Next CRP selection focuses on racial aggressions

The Community Reading Project selection for the 2015-2016 academic year recounts racial aggressions, intentional or not, that occur daily to people of color. Critics have said the author weaves a fabric of suburban and urban U.S. life that is almost too much for readers to bear.

“Citizen: An American Lyric,” by Claudia Rankine is an important and timely book, according to Brian Jbara, director of Integrative Learning and Advising. Jbara led a campus committee through a book selection process that he said included many good finalists, but “Citizen” rose above them.

“This is a very relevant book,” Jbara said. “It deals with society’s power structures and the daily occurrences of microaggressions,” he said.

Rankine’s book, which melds poetry and prose, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, and was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award in Poetry, among other literary honors.

Rankine writes about tennis star Serena Williams and the racial slurs she endured from fans and competitors on the circuit, and about an unknown woman who switches airplane seats with her daughter because her daughter doesn’t want to sit next to a person of color.

In a review, Publishers Weekly said Rankine’s book “inspires sympathy and outrage, but most of all a will to take a deep look at ourselves and our society.”

A year’s worth of programming will focus on the book, culminating with a campus visit from Rankine next April. A teaching circle for faculty members who plan to use the book with their classes is set for August 11, 2-4 p.m., in the Alumni House.

Faculty and staff members can check out copies of “Citizen” from the Integrative Learning and Advising office in Lake Michigan Hall. Contact Anita Benes at [email protected] to request a copy.

Visit www.gvsu.edu/read to learn more about “Citizen” and see other books considered by the CRP selection committee. The CRP is sponsored by the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies, University Libraries, Herrick District Library and the Grand Rapids Community Foundation in addition to many on-campus departments.