National Book Award–winning author Jesmyn Ward joins us for a reading and thought-provoking discussion on her moving memoir Men We Reaped, this year’s ICA Reads book selection. Men We Reaped chronicles the untimely deaths of five young men in Ward’s life from DeLisle, Mississippi. Her book on racism, economic struggle, and staggering loss has been described by The New York Times Book Review as using “…language that is raw, beautiful and dangerous…” Hear Ward discuss her book and creative process with Boston-based artist and educator Steve Locke.
Jesmyn Ward is the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a 2011 National Book Award winner for her novel Salvage the Bones. Ward’s memoir Men We Reaped was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly, The New York Times, NPR, Kirkus Review, and other leading publications. Ward’s latest book project, The Fire This Time: A New Generation Talks About Race is a collection of essays and poems about race from today’s leading writers and thinkers. The Fire This Time will be released August 2016.
Steve Locke was featured in a solo exhibition, there is no one left to blame, at the ICA in 2013 that subsequently traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. His work has also been highlighted in exhibitions at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Montserrat College of Art, Boston Center for the Arts, and Samsøn. Locke writes the blog artandeverythingafter.com and teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
An artful take on the book club, ICA Reads connects contemporary literature with work on view at the museum.
