Eli Evans at the O. Henry Festival
The 20th anniversary of the O. Henry Festival comes during the 350th year of Jewish life in this country. The festival's 2005 guest author is writer Eli Evans, whose seminal
work, The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, which has been
revised and was reissued this spring (North Carolina University Press) to
coincide with the regional celebration of Southern Jewish history.
Evans will speak at 4 p.m., Sept. 11, at Temple
Emanuel on Jefferson Road. The presentation is free and open to the
public. After the presentation, the traditional fiction awards banquet
will be held after the presentation, at 6:30 pm at the O.Henry Hotel, where Evans is also the guest speaker. The cost is $35. For more information, call Greensboro College 272-7102, ext. 239.
Evans, whose father was the first Jewish mayor of Durham, believes that his
book can teach us a great deal about both American and the South today as
well as the importance of religious pluralism, a bedrock American
value. The O. Henry Festival felt that Evans would be a particularly
important speaker for citizens of the Triad, whose history has been shaped
by so many important Jewish families.
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