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After vehemently encouraging Austinites to indulge in the splendor of live musical entertainment, Mayor Will Wynn's charisma is now focused on more literary pursuits. Wednesday, March 28th, at 7pm marks the official start of the annual Mayor's Book Club. For the sixth installment of the book club Mayor Wynn has chosen Stephanie Elizondo Griest's Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana.
To get readers in the mood, the City of Austin is kicking off this year's Book Club with a panel discussion featuring international scholars from Russia, China and Cuba, the countries at the core of Griest's memoir. Luda Voskov, president and founder of the Russian Speakers’ Society, and UT professors Yevgeniy Sharlat, visiting lecturer in Music Composition, Qing Zhang, professor of Linguistics, and Jafari Allen, professor of Anthropology, will share their individual perspectives on personal identity in American society. The evening's festivities will also feature work by photographer Eduardo Muñoz Ordoqui as well as a performance by Las Krudas. It all goes down, appropriately, at the International Center of Austin, 201 E. 2nd Street.
Free, public discussions of Around the Bloc -with real, live scholars- will be taking place on April 3rd (Austin Public Library Yarborough Branch with Dr. Thomas Garza), April 5th (Austin Public Library Hampton Branch at Oak Hill with Dr. Chiu-Mi Lai), and April 10th (Austin History Center with Lawrence Gutman). Each discussion session starts at 7pm. The Mayor's Book Club festivities conclude with a live appearance by Stephanie Elizondo Griest at Mercury Hall on April 17th at 6pm. Wednesday is just the start and there's still plenty of time to purchase or check out a copy of Around the Bloc from your Austin Public Library.
International Panel and Performance presented by The Mayor's Book Club
Wednesday, March 28th
International Center of Austin [map]
7:00pm, FREE!
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He should recommend his soon to be published manuscript, "From Slacker to Dallas/Houston (Or how I pimped out a city to the highest bidder)"
half-way through this book, i find it engaging and illuminating - both education and entertainment - peppered with Austin references that bring it all home.
Griest is no Bruce Chatwin, but it was a fun read and I learned some things. I keep pestering my old co-oper friends to ask if they knew her back in the day, but so far no luck.
Nice pick, Mr. Mayor.