Office of Campus Community Relations

October 26, 2004
California Aggie

Davis Public Library looks forward to Twilight

Campus Community Book Project sponsors discussion

By JENNIFER ELLIS

The Friends of the Davis Public Library will hold a public discussion of Anna Deavere Smith's novel/play Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 at 7 p.m. tonight at the Davis Public Library.

The hour-and-a-half discussion is a collaborative effort between the city library, the host of an annual book discussion, and the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project. Karen Roth, director of the Diversity Education Program and chair of the Campus Community Book Project, will facilitate the dialogue.

The Campus Community Book Project committee, including professors and various Davis personnel, selected Twilight as the yearlong campus community book from 60 to 70 nominations suggested during the 2003-2004 academic year.

"[The book] addressed a campus and community issue that we have been struggling with [including] hate crimes and other bias-related incidents," Roth said.

The novel/play is a collection of verbatim anecdotes Smith composed from over 200 interviews conducted in Los Angeles in 1992. Although the text's poetic style frustrates some readers, Smith said the committee found it to be a creative approach to learning the issues raised throughout.

Roth said she intends to ask discussion participants which of the anecdotes in the text were the most powerful and most personal. She personally highlighted the novel/play's namesake scene, which appears last in the film version, Twilight.

"We have to know and interact with people who are different than us," Roth said, especially emphasized in Twilight. "That's the way we'll transcend the violence."

She notes, however, that there are many rich pieces within the work.

Sheri Willis, publicity coordinator for the Friends of the Davis Public Library, said she feels public discussions are a benefit to the community and the reader.

"I believe that discussions like this one can expand your understanding of what you read," Willis said.

Willis also noted that the events "bring the community and UCD staff and students together." She said she feels it is important to "get literary situations out there to the public."

The community discussion is only one of several planned events for Smith's work. She will speak about the work at 8 p.m. on Nov. 9 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, along with a performance aspect to the talk. Smith will also appear at a panel discussion with community and university leaders the same day at noon at the Mondavi Center. Roth said the panel will discuss issues such as community violence and biased-based crimes.

Other discussions designed around the text will be held in collaboration with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and American studies professor Nicole Fleetwood.

The campus book project is an annual program and has featured books such as Mark Juergensmeyer's Gandhi's Way from 2003-2004 and Anne Fadiman`s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down from 2002-2003.

More information about upcoming events for the Community Book Project is available at occr.ucdavis.edu/bookproject.html.

JENNIFER ELLIS can be reached at city@californiaaggie.com.