March 19: The Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace

NEWS RELEASE

 

 

Immediate:  February 29, 2012Media Contact:  Alicia Steger516.572.9634Email:  alicia.steger@ncc.eduncc.edu/releases

Nassau Community College Presents Noted Author Maxine Hong Kingston:The Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace

March 19

Garden City, NY — The Nassau Community College Spring Cultural Program is proud to present noted writer Maxine Hong Kingston, author of the acclaimed "The Woman Warrior," which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as several other books. Kingston will speak about The Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace on Monday, March 19, once at 11:00 a.m. and then again at 2:00 p.m. in the College Center Building.Maxine Hong Kingston grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Stockton, California. Her parents serve as the primary sources for the imaginative stories she writes. Kingston's father came to America as a scholar and teacher, but made his early living in the United States washing windows, and later as part owner of a New York laundry. Hong's mother, Brave Orchid, was a respected doctor in China. She had several different jobs in America, including laundry woman, cannery worker and maid. Although Kingston's father was quiet about his life in China, her mother was vocal. She would "talk stories" to her children at bedtime, offering tales of ghosts and family, as well as myths and legends. The "ghosts" in Kingston's stories represent the remains of Chinese traditions present in her life as a child. Through her writing, she gives substance to the "ghosts" in her life.The Woman Warrior's Journey to Peace — which is free, open to the public and accessible to the disabled — is cosponsored by the Women's History Month committee. For more information about the program, call 516.572.7153.About Nassau Community CollegeNassau Community College, part of the State University of New York, is an institution where over 24,000 full- and part-time students and almost 15,000 continuing and professional studies students start and continue their successful journey through higher education. More than 70 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus, two-year college in New York State, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation for excellence.Ref.:1583.3/7/12/180