On
the surface the subjects of our authors’ works seem worlds apart. They
share, however, a common theme. Both present communities in crisis and
individual and communal attempts to survive and thrive amidst larger
inimical conditions: in one case a deadly pandemic, and in the other,
challenges faced by a Latino immigrant community.
Angel Garcia’s first book, The Kingdom Began in Puerto Rico,
is set in the historical context of a changing world and a changing
Catholic Church. It follows Fr. Neil Connolly’s path through the South
Bronx, which began with a Church program to address the postwar great
Puerto Rican migration. Fr. Neil served the largest concentration of
Puerto Ricans in the Bronx from the 1960s to the 1980s as they struggled
for a decent life. In the war against drugs, poverty, and crime,
Connolly created a dynamic organization run by the people and supported
Unitas, a peer-driven mental health program for youth. Frustrated by the
lack of institutional responses to his community’s challenges, Connolly
challenged government abandonment and spoke out against ill-conceived
public plans. Ultimately, he realized that his mission was in developing
new leaders and supporting two unique lay leadership programs.
Richard Smith’s Not a Soul but Us
won the 2021 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. The book is a verse
narrative set in a medieval English village, where the plague pandemic
has wiped out half the population. Left behind are a twelve-year-old
shepherd boy and his dog, who keep their flock alive through a brutal
winter—and then must figure out how to reconnect with the world around
them. In the words of poet Meg Kearney, the book “drives to the heart of
what we humans are capable of when boiled down to our very core in the
struggle to survive—and how it’s not our intelligence or our resiliency
but love and the non-human animals that save us. Timely, remarkable, and
unforgettable, these eighty-four sonnets are so well crafted that cease
to notice the form, swept away as we are by the current of the story
and its song.”
Angel Garcia was the Executive Director of South
Bronx People for Change, a Church-based direct action and membership
organization. Born in Puerto Rico, and a graduate of Princeton, and Pace
University, he is a long-term resident of the South Bronx, and has
volunteered on social justice, environmental and political campaigns,
and an affordable housing board.
After graduating, Richard Smith
worked in publishing for twelve years and then retooled as a clinical
psychologist, earning his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. He
maintains a private practice in Washington, D.C., where he lives with
his partner and their two dogs
We hope to see you Saturday!
Kathryn Reimann & Bruce Petersen, Co-Chairs ‘79 Authors and Artists Series
