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AUGUSTA — Lithgow Public Library will host the Lacks family as part of its capstone program for A Capital Read 2017 Saturday, April 29, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center, North Wing. The event is free and open to the public.
There will be a multimedia presentation and discussion with two members of the Lacks family as they speak candidly about their family story and answer questions about their experiences with HeLa cells, the book, and more. Just released as an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Va., to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.
Winner of several awards, including the 2010 Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the 2010 Welcome Trust Book Prize, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Award for Excellence in Science Writing, the 2011 Audie Award for Best Non-Fiction Audiobook, and a Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” was featured on more than 60 critics’ best-of-the-year lists.
A Capital Read is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank and Friends of Lithgow Library, in partnership with the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine, Barnes and Noble and Augusta Civic Center. Copies of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” will be available at Lithgow Library, Bangor Savings Bank Augusta locations, and The Holocaust and Human Rights Center at UMA, while supplies last.
