WAER and Hendricks Chapel are hosting an on-air, round-table discussion on Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” (Random House, 2016) on Tuesday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. The program can be heard on 88.3 FM WAER and will be available on-demand at www.waer.org.
“Born a Crime” is the selected book for the 2018-19 Syracuse Reads Program, a shared reading initiative coordinated by the Provost’s Office that is part of the First-Year Experience for all new Syracuse University students.
The University provided more than 3,900 special softcover copies and e-copies of the book to all incoming first-year and transfer students in June. The students were instructed to read “Born a Crime” over the summer. This semester, they have all participated in a series of five-week discussion sessions—co-led by a student peer facilitator and a faculty, staff or graduate student lead facilitator—intended to enhance the students’ understanding of the topics addressed in the book and engage them in broader contexts about identity, resiliency, inclusion and community.
Hosted by WAER General Manager Joe Lee and the Rev. Brian Konkol, dean of Hendricks Chapel, Tuesday’s round table is a conversation with four first-year students—Bryan Hudnell, Dassy Kemedjio, Hadiya Lee and Allison Weiss—focusing on themes of identity and belonging, spirituality, and diversity and inclusion. The students will discuss the reading assignment and how events described by Noah relate to their own lives and academic experience.
Noah, host of the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning “The Daily Show,” will be visiting Syracuse in person in a couple months’ time. He is a special guest participant in the 2019 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, in the Carrier Dome. Noah will take part in an on-stage conversation about “Born a Crime” and reflect on Dr. King and the global impact of the civil rights movement.
Tickets for the $30 combined dinner (5 to 6:30 p.m.) and main program (7 to 8:30 p.m.) option have sold out. Tickets for the main program alone—$15 for SU staff, SU faculty and the general public; $5 for students—are still available and may be purchased online, in person at the Dome Box Office (Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) and by phone (888-DOME-TIX or 315.443.2121, option “zero”). For more information on the MLK Celebration, visit mlk.syr.edu.
In addition to new SU students, free copies of “Born a Crime” were made available to other SU students, as well as to faculty and staff, who were encouraged to host their own discussions or book club readings about the book.
The book will also be utilized for “CNY Reads”—one of the largest “one book, one community” programs in New York state—from January through March 2019. By encouraging Central New York residents to read the same book and engage in experiences related to its subject matter, the 2019 CNY Reads program seeks to cultivate a culture of community building and programing while celebrating the written word. For more information, visit cnyreads.org.
