Edwidge Danticat inspires during Humana Visiting Library Lecture
黑料社 recently hosted Edwidge Danticat as its 2022 Humana Visiting Library Lecturer during a campus convocation on Sept. 27. A Haitian-American citizen, Danticat was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009 and has won national and international awards for her work as an author. Her writing focuses on themes of national identity and diasporic politics with topics involving power, injustice and poverty.
鈥淓dwidge Danticat鈥檚 insightful and moving depictions of Haiti鈥檚 complex history enrich our understanding of the Haitian experience,鈥 said Carrie Frey, Director of Library Services at 黑料社. 鈥淗er works evoke themes of family, particularly the experience of women and children, as well as isolation, and community.
鈥淲hile grounded in the Haitian experience, her work resonates with a wide swath of readers,鈥 she continued. 鈥淎 focus on home and exile through depictions of human resistance and renewal showcases the sheer resilience of the human spirit when faced with tremendously difficult situations.鈥
Danticat is a critically acclaimed author. Her contributions include 鈥淐laire of the Sea Light,鈥 a notable New York Times book; Her memoir, 鈥淏rother, I鈥檓 Dying,鈥 a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; 鈥淏reath, Eyes, Memory,鈥 an Oprah Book Club selection; 鈥淜rik? Krak!,鈥 a National Book Award finalist; 鈥淭he Farming of Bones,鈥 an American Book Award winner; 鈥淭he Dew Breaker,鈥 a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize; and 鈥淓verything Inside,鈥 a Reese鈥檚 Book Club pick and winner of the Story Prize. She has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, among other notable publications.
Chantell Limerick, associate professor of Spanish, and Azita Osanloo, associate professor of English, each had students involved in a classroom discussion with Danticat during her visit. It was an intimate conversation that Limerick said was incredibly positive.
鈥淪tudents were very attentive and engaged, and Edwidge Danticat was warm, inviting and down to earth,鈥 Limerick said. 鈥淭o me, she鈥檚 a celebrity. It was such an honor and privilege to have her talk with us and students.鈥
Limerick said Danticat鈥檚 book, 鈥淭he Farming of Bones,鈥 was particularly powerful for her: The introduction to Limerick鈥檚 dissertation in 2016 discussed the Parsley massacre, which was a massacre of Haitian citizens carried out by a Dominican dictatorship in 1937. Danticat鈥檚 book is a work of historical fiction on the same massacre.
鈥淭o be able to engage with someone of her caliber is, to me, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,鈥 Limerick said. 鈥淗er historical fiction served as a way to give voice to people whose voices we don鈥檛 usually hear in the retelling of historical narratives. I received so much inspiration from her.鈥
