PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY ONLINE: Around the World in Literature & Language - Columbia

July 30, 2020
6:30pm - 8:00pm

The OCPL Summer Reading Program theme for 2020 is "Reading Takes You Places" and our summer People's U is going to do just that! We're going to dive into some great world literature and along the way learn some useful words and phrases from the regions these stories take place. We'll be heading to places like Japan, Russia, Nigeria, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia,  and more! Join us as we 読んだ (Yonda), читать (chitat'), soma, leggere, lese, read our way across the world. 

Hola! The eighth and final class on July 30 will take students 5,600 miles southwest across the Atlantic and 270 years forward in time to explore early twentieth century Columbia through the lush novel Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Instructor Dr. Kim Grewe calls the book "a parable, perhaps, for our times, with themes of looking at the later years in life as a place of richness and celebrating the sacredness of ritual." A lifelong educator, Dr. Grewe is Professor and Instructional Designer at Northern Virginia Community College. Epitomizing the theme, she lives 2,500 miles from her job in northern California. She will be joined by K. V. White will take us on a short virtual tour of some of the most breathtaking Venezuelan landscapes captured in 20th Century literary masterpieces. We'll also chat about contrapunteos llaneros. 

Watch this People's University Online live, July 30 at 6:30 pm on YouTube, Facebook, or the OCPL website. Log into your YouTube or Facebook accounts to send questions and comments to Dr. Grewe and K.V. White during the program.  Can't tune in the night of the program? No problem -  all of our programs are recorded and available for playback following the presentation.

Kim: "The title speaks to me – a parable, perhaps, for our times. With one of the themes of looking at the later years in life as a place of richness, celebrating the sacredness of ritual, it will no doubt be interesting to our readers. It has lengthy descriptive passages of beautiful, lush landscapes – it has everything really. It may even be more of a philosophical examination in some ways but there is no doubt it is every bit a novel. The structure will be fun to analyze. I love that it has a disjointed time sequence. We can probably take a foray into magical realism. It should be truly exciting and rich, with much to talk about."

Instructors:
Kim Grewe, PhD—Professor and Instructional Designer at Northern Virginia Community College and co-presenter K.V. White, an English Professor originally from Venezuela. Professor White will provide travel, geography, culture, and language of Venezuela. Dr. Grewe is a lifelong educator whose love affair with books began at an early age and is still going strong. Kim’s teaching has run the gamut: from middle school to college, in areas ranging from composition to creative writing, science fiction to American Literature. Her current work as an instructional designer allows her to collaborate with teaching faculty and use technology to create rich learning experiences for students at Northern Virginia Community College. Kim has a Bachelor’s degree in English from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA, and a Master’s degree in English from Salisbury University in Salisbury, MD. Kim earned a second Master’s in Educational Technology from San Diego State University. She recently earned her doctorate in Community College Leadership from Old Dominion University. When she isn’t reading or journaling about her reading, Kim likes to hike the mountains and wetlands of Northern California where she lives, practice yoga, cook, and contemplate the meaning of life.

K. V. White earned her English B.A. at Marymount University, and her English M. A. at The Pennsylvania State University. She was also an intern at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian) in Washington D.C. when she was an undergrad. Currently, K. V. is working on her Cultural Studies Ph.D. at the George Mason University. She began her academic career teaching composition and literature, but she is now serving as an Associate Dean at Northern Virginia Community College.

- People's University Online-
Thursdays from 6:30 pm to 8 pm on YouTube Live and Facebook Live

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ABOUT PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY:

The People’s University features courses (taught by experts in each subject) that enable patrons to pursue their goal of lifelong learning in classic subjects such as history, music appreciation, philosophy, and literature. Patrons may attend as many classes as they wish. There are no tests of other requirements and all programs are free and open to the public.