If you haven’t read The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao yet, what are you even thinking?
Go read it. Now. We’ll wait.
If you have read it, then you know this Pulitzer Prize winning story of the not-really-rise and tragic fall of a Dominican nerd as he comes up against the beliefs and expectations of his cultural background and the struggle for “authenticity”is life changing and pretty much the Bible for any Remezcla reader out there: it’s the story of being “alternative,” of being told what to be and not always being that way, of finding the courage to like what you like and figuring out through lots of confusion and lots of growing up that doing so doesn’t make you any less Latino. This is especially true if you’re growing up in the states – if you’re in a Latin American country, Latinos are just people, not a specific group that must meet specific criteria.
But enough ranting from me. The point is, the novel’s author, Junot Diaz, will be uptown at Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics – which couldn’t be a more appropriate place for the author of a book about the trials and tribulations of a Dominican nerd – doing a reading for Family Literacy Day 2012 this Friday, January 27th, from 5-7PM. A reception will be held at 809 Lounge from 7:30-10. That’s a reception. Definitely not an after-party. (Riiiight…)
Way to go, Uptown. Keep it awesome.
Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics is located at 501 W. 165th St (at Amsterdam Avenue). Take the A or C.