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GRANTHAM, Pa. (September 2, 2004) — James McBride, author of the “New York Times” bestseller, “The Color of Water,” will present a free public lecture at Messiah College on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 8 p.m. in the college’s Eisenhower Campus Center. McBride, also a renowned jazz artist, will perform with his quintet, interspersing his book discussion with a jazz concert performance. McBride’s lecture and concert celebrates the inaugural year of Messiah’s new common reading program, which featured “The Color of Water” as its cornerstone. The performance will be followed by a book signing and reception with the author in the college’s Larsen Student Union. The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required and may be obtained by calling the College’s ticket office at (717) 691-6036. About James McBride James McBride is an award-winning writer, composer and saxophonist. His memoir, “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” remained on the “New York Times” Bestseller List for two years, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and has become an American classic read in colleges and high schools. In “The Color of Water,” McBride tells the story of his mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, who was born in Poland in 1921 to Orthodox Jewish parents. When Ruth was a child, her parents immigrated to America , where her father served as a rabbi in rural Virginia . At 19, she left the segregated South for New York , where she married Andrew Dennis McBride, an African-American man living in Harlem , later founding a Brooklyn church with him. When she was pregnant with their eighth child, Dennis died of lung cancer. Ruth later remarried, going on to raise her 12 biracial children by herself in Queens , N.Y. , after the death of her second husband, Hunter Jordan. Resisting labels of race and ethnicity during a time of extreme racial awareness and civic unrest, she raised each of her dozen children to value their family, faith, and education despite their poverty. All 12 of Ruth’s children went on to graduate from college – several of them earning graduate degrees. McBride’s newest book, “Miracle at St. Anna,” which the “ Baltimore Sun” called a “searingly, soaringly beautiful novel,” has been dubbed “a lyrical, touching fable about the miraculous power of love” by “Publishers Weekly.” The book, already climbing the bestseller list, is the story of a black American soldier who befriends a six-year-old Italian boy in Italy during World War II. McBride is a former staff writer for “The Boston Globe,” “People Magazine” and “The Washington Post.” His work has appeared in numerous publications, including “The New York Times” and “Rolling Stone.” He is the recipient of the 1997 Anisfield Wolf Book Award as well as several awards for his work as a composer in musical theatre, including the American Arts and Letters Richard Rodgers Award, The ASCAP Richard Rodgers Horizons Award and the American Music Theatre Festival's Stephen Sondheim Award. He has written songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, Jr., Gary Burton, Silver Burdett Music Textbooks and for the PBS television character “Barney,” and fronts a 12-piece R&B jazz band. McBride studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio . He holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Whitman College and The College of New Jersey. About Messiah’s Common Reading Program This fall, as part of a redesign of its curriculum for its first-year students, Messiah College launched an inaugural common reading program, designed to foster a spirit of community among first-year students and their faculty. “The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother” was selected as the cornerstone for the pilot program because it speaks to questions of vocation, as well as educational, religious and ethnic diversity and other themes that resonate with college students. Messiah employees, alumni, and parents were also invited to read the book along with the students. The common reading program is part of a number of additions to the first-year experience at Messiah, including a new spring course which will be taken by all first-year students. Students in this course will consider themes of vocation, forgiveness, compassion, non-violence and reconciliation. One of the residence halls on campus will house first-year students only, enhancing the spirit of community and unity as the common reading and course material will be interwoven into the residence education and student chapel programming. The book will be used as the basis for discussions during first-year student orientation as well as in all first-year seminar classes at Messiah. “It is sometimes difficult to have common conversation without common content,” says Kris Hansen-Kieffer, Messiah’s vice provost and dean of students. “I’m excited about that, with this book, we’re all joining at a common spot.” “The Color of Water” was also the 2004 selection for the “One Book, One Philadelphia” project. In an effort to promote literacy and foster community, all residents of the greater Philadelphia area have been challenged to read McBride’s book and to participate in local discussions. About Messiah College Messiah College , a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls more than 2,900 undergraduate students in 60 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham , Pa. , near the state capital of Harrisburg . A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia . # # # ARTICLE
DATE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2004 |
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