'Listening is an Act of Love' Author to Visit Bona's on October 29

St. Bonaventure University’s First-Year Experience program and All Bonaventure Reads Committee will welcome author and journalist David Isay for a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in the Reilly Center Arena.

Isay is author of “Listening Is An Act of Love,” the 2009 All Bonaventure Reads selection for incoming students.

“Listening” is a celebration of American life from the StoryCorps project, which travels around the country and allows everyday people to collect and record stories by interviewing friends and family who have something to share. At the end of each 40-minute interview, one copy of the audio is given to the participants, a second becomes part of an archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Excerpts of interviews are broadcast each Friday on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” program.

The “Listening” book is a compilation of a handful of StoryCorps’ most remarkable stories, which deal with family, work and struggle that paint a portrait of everyday American life.

The All Bonaventure Reads text is the cornerstone of the University 101 course for freshmen and the entire campus community was invited to read the book and participate in numerous events planned over the course of the fall semester.

“We are in the process of building an archive of stories about SBU. Each freshman is conducting an interview with someone connected to the University and inviting that person to tell his or her story. This is an exciting project, complementing the reading and discussion of the book,” said Nancy Casey, director of the First-Year Experience program.

“Students have offered thoughtful comments as to how ‘listening,’ in its myriad meanings, is a vital concept for college students to integrate into their collegiate experience,” added Jean Trevarton Ehman, chair of the All Bonaventure Reads Committee and director of the university’s Teaching and Learning Center.

Isay will arrive on campus at 2:30 p.m. Thursday for a tour with freshman class officers, followed by an informal get-together of University 101 instructors, All Bonaventure Reads Committee, FYE Council and some students. Selected freshmen will have dinner with Isay, and the evening will conclude with the talk.

Isay founded StoryCorps in 2003. He is the recipient of multiple awards in radio and journalism; he has received two Peabodys for broadcast journalism and won the Livingston Award and the Society of Professional Journalism prize for his documentary “Ghetto Life 101,” which chronicles hardships of life in the inner city.

Thursday’s talk is free and open to the public.

e-mail from Tom Missel, SBU