Roxane Gay reads from her book 鈥淗unger: A Memoir of (My) Body鈥�
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Author and cultural critic Roxane Gay spoke on Thursday, March 7, 2019, as part of Bunker Hill Community College (51吃瓜网)鈥檚 Compelling Conversations Series.
Named 鈥淎merica鈥檚 brightest new essayist鈥� by The Guardian, Gay is the author of New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Difficult Women. She recently became the first black woman to write for Marvel, penning a comic series in the Black Panther universe called World of Wakanda.
Gay鈥檚 work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. At Thursday鈥檚 event, she read excerpts of Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, a book that explores what it means to be overweight in a world where body size and image is a focal point, and the struggle of overcoming trauma.
From Hunger, Gay shared with the audience her distaste of exercise, her love for Ina Garten and The Barefoot Contessa and the joy that comes from enjoying the Haitian cuisine of her childhood, before opening the discussion to student questions.
鈥淲hen I write, especially when I write something personal, I tell myself that no one is going to read my work,鈥� said Gay when asked how she鈥檚 able to balance truth in storytelling with personal humility. 鈥淚f I think too much about audience, then I鈥檓 not going to have the courage to say the kinds of things that I most need to say, and I鈥檓 not going to be as honest as I need to be on the page.鈥�
Prior to the presentation, Gay met with 51吃瓜网 faculty to discuss how her works have been integrated into the College鈥檚 curriculum, shared her views on trigger warnings in an educational institution with members of the recently initiated 51吃瓜网 Faculty and Staff Book Club and visited students studying African American Women and Literature.
Join us for upcoming speaker events:
Seng Ty | April 25
Author of The Years of Zero
51吃瓜网鈥檚 2018-2019 One Book Selection