Campus-Wide Welcome Read Celebration Kicks Off September 26
The campus-wide community is invited to attend the speaker and author events for the English department's fourth annual Welcome Read. The Welcome Read book, While the Earth Sleeps, We Travel, a Collection of Stories, Poetry, and Art by Young Refugees Around the World, is edited by Ahmed M. Badr, an Iraqi American author, poet, and social entrepreneur.
“We particularly want to focus on first-year experience students to give them an exciting intellectual experience through reading this book, meeting the author, engaging in oral history, conducting research, learning about the book’s artwork, and writing reflection essays,” said Beth Counihan, Professor, English who launched the Welcome Read in fall 2021.
In 2023, the Welcome Read program was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant ($25,000), which enabled the organizers to create the program's current format and provide free books for students.
The Welcome Read events, now funded by the Kupferberg Holocaust Center, will include dozens of English and other faculty members across campus. Some 675 students are expected to participate in the events. The free books are available to faculty members and students on the first day of the fall semester. Each faculty member chooses an assignment that is built into the curriculum.
“This year’s theme is the refugee crisis,” said Schrynemakers. “The mission of Queensborough, the culture of care, the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion—this book encapsulates all these concepts and goals. This is an opportunity for students-- --for everyone--to come together in a shared conversation about this global crisis and learn from these stories of those who have gone through so much."
On Thursday, September 26, Kebedech Tekleab, Associate Professor, Art & Design, will lead a workshop, Refugee Crisis1: Introducing the Welcome Read Text 9:15-10:00 am in S112. And on Monday, September 30, from 11:15-noon and again at 12:15-1:00 pm in S112. Tekleab, who has taught at Queensborough since 2016, is a published poet, painter, sculptor, and installation artist.
On Tuesday, October 1, author/poet lê thi diem thú, will speak on the Welcome Read Text II at 11:15 - 12:00 pm or 12:15 – 1:00 pm at QPAC. She is a Vietnamese American author, poet, and performance artist.
On Wednesday, October 9, a faculty-led Welcome Read Book Club workshop will take place from 10:45-noon, Student Union, Upper Level. Students welcome!
The English department collaborated with President Mangino to hold a Welcome Read discussion of the book with members of the President’s Book Club in the Kupferberg Holocaust Center on Wednesday, October 16from 10:45-noon.
On Tuesday, October 22, the campus community will have an opportunity to Meet the Editor Ahmed M. Bahr. He will speak from 11:15 to noon and again from 12:15-1:00 pm in QPAC.
“I am honored that Queensborough has selected my book-- a labor of love centered around a displacement story and someone who happens to be displaced--beyond what may be tragedy to include hopes and dreams. What does it mean to share your own story on your own terms? I invite everyone to think about their own lived experience.” Bahr is the Director of the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Wesleyan University.
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