Milton Public Library to offer educational virtual programming for adults via Zoom on Thursday, October 22nd at 6 pm

There will be an enjoyable talk via Zoom as part of “Milton Reads” on Thursday, October 22nd at 6 PM with authors Prof. LeAnne Howe and Prof. Padraig Kirwan as they discuss their new book called Famine Pots: The Choctaw-Irish Gift Exchange, 1847-Present.  Keeping with the theme of our community read this year about the Irish Famine, the remarkable story of the money sent by the Choctaw to the Irish in 1847 is often told and remembered by people in both nations.  This gift was set to the Irish from the Choctaw at the height of the potato famine in Ireland, just 16 years after the Choctaw began their march on the Trail of Tears toward the areas west of the Mississippi River.  Famine Pots honors that extraordinary gift and provides further context about and consideration of this powerful symbol of cross-cultural synergy through a collection of essays and poems that speak volumes of the empathy and connectivity between the two communities.  As well as signaling patterns of movement and exchange, this study of the gift exchange invites reflection on processes of cultural formation within Choctaw and Irish society alike, and sheds light on longtime concerns surrounding spiritual and social identities.  This volume aims to facilitate a fuller understanding of the historical complexities that surrounded migration and movement in the colonial world, which in turn will help lead to a more constructive consideration of the ways in which Irish and Native American Studies might be drawn together today.  LeAnne Howe, born and raised in Oklahoma, is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and the Edison Distinguished Professor in American Literature at the University of Georgia.  Padraig Kirwan is Senior Lecturer in the Dept. of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.  This program is kindly sponsored by the Friends of the Milton Public Library and advance registration is required to participate.

Please go to this link to sign up and to learn more about the program:  https://tinyurl.com/y5h8u7xz  or Email Librarian Jean Hlady at [email protected]