MC Mondays- Same Sun Here Book Launch
As part of our MC Mondays series at Gallery MC, we are proud to present Neela Vaswani’s newest book, Same Sun Here.
Celebrating collaboration as the highest artistic form and working across time zones and languages, this multimedia book launch will blend Vaswani’s work with the response it inspires in talented composers and a visual artist. Themes and story range from Chinatown to the Himalayas as experinced by a fierce young girl learning to live in New York. This timely Young Adult novel is universal in its appeal.
Vaswani will read from her work, bringing the protagonist’s voice to the Gallery. Original music and visuals will blend through the reading, uniting the efforts of artists reacting to each other’s creations.
After the performance there will be an opportunity to meet the author and have copies of Same Sun Here signed. Proceeds from book sales will go toward the continued growth of the MC Mondays series.
The evening will include debut music by Milica Paranosic and the members of the Composers Concordance, specially created for this occasion and performed live by Milica Paranosic, Lynn Bechtold, Dan Copper and Gene Pritsker. The event will also feature visuals by Carmen Kordas and will be directed by Holter Graham.
Neela Vaswani is also author of the short story collection Where the Long Grass Bends, and a memoir,You Have Given Me a Country. Her work has received the American Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, theForeWord Book of the Year gold medal, an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and many other honors. She has a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, lives in New York City, and teaches at Spalding University’s brief-residency MFA in Writing Program. She is founder and curator of the Storylines Project with the New York Public Library.
Book Description
SAME SUN HERE by Neela Vaswani and Silas House
Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly
#1 Young Adult Book in the United States: Indie Next Spring 2012 List.
Only Young Adult title on SIBA’s Okra Pick List of Best Books.
Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them, and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City’s Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner’s son. As Meena’s family studies for citizenship exams and River’s town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences. With honesty and humor, Meena and River bridge the miles between them, creating a friendship that inspires bravery and defeats cultural misconceptions. Narrated in two voices, each voice distinctly articulated by a separate gifted author, this chronicle of two lives powerfully conveys the great value of being and having a friend and the joys of opening our lives to others who live beneath the same sun.
