The Deep Read – A Conversation with Yaa Gyasi
On May 15, 2022 novelist Yaa Gyasi and UC Santa Cruz Professor Emerita of Literature Karen Tei Yamashita spoke at the Quarry Amphitheater, as we closed the book on the 2022 Deep Read exploration of Transcendent Kingdom.
Watch a recording of the event here:
View photos of the event here:
Exploring Transcendent Kingdom
As we do every year, we read our annual text closely and comprehensively with the help from scholars at UC Santa Cruz. Over 4 weeks starting in mid-April, we read and explored Yaa Gyasi’s novel together.
Here’s what we did:
Email Explorations
We produced 4 weekly emails that reflected on a different aspect of the book, guided by this year’s Deep Read scholars — UC Santa Cruz professors in the Humanities and Physical Sciences.
- Week 1: Let’s Dig In
- Week 2: Dilemmas of Identity
- Week 3: Memory & Form
- Week 4: Integrating Faith & Science
Faculty Salon
On May 4, we hosted the 2022 Deep Read Salon where we discussed Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom with UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive, Vilashini Cooppan (Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies) and Gina Athena Ulysse(Feminist Studies).
Community Conversations
We’ll had online forums for each of the weekly explorations of the novel where Deep readers can poses questions, posted comments, and engaged with fellow Deep Readers.
The Class
In Spring Quarter 2022, Porter College hosted a course (PRTR 151A) for UCSC students titled “Yaa Gyasi and Contemporary African Diasporic Literature.” Students engaged with Gyasi as a Ghanaian American writer whose work is as interested in taking up established African American literary themes, such as trauma and the historical legacies of Atlantic slavery, as it is engaged with issues central to African Diasporic Literature, such as urban mobility and the difficulty African immigrants face navigating middle-class aspirations. Many insights from the class were shared with the broader Deep Read community throughout the program.
The Deep Read is an annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. We invite curious minds to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment with the help from scholars at UC Santa Cruz.
The Deep Read Program is made possible through the generous support of the Helen and Will Webster Foundation.