Thursday, January 23, 4-6pm
Instituto Allende, Ancha de San Antonio 22
$200 / $11 USD

Journey in Solidarity with Global Migrants

By Susan Page

Be prepared for an experience that will leave you breathless, moved, and enlightened. This multi-media, audience participation, two-hour event, entitled, “A Journey in Solidarity with Global Migrants,” will definitely be a journey for all participants. The meeting planners, Kim Malcolm and Jodi Pincus, have created an encounter that will take us inside the experience of migrants and educate us about a global crisis that now involves more than seventy million people. The migrants are not all poor, uneducated people. Many are middle or upper class families fleeing their homes for their own safety to escape war, runaway crime, or environmental disasters. Become acquainted with some of these people, and hear their widely varied stories.

You will hear stories from not only migrants themselves, but also border patrol officers, clergy, psychologists, police, medical professionals, and others who have become intimately involved with this alarming world-wide phenomenon.

This journey of solidarity was inspired by the highly acclaimed, Booker Prize-nominated novel, Lost Children Archive, which is the featured book for this year’s annual community-wide Big Read. The “journey” will explore the novel's mysteries by deploying the powers of our intellect and our hearts toward a greater understanding of the migration crisis. The event's unconventional format is intended to help us understand the unconventional novel and its deeper messages.

Valeria Luiselli
The author of the novel, Valeria Luiselli, was scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at the Conference, but had to cancel her appearance here. (The author who will replace her, Colum McCann, has the reputation of being one of the most entertaining, humorous, totally engaging and beloved speakers on the entire author circuit.)

Big Read Discussion Groups
Almost a hundred people around town have already signed up to participate in one of the Big Read discussion groups, which will take place in the two weeks after the “Journey” program. Groups will be discussing, not only the novel itself, but also the issues that will be raised by this most unconventional event. There is still time to sign up to participant in a special Big Read discussion group by e-mailing Nancy Stich at bigread@sanmiguelwritersconference.org.

Tickets and Books
Tickets for “A Journey in Solidarity with Global Migrants” are available on line at sanmiguelliterarysala.org. Copies of the novel are for sale in the Tesores store in the Biblioteca. “A Journey in Solidarity with Global Migrants” will take place at the Instituto Allende on Thursday, January 23 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. Admission is $200 pesos or $11 USD.