Community invited to attend reading experience at USU
Community members are invited to join first-year Utah State University students enrolled in “Connections 2006” in a summer reading experience by reading Melba Patillo Beal’s “Warriors Don’t Cry.” The work is a memoir of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957, where the author recounts the experiences of nine African-American high school students who became known as the “Little Rock Nine.”
A week of events and activities centered on the book culminate in an address by one of the Little Rock Nine, Carlotta Walls LaNier.
“We encourage individuals and book clubs in the community to read this book with us,” said Marina Hall, head of the Connections 2006 literature selection committee. “We hope they will join us in welcoming Carlotta Walls LaNier to Logan. All Cache Valley libraries are aware of the program and have purchased additional copies of the book.”
The event recounted in the book rocked the world, as nine young high school students exposed themselves to amazing violence as they took the steps to change the social standards of that time, said Noelle Call, newly appointed director of USU’s office of Retention and First-Year Experience.
Published by Simon and Schuster, “Warriors Don’t Cry” has been widely praised for its readability and accurate portrayal of this tense period in American history, Hall said.
“Beals, the author and a former NBC reporter, writes movingly of desegregating Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957-58,” she said. “Using diaries and contemporary media coverage, she re-creates a time of fear and tenaciously held hopes.”
The “Connections” Summer Literature Experience was created to bring all Connections students immediately into an intellectual experience similar to future academic activities at Utah State University, according to Call. Community members are encouraged to read the selected book as well, and join the convocation lecture that caps the experience.
The Connections Convocation features the appearance of LaNier. She addresses students, faculty, staff and community Saturday, Aug. 26, at 9:30 a.m. in the Kent Concert Hall in the Chase Fine Arts Center on the USU campus. All are invited.
“It is part of the university’s mission to help students develop intellectually, personally, and culturally, so that they may serve the people of Utah, the nation and the world,” Call said. “We want the community to be a part of this experience as well.”
For more information on Connections 2006, call (435) 797-1194.