February 24, 2022 – Millikin University’s Long-Vanderburg (LV) Scholars Program will host a community forum featuring a reading of the memoir “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an exploration of violence against the black body in America, on Thursday, March 3, from 7-8 p.m. The event will be held in Albert Taylor Theatre, located on the 2nd floor of Shilling Hall, on Millikin University’s campus.
Tickets for the event are free but must be reserved in advance through kirklandfinearts.com or by calling the Kirkland Fine Arts Center Box Office at 217.424.6318.
Following a brief keynote presentation, Dr. Anne Matthews, associate professor of English at Millikin, will lead a forum focusing on how does Coates’ book inform us of what work still needs to be done for continued progress in race relations?
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist. He is the author of the bestselling books “The Beautiful Struggle,” “We Were Eight Years in Power,” “The Water Dancer” and “Between the World And Me,” which won the National Book Award in 2015. His first novel, “The Water Dancer,” was released in Sept. 2019. He was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship that same year. Coates also enjoyed a successful run writing Marvel’s “Black Panther” (2016-21) and “Captain America” (2018-21) comics series.
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World And Me” offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, “Between the World and Me” clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
Millikin University’s Long-Vanderburg Scholars Program recognizes high scholastic achievement among those students who have a demonstrated commitment to diversity, leadership and community service. The LV Program is named in honor of Millikin’s first two African American graduates, Fred Long and Marian Vanderburg.
