2019 Washington County READ to Showcase a Young Boy's Ingenuity
Friday, Oct 25th
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The Washington County READ event will be held Friday, October 25th at Unity Theatre. Reception begins at 5:30 with books available for purchase and book signing by Bryan Mealer, followed by a dramatic reading and author remarks at 6 PM.
All are welcome. Event is free to the community. |
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Help spread the message about the READ by making a tax deductible donation:
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Tuesday, October 22nd
Come Curious, Leave Inspired!
Film Showing: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
The Barnhill Center at the Historic Simon Theater
Lifetime Learning presents a free showing of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in the Barnhill Center at the Historic Simon Theater, downtown Brenham. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019, is based on the true story of William Kamkwamba who built a windmill from scrap to bring electricity and water to his village in Malawi. The book, co-authored by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, is this year’s Washington County READ selection. The film is written and directed by Academy Award nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Twelve Years a Slave, Amistad). Ejiofor plays William’s father and thirteen year-old Kenyan actor Maxwell Simbe plays William.
Doors open at 6 PM. Film showing begins 6:30. Free to the public.
Doors open at 6 PM. Film showing begins 6:30. Free to the public.
Bryan Mealer and William Kamkwamba
Bryan Mealer
Bryan Mealer, co-author of this year’s Washington County READ, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, first learned of William Kamkwamba in a Wall Street Journal article reporting on William’s TED talk in Tanzania. For three years prior, Bryan had been an AP news reporter assigned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He returned to the United States burnt out and depressed. Trying to make sense of his experiences, he published All Things Fight to Live in 2008, an account of the Congolese war and deliverance.
Though his psyche had taken a beating, Bryan was drawn to a meet-up of prospective authors for the intriguing William Kamkwamba. On that cold New York afternoon, with William mesmerized by his first snow and shivering in shirtsleeves from Malawi’s summer weather, Bryan’s feelings would be transformed. “I was very disillusioned about covering the continent anymore because I felt that all I’d managed to do was cover death and pestilence and confirm existing damaging stereotypes. When I met William Kamkwamba, all of that changed. He embodied the true spirit of Africa, the resourcefulness, the resilience, the vitality. I love this story and still do, I feel like it’s a universal tale of fortitude and dreams and what happens when those things come together.”
In 2009, Bryan and William published The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. With their shared passion for inspiring young people, Bryan and William published a picture book edition, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, in 2012 and a Young Readers edition in 2015.
Bryan grew up in west Texas and San Antonio and earned a Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream (2018) chronicles his ancestors in west Texas. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Texas Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, the New York Times, and the Guardian. He recently moved from Austin to New York to attend Seminary. He is married and has three children.
Though his psyche had taken a beating, Bryan was drawn to a meet-up of prospective authors for the intriguing William Kamkwamba. On that cold New York afternoon, with William mesmerized by his first snow and shivering in shirtsleeves from Malawi’s summer weather, Bryan’s feelings would be transformed. “I was very disillusioned about covering the continent anymore because I felt that all I’d managed to do was cover death and pestilence and confirm existing damaging stereotypes. When I met William Kamkwamba, all of that changed. He embodied the true spirit of Africa, the resourcefulness, the resilience, the vitality. I love this story and still do, I feel like it’s a universal tale of fortitude and dreams and what happens when those things come together.”
In 2009, Bryan and William published The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. With their shared passion for inspiring young people, Bryan and William published a picture book edition, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon, in 2012 and a Young Readers edition in 2015.
Bryan grew up in west Texas and San Antonio and earned a Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. His latest book The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family’s Search for the American Dream (2018) chronicles his ancestors in west Texas. His writing has appeared in many publications, including Texas Monthly, Esquire, Harper’s, the New York Times, and the Guardian. He recently moved from Austin to New York to attend Seminary. He is married and has three children.
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Previous Community Reads:
2018: The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell 2017: News of the World by Paulette Jiles 2016: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza 2015: My Boys and Girls Are in There by Ron Rozelle 2014: One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni 2013: The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber 2012: The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton 2011: One Ranger: A Memoir by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson 2010: Twelve Mighty Orphans by Jim Dent 2009: Final Salute by Jim Sheeler |