Homegoing: A Discussion with author Yaa Gyasi and
A Two-Way Mirror Curator Jabari Owens-Bailey

Thursday, March 7 | 7:30–9:30pm
University of Puget Sound – Schneebeck Concert Hall
Free with required ticket

Join Museum of Glass, in conjunction with the Race & Pedagogy Institute and African American Studies at the University of Puget Sound, and Pierce County Library System & Foundation, in conversation with author Yaa Gyasi about her debut novel, Homegoing. Homegoing spans two continents and three centuries, telling the story of generational effects of the Transatlantic slave trade on one family. Jabari Owens-Bailey, exhibition curator of A Two-Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists at Museum of Glass, will lead the discussion.

There will be a book signing following the conversation. Light refreshments will be provided.

The event is free to attend, but tickets are required. Tickets are available online at the link below and in-person at the University of Puget Sound Bookstore.

Recommended parking is in the Thompson Hall parking lot on the east side of N. 14th Street and Union Avenue or along the east side of Union Avenue. Please review the campus interactive map and printable maps here for more details.

Reserve Tickets

Museum of Glass Big Read Kick-Off Event

Third Thursday, February 15 | 5:30–7:30pm
Museum of Glass – Grand Hall
Free

Visit Museum of Glass during February’s Third Thursday program for the kick-off of a series of cosponsored events surrounding Yaa Gyasi’s book Homegoing. Made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program, these events will explore Homegoing alongside MOG’s current exhibition A Two-Way Mirror: Double Consciousness in Contemporary Glass by Black Artists through shared themes such as migration, history of enslavement, generational trauma, resilience, and the shifting of Black identities.

The kick-off night will feature readings by a local actor, interactive writing exercises, and a station where staff members from Pierce County Library System will be in attendance to assist with sign-ups for upcoming Big Read workshops and book discussions about Homegoing and distribute copies of the book to participants.

This event is co-sponsored by Pierce County Library System. These programs are made possible by funding from National Endowment for the Arts Big Read.

Homegoing

International Bestseller - Winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize - Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction

Description:
”Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.

One of Oprah’s Best Books of the Year, Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed – and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.” – Vintage Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House

Photo courtesy of Peter Hurley/Vilcek Foundation.

YAA GYASI is the author of the highly acclaimed debut novel Homegoing and a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s 2016 “5 Under 35” Award. Gyasi was born in Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. She holds a BA in English from Stanford University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she held a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellowship. Her second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, was published in September 2020. She lives in New York City.