Celebrating Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month
Ernest J. Gaines and "Those Twenty-Six Letters" of Influence

 
 

Presenter: Reggie Scott Young

Thursday, February 4, 2010, 12:00 p.m.

Louisiana Center for the Book
State Library of Louisiana, 701 North 4th Street, Baton Rouge

 
 

Baton Rouge, LA — In celebration of Black History Month, the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana announces a special event: author, scholar and educator Reggie Scott Young will present "Ernest J. Gaines and 'Those Twenty-Six Letters' of Influence" on Thursday, February 4, 2010, at 12:00 p.m. in the Seminar Center of the State Library, 701 North 4th Street, Baton Rouge.

  
 

In a Black History Month presentation, Reggie Scott Young, University of Louisiana English professor and Ernest J. Gaines Center Board member, will discuss Gaines's efforts to preserve the legacy of an African American community that might have been otherwise excluded from written history and how his works have, in turn, influenced other writers, including Young himself, to write not only for personal gain, but also to positively affect people's lives through their efforts as storytellers.

       

Ernest Gaines, whose works include "A Lesson before Dying," "A Gathering of Old Men," and "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" among others, was the recipient of the Louisiana Center for the Book's first Louisiana Writer Award in 2000, an award given annually to honor a contemporary Louisiana writer whose published body of work represents a distinguished and enduring contribution to the literary and intellectual heritage of Louisiana.

 
 

The presentation is free and open to the public, and all are encouraged to attend this Black History Month event as we celebrate the work of one of Louisiana's preeminent authors.  Copies of the acclaimed "This Louisiana Thing that Drives Me: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines" will be available for purchase.  Reggie Young will be available after the program to personally autograph copies. Since this is a lunchtime presentation, attendees are welcomed to brown bag their lunch for the event.