By Josie Kalbfleisch and Lucy Levinson
On Monday, April 11th Roland Park Country School welcomed author Edwidge Danticat for the annual Anne Healy Lecture. This lecture is funded by the Anne Healy endowment, which honors Anne Healy, who was the Head of the School from 1950 to 1975.
Edwidge Danticat is an accomplished novelist and author; she was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and lived there until the age of twelve, at which point she followed her parents to Brooklyn, who had left a few years prior to flee the Jean-Claude Duvalier regime. Danticat began writing stories as a teenager and always kept Haiti close in her heart and on paper.
During the school day, Dandicat worked with students in the 7th and 8th grades and spoke to the upper school; she then returned for the evening program open to members of the larger community.
Danticat captivated the audience with her wit and warm ruminations on stories, reciting that “when all else, including people, in our lives have disappeared, all we are left with is our stories.”
Danticat read excerpts from her most recent publication and a selection for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, Everything Inside, a collection. She shared that the title was inspired by a sign she happened upon in her neighborhood that read “everything inside is worth dying for,” protesting gentrification.
Danticat wished that the feeling of this collection was one of “entering a great big home and happening upon many people.” Deeply inspired by the stories of her own life, the themes of love, loss, and home transcend through each chapter.
Danticat read selections from “Dosas”, “In the Old Days”,” The Gift'', and “Without Inspection”; stories that examine what drives people apart and brings them together.
The first story from which Danticat read details a woman meeting her sick father for the first time, only to discover that he had died several minutes earlier. Though a niche experience, Danticat constructs her stories in such a manner that captivates the masses, reflecting her meditation that “sometimes the most singular, particular things can be universal.”
Danticat embodied the Haitian proverb, “Words have wings, words have feet,” as she lifted the audience members from their seats and into the world of her characters.
Following the main part of the lecture, Danticat answered questions from the audience, which touched on her writing process, her perspective changes throughout the pandemic, and her connection to Haiti.
After enthusiastic applause, the profound impact of Danticat’s words was on display as attendees rushed to the book signing, assembling a line that wrapped through the Knott Lobby.
The RPCS community was incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to this year’s Anne Healy Lecturer. Danticat extended a great deal of wisdom and joy during her short visit: through pieces of insight like, “the imagination is an incredible survival mechanism,” Edwidge Danticat truly encapsulated the power of storytelling.
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