Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-born, American-raised author, treated the University community to a reading of her various works last Thursday. Nau Lecture Hall was packed with students and faculty alike eager to hear this award-winning author.
Danticat’s reputation of intellectual achievement preceded her — she has completed an M.F.A. at Brown University and has received the highly prestigious Thomas MacArthur Fellows Program Genius Award. However, despite her impressive array of accolades, she spoke and read with great humility and warmth, both entertaining and educating the audience.
Before Danticat began reading, she hugged the graduate student who had introduced her and complimented English Prof. Jeb Livingood saying, “I love your name.” Her comment, coupled with an easy smile, relaxed the audience. She further charmed the audience with an anecdote about publishing her first book, laughingly recounting how the publisher had only opened her manuscript because he had been unsure of whether to address the letter of rejection to a Mr. or Ms. Danticat, so ambiguous was her first name, Edwidge.
Her opening remarks were followed by beautiful readings from her works, “Breath, Eyes, Memories,” “Claire of the Sea Light” and “Brother, I’m Dying.” Each excerpt, while showcasing a different style of writing from different periods in Danticat’s career, explored the relationship between mother and daughter.
The excerpt from “Breath, Eyes, Memory” explicated the intangible traditions and heritage handed down from mother to daughter over the generations. For example, Edwidge’s reading of “Claire of the Sea Light” explored the moment at which a wife reveals her pregnancy to her husband.
The readings culminated with a passage from her memoir, “Brother, I’m Dying” which recounted the emotional and physical process of Danticat giving birth to her own daughter. Danticat read from her memoir that her daughter, upon being born, became the family’s “sacred place to rest.” The crucial importance which Danticat assigns her daughter, even as an infant, is foreshadowed by the close attention Danticat pays to her daughters in her earlier works.
Danticat’s reading of “Breath, Eyes, Memory” concluded with the phrase, “Words have wings. Words have feet. Let the words bring wings to your feet.”
Danticat’s entire presentation was a profound demonstration of the power of words — a power her own novel defines so eloquently. She showed viewers how cathartic writing can be, encouraging the downtrodden with her experiences and the beautiful works she created from them. The powerful stories she shared created an intimate atmosphere for the audience and moved all in attendance.
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