Uncategorized | June 4, 2009
From a Teton County Public Library press release:
As a Peace Corps Volunteer, Josh Swiller faced bloodthirsty mobs, debilitating illness, blackmailing preachers, deadly traffic accidents, scheming and corrupt government officials…all while profoundly deaf. He also found lessons, great friendship and a taste for bush wine.
Find out the recipe for bush wine and how he survived when Teton County Public Library presents an evening talk by Swiller, author of “The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa” from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 11, in the Ordway Auditorium. Following the talk, there will be a book sale and signing. The program is free and open to the public with generous support from donations, large and small, to the Teton County Library Foundation.
A New York-based writer, teacher and author, Swiller describes his deafness this way:
I was born with a severe hearing loss and became profoundly deaf by the time I was five. With the help of hearing aids, dedicated (if thoroughly unusual) parents, three wild brothers, and an audiologist who did not believe in limits, I learned to speak and lip-read quite well. Too well, almost, because I was able to pass through the world of hearing people to such a degree that many people didn’t know I was deaf and I consequently could never quite figure out what I was. Deaf? Hearing? None of the above?
In his memoir, he chronicles his struggle to reconcile his deafness, amid the harsh environment of a remote African village. The book is based on the two years he spent in the Peace Corps in Mununga, Zambia, which he describes as “a fantastical place. Sixty kilometers past the last paved road, phone line and electric cable, it was part timeless village, part refugee camp.”To read more about Swiller and his work, visit http://www.joshswiller.com/. For information about the evening talk, contact the Adult Humanities Coordinator Oona Doherty at 733-2164 ext. 135 or odoherty@tclib.org.
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
