Western Reads Announces Fall Film Series Slate

The Western Reads/First-Year Interest Groups fall film series, “Diversity and Diverse Voices in the American Cultural Landscape,” will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday evenings in Bond Hall 105 on the Western Washington University campus.

All events are free and open to the public. The film choices are in supports of this year’s Western Reads book, “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and a panel discussion will follow each film.

The fall slate is as follows:

  • Sept. 27: “James Baldwin: The Price of a Ticket” (1989)
  • Oct. 4: “Within Our Gates” (1920)
  • Oct. 11: “Mississippi Burning” (1988)
  • Oct. 18: “Dear White People” (2014)
  • Oct. 25: “The Visitor” (2007)
  • Nov. 1: “El Norte” (1983)
  • Nov. 8: “Meet the Patels” (2014)
  • Nov. 15: “Smoke Signals” (1998)
  • Nov. 29: “The Fall” (2006)

Western Reads is a campus-wide reading program designed to promote intellectual engagement, community and conversation among new students. A complimentary copy of the book is given to incoming freshman and transfer students at Western.

“Between the World and Me” is written as a letter from Coates to his 15-year-old son, examining the effects of racism during Coates’ formative years during the 1970s and ‘80s, as well as through his son’s more contemporary moment as a young Millennial. 

Western Reads will be participating in conversations around the book all year long and will make resources available for faculty and staff who would like to engage students in discussions of the book. 

For more information, contact Dawn Dietrich, Western Reads program director, at Dawn.Dietrich@wwu.edu.