Louisiana Center for the Book Presents Annual Black History Month Program
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana will celebrate Black History Month with “Gather at the River: A Tribute to Ernest J. Gaines” on Wednesday, February 19, from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. in the Seminar Center of the State of Louisiana, located at 701 North 4th Street, Baton Rouge. This program, celebrating the life and work of Gaines, will be hosted by his close friend, Gaines Center board member, and two-time Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque and will feature several authors, poets, and others with close personal connections to Gaines reading favorite passages from his work.
“Louisiana is arguably the most diverse state in the nation, and we value our rich African-American history and culture,” said Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser. “When we lost Ernest Gaines this past November, we lost a state treasure. The contributions of Ernest Gaines have significantly shaped Louisiana’s literary heritage.”
Gaines was born and raised in Point Coupee Parish, which serves as the backdrop for many of his works, including the Pulitzer Prize nominated and National Book Critics Circle Award winning novel A Lesson Before Dying. He went on to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, have a literary excellence award named in his honor, and be chosen as the first recipient of the annual Louisiana Writer Award in 2000 presented by the State Library’s Louisiana Center for the Book.
“The arc of Gaines’s novels and dramatizations of them, such as The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying, as well as his own life lived through the civil rights movement, provide lessons in Black history for America,” observed Rebecca Hamilton, State Librarian of Louisiana. “An enduring legacy of Gaines is the impact his work will continue to have in raising our country’s awareness of the racial and social divides that remain as important today as ever.”
Program participants will include Marcia Gaudet, Professor of English Emerita and founder and board president of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Cheylon Woods, Director of the Gaines Center; Louisiana State Senator Karen Carter Peterson; and Gaines’s wife, Dianne Gaines, among others.
The presentation is free and open to the public, and attendees are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch. Registration is not required. For a full list of participants see below.
A Tribute to Ernest J. Gaines
Participants
Darrell Bourque, poet and Gaines Center board member
Tony Chassion III, writer and former student of Dr. Gaines
Hollis Conway, two-time Olympic medalist and Director of Community Development for Lafayette’s Consolidated Government
Dianne Gaines, lawyer and wife of Ernest J. Gaines
Marcia Gaudet, Professor Emerita and founder and board president of Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Phebe Hayes, former Dean of General Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Gaines Center board member, and founder of New Iberia Parish African American Historical Society
Dr. Ernest Kinchen, Lafayette-based physician and general surgeonKaren
Carter Peterson, Louisiana State Senator
Mona Lisa Saloy, poet, folklorist, and creative writing professor at Dillard University
Gerald Singleton, veteran and life-long reader of Gaines’s works
Michelle Vallot, lawyer, entrepreneur, and president of Zydeco Foods, LLC
Cheylon Woods, archivist and director of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Rebecca Hamilton
State Library of Louisiana
225-342-4923
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Julio Guichard
Office of the Lieutenant Governor
225-342-7009
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