Silicon Valley Reads: Living in a Welcoming Community, a Conversation with Maria Testa

Description

Please join members of the San Jose Woman's Club for a Conversation with Maria Testa, author of Something About America on Tuesday, March 3rd, at 7:00pm in the San Jose Woman’s Club Tea Room. Light refreshments will be provided by SJWC's Besse Section, which is also hosting the event. Please RSVP to [email protected].

Ms. Testa will discuss her book, which is a Companion Book Selection for Silicon Valley Reads 2015. The book is written in free verse and targeted for ages 12 and up. The story is inspired by actual events. It begins a decade after the narrator’s family fled Kosovo, Yugoslavia. The narrator has transformed into a typical American schoolgirl but her parents continue to feel like foreigners, and she grows impatient with what she perceives as their refusal to assimilate. Then an ugly incident in a nearby town changes everything, forcing each member of this refugee family to consider what being an American truly means.

Ms. Testa will also describe how she helped to organize the I’m Your Neighbor program in Portland, Maine that uses stories to build understanding among residents of a city that has become a popular settlement site for refugees from Somalia and other countries of Western Africa.

Silicon Valley Reads is an annual community program that selects books focused on a contemporary theme and offers free events throughout Santa Clara County to engage the public in reading, thinking and discussing the topic. The 2015 selections bring different perspectives to the theme Homeland & Home: The Immigrant Experience. For more information, see http://www.siliconvalleyreads.org/home/Pages/default.aspx

More Info

Link

http://www.sjwomansclub.org/events.html

Call

408.294.6919 (Box Office)

Email

Contact Form (account required)