Centre County Reads Program Explores Stories of Immigrants

Centre County Reads 2020 programs continue on Tuesday, March 3, when Dr. Nalini Krishnankutty discusses “Re-viewing History: Centering the Stories of Immigrants.” The free program begins at 6:30 p.m. in Schlow Centre Region Library’s Downsbrough Community Room.

Krishnankutty asks the questions “Is the US really a ‘nation of immigrants’?” and “What does that phrase mean to each of us?” Using personal and historical examples, her talk will highlight how our views of the country’s past and the present can profoundly shift when we focus our lens on immigrant experiences and contributions.

Krishnankutty is a first-generation immigrant American. She is an engineer turned educator, writer, and speaker, who focuses on shaping narratives about immigrants through classes, workshops and talks at conferences, community and workplace programs, and in schools and libraries. The video of her 2018 TEDxPSU talk, “How Immigrants Shape(d) the United States” is being used in public school and university classrooms, and for training sessions across the country. She is currently writing children’s books focused on the immigrant experience, and she serves as a commissioner on Governor Tom Wolf’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs.

This year’s Centre County Reads selection, Charming Billy by Alice McDermott, looks at an Irish-American community. “Charming Billy is a novel driven by its characters, who they are as second-generation Irish-Americans, and how they express their regard for one another,” says Maria Burchill, Schlow’s head of adult services.

Upcoming Centre County Reads events include a roundtable discussion, “American Dreams: Romance and Reality,” March 30 at Penn State’s Paterno Library, and Alice McDermott’s visit on April 16 at the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium. 

The Center for American Literary Studies and Centre County Reads also are presenting their annual writing contest. Entries for “Careful Writing” are due March 27, 2020. For rules and information, visit centrecountyreads.org.

Centre County Reads coordinators are the Center for American Literary Studies, the Center for Global Studies, Centre County Libraries & Historical Museum, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Schlow Centre Region, Library, the State College, Philipsburg-Osceola, Penns Valley, and Bellefonte area school districts, and Schlow Library Foundation. Partners for Centre County Reads 2020 include Penn State’s Creative Writing Program’s Mary E. Rolling Reading Series.

For more information about Centre County Reads, visit centrecountyreads.org.

Contact | David Pencek: dpencek@schlowlibrary.org