October’s Brooklyn Voices Events Sell Out in Record Time

October 02, 2015

PATCHOGUE, N.Y. – October 1, 2015 – SJC Brooklyn, in partnership with Greenlight Bookstore, will welcome acclaimed recording artist Patti Smith to discuss her latest book, M Train, as part of its fall Brooklyn Voices lecture series on Thursday, October 8, and Ta-Nehisi Coates to discuss one of the most-talked about books in recent memory, Between the World and Me, on Thursday, October 15. Tickets for both of these events are sold out.

With prose that shifts between dreams and reality, and across a landscape of creative inspiration, M Train illustrates Smith’s deepest literary obsessions, augmented by her own stunning black-and-white Polaroids. Woven through accounts of days in Mexico, Berlin, Michigan and Greenwich Village are Smith’s reflections on the writer's craft and on artistic creation, along with the irremediable loss of her husband, guitarist Fred Sonic Smith. Loss, as well as the consolation we might salvage from it, lies at the heart of this exquisite meditation on endings and on beginnings.  

In the past few years, America has been forced anew to confront its abuse of the black body: exploited to create the country’s foundational wealth, violently segregated after a civil war, and, today, still disproportionately threatened, locked up and killed in our streets. What is it like to inhabit such a body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with our country’s fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Coates’ attempt to answer those questions, presented in the form of a letter to his adolescent son. Masterfully woven from lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history and fresh, emotionally-charged reportage, Coates’ work offers a powerful new framework for understanding America’s history and current crisis, and a transcendent vision for a way forward. 

These works are available on amazon.com. 

For more information about future Brooklyn Voices events, contact Michael Banach at 718.940.5584 or [email protected]. 

ABOUT ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE
St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility and service. Through SJC Brooklyn, SJC Long Island and SJC Online, the College offers degrees in more than 45 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs.