This year’s One Book Day is Wednesday, October 24th. The featured book, This Far by Faith, discusses a wide range of social and health-related issues in Detroit, such as poverty, joblessness, mental illness and homelessness. The Reverend Faith Fowler, pastor of the Cass Community United Methodist Church, wrote This Far by Faith to humanize the people who use the services offered by the Cass Community Church and its associated services. To celebrate This Far by Faith, IU East has scheduled an entire day of events coinciding with the book’s themes. A summary of events, and resource information is in the One Book 2018 libguide.
11:00 – Community Room
Film: The Last Days of Chinatown
Artist, filmmaker and Cass Corridor resident Nicole MacDonald traces the history of the Cass Corridor through historical documents, newsreel footage, broadcast news and its own residents. Beginning as a wealthy neighborhood located on land once owned by Michigan governor Lewis Cass, the Cass Corridor has seen a change of identity over time – from upscale mansions to a once-thriving Chinatown to an impoverished, racially diverse neighborhood. Today, with the surrounding Midtown area experiencing rapid gentrification, the Corridor is changing once again, with residents being priced out or relocated to build boutiques, restaurants and a new hockey arena. The Last Days of Chinatown is a document both loving and sorrowful, dedicated to one of the most storied neighborhoods in Detroit.
2:00 – Community Room
Workshop: Building Blocks: Community Action to End Homelessness
Faith Fowler’s current book, Tiny Homes in a Big City, features her solution to chronic homelessness and its attendant success. In response to a longterm shortage of housing options in Detroit for the homeless, Fowler, along with volunteers from Ford Motor Company and members of the Cass Community, constructed a series of tiny houses in Detroit. These houses offer a path to homeownership for residents and provides both dignity and shelter to those who have neither. This workshop will foster discussion and foment possible solutions regarding homelessness in Richmond and Wayne County. Students, staff, faculty and community members are invited to participate and connect with the resources available – and brainstorm ideas of their own. This event is limited to 50 participants; reserve your seat here.
4:30 – Community Room
Writer’s Circle with Kelly Blewett
English faculty member Kelly Blewett will be leading an examination of Faith’s book This Far by Faith. What makes it a powerful document? How does its testimony of human spirit come across to the reader? How does this book prove its effectiveness as both a document of time and place and as a catalyst for change? Participants in this writer’s circle will explore style, voice, characterization and other elements of writing to bring out the best of Faith’s book.
7:00 – Vivian Auditorium
Faith Fowler
The Reverend Faith Fowler, author of this year’s One Book, is coming to IU East as part of our One Book celebration. Her work in Detroit has been recognized throughout the US, receiving publicity on PBS for her Tiny Homes Project while earning a place in the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. She has led the Cass Community United Methodist Church since 1994. Under her leadership she and her church have established businesses which hire developmentally disabled employees to turn old tires into stylish footwear, created the only housing in Detroit specifically aimed at men with HIV, built a commercial kitchen which serves thousands of meals every day and built 15 generators to supply power to residents in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year. Seating is limited – to reserve your ticket, click here.
Questions about research sources for any of these topics? Ask us! iueref@iue.edu