoir dramatically captures one man’s pursuit and embodiment
of the American Dream: the effort to rise above obstacles such as racism
and poverty through hard work and determination.
“To
be a success, I’d had to draw heavily on a heroic tradition of survival
that began in slavery, when people like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass
laid the blueprint for resilience, toughness and courage for their descendents
to follow,” Walker write of his upwards journey from the streets. “There
have always been examples of blacks overcoming racism’s obstacles, yet
there’s this tendency by some to focus more on the obstacles
than the overcoming.”
Publisher
Random House says of the book: “An eloquent account of how the
shadows of the past need not determine the present, Street Shadows is
the stirring story of two Americas – one of narrow vision and limited possibilities,
the other expansive and inspirational – embodied in one man.”
Walker’s
talk, which is free and open to the public, begins at 3 p.m. in the
Events Center in Beacon Hall,
HCC is located at 900 Lafayette Blvd. in Bridgeport, 150 yards off I-95 (Exit
27) and Rte. 8 (Exit 1), a block from the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Anson C. Smith, Public Relations Coordinator
Housatonic Community College
900 Lafayette Blvd.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Tel: 203-332-5229, Fax: 203-332-5247
E-mail: asmith@hcc.commnet.edu