Thurs. October 21
"Thirteen dead black men, and nobody knows it happened," so says Johnny Smith, who sets out on a quest to make things right in the powerful novella that begins this collection - a masterpiece of collaged voices. Voice is urgent and significant--Dobson focuses throughout on the invisible and the unvoiced-he brings them to center stage, where they speak their pain and frustration. "Maybe we can revise history," one of his characters says; Frank Dobson's book does just that.
The narrative of the .22-Caliber killings in Buffalo in the novella’s first story is little known to most Americans. The lives of blacks and whites caught up in those tense days makes for suspenseful, compelling reading. “Race is all around us, man, choking us.” The black and white worlds of Johnny Smith and Bill Reilly have been turned upside down by a serial killer determined to incite a race war by slaying black men. Amidst the chaos, Bill reaches out to help Johnny find his missing wife and daughter. Can they bridge the racial divide? Rendered Invisible takes you inside 1980’s New York and the true-life racial turmoil and communities in crisis. The personal search for common ground in spite of race, gender and class are illuminated in six critically recognized short stories in “Rendered Invisible” by Dr. Frank Dobson.
Few writers translate our current daily challenge with cultural diversity as Dr. Frank Dobson offers in Rendered Invisible as he explores race and life in America. These narrative stories of fascinating characters of blacks and whites enmeshed in circumstances that compel and delight makes for suspenseful and convincing reading. The plot of the stories is richly textured clearly rooted in an earlier moment but connecting those issues to urgent ones in our present. Frank Dobson makes us look outward and upward while gazing deeply back and down inside ourselves. The writing is easy to read and draws you into the story where you end up finding yourself shaken up by the events.
TIMES:
We offer two sessions for each Vanderbilt Virtual School videoconference: one session at 9:00 AM CENTRAL TIME and one session at 10:00 AM CENTRAL TIME.
COST:
The cost for a videoconference session is $75. This charge covers some of our expenses in preparing your videoconference and testing and delivering your videoconference.
FORMAT:
All videoconferences are approximately 45 minutes in length. The format is about 25-30 minutes for the presentation and 15-20 minutes for an interactive question and answer session with the students and presenter.
Please see the Virtual School website for information and lesson plans for each videoconference topic: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/
REGISTER online: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/virtualschool/registration.htm
Patsy Partin, M.Ed
Director, Virtual School
Vanderbilt University
2007 Terrace Place
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-6384
