[act-ma] 2/27 Writing Race: LIFE WITHOUT (Wed)

[janet at communitychangeinc.org]

THE BOSTON AFRICAN AMERICAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE and
COMMUNITY CHANGE, INC.

Present

WRITING RACE: MEMORY & IMAGINATION
Readings by Boston Authors

FEBRUARY 27, 2008 (Wednesday)
Helen Elaine Lee reads from LIFE WITHOUT

Life Without is a novel about the lives of eleven characters who are  
incarcerated in two neighboring American prisons. These characters are  
connected by common experience and proximity, daily routine and  
interactions, and rolling domino and bid whist games through which the  
inmates gather to socialize. They are serving various sentences for  
different kinds of crimes, and each one has his or her own story of  
loss, despair, imagination and survival. Although they do not begin to  
comprise an exhaustive portrait of the men and women who fill American  
prisons, all are part of the whole of prison life. Ms Lee?s work on  
Life Without has involved volunteer work teaching writing and  
storytelling workshops with prison inmates over the last six years,  
and many interviews with ex-offenders and people who work with  
prisoners.

Helen Elaine Lee, Professor of Humanities at Massachusetts Institute  
of Technology, has published two other novels, The Serpent?s Gift  
(Atheneum, 1994) and Water Marked (Scribner, 1999). About her work,  
she writes:  ?I carry the tales of many heroes of world literature  
with me, along with the story of my ancestors, who sneaked along rows  
of cotton in the night, teaching fellow slaves to read. To these I  
want to add my own stories about the ways in which my communities have  
tried to make art out of loss and make meaning from narrative.? Life  
Without is currently under submission to publishers.

The Museum of African American History
The Abiel Smith School
46 Joy Street
Beacon Hill, Boston MA
6:30-8:30 p.m.

ASL/ENGLISH INTERPRETATION WILL BE PROVIDED AT ALL READINGS

Refreshments will be served

Writing Race: Memory and Imagination is funded through the generous  
support of the African American Experience Fund

There is no admission charge for this event.

For more information visit www.communitychangeinc.org or call 617-523-0555.