2003 United We Read Jacqueline Guidry's Presentation at the United We Read 2003 Kick-Off at the Lyric Opera on 8/7/03. "Thank you. And thanks also to the United We Read program for selecting my novel, "The Year the Colored Sisters Came To Town," for this year's project. I'm thrilled about my book's selection and eager to participate in the process of listening to Kansas City discuss my book. COLORED SISTERS explores the effects on a family and a community when two African-American nuns, the "colored sisters" of the title, are assigned to teach in an all-white Catholic grade school. The community is deeply divided and that division is paralleled by divisions in the family of Vivien Leigh Dubois, the 10-year-old narrator. This book tells the story of the birth of the civil rights movement. It was a birth not in the speeches of civil rights leaders, nor in the demonstrations of protesters, but in the anonymous households of ordinary families throughout the South, really throughout our country. Set in the 1950's, the characters in COLORED SISTERS struggle with the chains of their past and grope toward an uncertain future. With a half-century of hindsight, we can be grateful to the massive, yet still incomplete, social change they accomplished. It was an era in our nation's history which must not be forgotten and writing COLORED SISTERS was my effort at insuring it won't be. I have already been fortunate to participate in several book clubs throughout the metropolitan area as those readers discussed their responses to my book. I was struck by readers' insights into the meaning of portions of the book and how those insights have expanded my own understanding of the book I wrote. I was also moved by readers' eagerness to share their experiences: this is how bigotry has affected me; this is how racism manifested itself in my life. I hope the United We Read program will encourage many additional readers to have those discussions, to spend some moments considering the impact of racism on their own lives. I also hope the program generates excitement and a sense of unity in our community as we join together to read and discuss the book. Let the reading begin." --Jacqueline Guidry For further information contact: Kansas City Metropolitan Library & Information Network 15624 E. 24 Highway Independence, MO 64050 Phone: (816) 521-7257 Fax: (816) 461-0966 Email: sburton@kcmlin.org Last updated 5/20/03