Next up.... MY JIM by Nancy Rawles
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We will kick off our 2009 season with a special
event. We are collaborating with the Seattle Public Library to present
a staged reading of Nancy Rawles novel, MY JIM as part of the Seattle
Reads project. Our reading will take place at 2:00 on MARCH 15, 2009 at
the Central Library (The Seattle Public Library • 1000 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98104-1109)
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Nancy
Rawles's powerful, moving novel is a harrowing account of slavery and a
testament to the power of love and longing for freedom, survival of
families and tradition. In "My Jim," the author re-imagines Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"
from the slave's perspective. The story follows Jim's family as they
struggle to cope with his loss after his escape down the Mississippi.
My Jim
is told in the voice of Sadie, the wife of Huck's enslaved traveling
companion. The novel recasts Jim as more than a runaway drifting down
the Mississippi River with a delinquent youth, more than the gullible
victim and moral father figure to Huck in Twain's work. In telling the
familiar tale from a different perspective, Rawles considers the
shattered families of many slaves.
Nancy Rawles is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and teacher. She grew up in Los Angeles, and her first two books, "Love Like Gumbo" and "Crawfish Dreams,"
are set there. They address issues of race, class, color, and sexual
identity as seen through the eyes of the fictional Broussard family of
Compton Avenue in Watts. Rawles lives in Seattle's Mount Baker
neighborhood.
For Information about the Hansberry Project, call 206.292.7660 ext. 1225
For information about the Seattle Reads program, visit the Seattle Reads website at : http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_leaders_washingtoncenter_seattlereads
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“… let us allow our audiences to become so spent in the amphitheater that they
shall welcome the intellectuality of the pamphlet and the debate.” -- Lorraine Hansberry
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