Common Read Archive

The House of Broken Angles

Students, staff, and faculty will read The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea and will explore together the themes of the novel through BCTC Common Read events throughout the year.

"In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly one hundred, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel’s half-brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. 

Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home” (Little Brown).

Book Club Meeting

• Wednesday, October 19, 2022
• Wednesday, November 9, 2022
• Sunday, November 16, 2022

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Multicultural and Global Learning Center
Newtown Campus, Classroom Building, Room 104

Join on Microsoft Teams

Author Visit: Luis Alberto Urrea

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Join on Microsoft Teams

Common Read Showcase

Spring Semester

A showcase of creative work inspired by the 2022-2023 Common Read book, The House of Broken Angels by: Luis Alberto Urrea

Submissions accepted on a rolling basis throughout the Spring semester. Submission form (new window)

"THE SUN DOES SHINE"

Students, staff, and faculty enjoyed reading "The Sun Does Shine" by Anthony Ray Hinton as they explored together the themes of the memoir during BCTC Common Read events throughout the year.

“In 1985, Anthony Ray Hinton was arrested and charged with two counts of capital murder in Alabama. Stunned, confused, and only twenty-nine years old, Hinton knew that it was a case of mistaken identity and believed that the truth would prove his innocence and ultimately set him free.

But with no money and a different system of justice for a poor black man in the South, Hinton was sentenced to death by electrocution. He spent his first three years on Death Row at Holman State Prison in agonizing silence―full of despair and anger toward all those who had sent an innocent man to his death. But as Hinton realized and accepted his fate, he resolved not only to survive, but find a way to live on Death Row. For the next twenty-seven years he was a beacon―transforming not only his own spirit, but those of his fellow inmates, fifty-four of whom were executed mere feet from his cell. With the help of civil rights attorney and bestselling author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, Hinton won his release in 2015.” (Macmillan).

Common Read Event

BCTC Common Read Presents: The Innocence Project
Tuesday, April 5th, 12:30-1:45pm

Common Read Book Club

Join in the conversation as we discuss "The Sun Does Shine" by Anthony Ray Hinton! Discussions will be led by Assistant Professor Jon Thrower.

Wednesday, March 9, 2022
12:00-1:00 PM
Microsoft Teams

Virtual Author Visit

Re-Visiting Anthony Ray Hinton's Story.

Wednesday, March 2, 2022
11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Microsoft Teams

BCTC Common Read Art Exhibit

BCTC Students, staff, & faculty were invited to contribute works of art inspired by themes "The Sun Does Shine" by Anthony Ray Hinton

View the Art Exhibit

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

BCTC's Arts in Focus Committee presents…An exhibition of art inspired by BCTC's 2020-2021 Common Read book, 
"The Ten Thousand Doors of January" by Alix E. Harrow.

We invited BCTC students, staff, and faculty to contribute works of art that are inspired by themes in the book. 

View the exhibit. 

Perspectives on Immigration

• March 10, 2020 at 11am
• Cooper Campus,
  Academic Technology Building Atrium
• Featuring:
  • Marilyn Daniels, J.D., Maxwell Street Legal Clinic;
  • Tatiana Lipsey, J.D., Kentucky Refugee Ministries;
  • Sarah Adkins, J.D., Executive Director, Neighbors Immigration Clinic; and
  • Dominique Olbert, Community Response Coalition
• Cooper campus parking will not be patrolled on this day in order to allow more students to attend the event.
• Food will be provided

Screening of Hillbilly

• April 2, 2020 at 6pm
• Lexington Public Library, Central Branch, Farish Theater
• The film includes Common Read author Silas House and covers several themes discussed in Same Sun Here

Voter Registration Tables

• Wednesday February 19--Newtown Campus, Classroom Building Lobby, 9am-3pm
• Thursday February 20-Cooper Campus, Academic Technology Building Atrium, 9am-3pm

One Nation Out of Many Peoples: Immigration in American History

• Monday, February 10, 3:30-4:30pm
• Dr. Shi
  Newtown campus, room CB 106-107

Same Sun Here

Students, staff and faculty will enjoy reading Same Sun Here, by Silas House and Neela Vaswani as they explore together the themes of the novel through BCTC Common Read events throughout the year.

In this extraordinary novel in two voices, an Indian immigrant girl in New York City and a Kentucky coal miner's son, find strength and perspective by sharing their true selves across the miles.

Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City's Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner's son.

As Meena's family studies for citizenship exams and River's town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences.

With honesty and humor, Meena and River bridge the miles between them, creating a friendship that inspires bravery and defeats cultural misconceptions. Narrated in two voices, each voice distinctly articulated by a separate gifted author, this chronicle of two lives powerfully conveys the great value of being and having a friend and the joys of opening our lives to others who live beneath the same sun. (Goodreads.com)

The inaugural BCTC Common Read Program is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Sandra Carey

Meet Your Legislator

• November 14, 11am-12:15pm
• Cherlynn Stevenson, Mark Hart, Les Yates, George Brown, Jr., Former Legislative Interns: Mishonda Bush and Brack Duncan
• Cooper Campus, Academic Technology Building Atrium

Nepantla Art Exhibition

• October 1 - November 15
  Newtown Campus, Classroom Building, 2nd Floor Atrium Gallery

Part I of the Nepantla art exhibition will feature works of art created by youth and young adults of the Latinx Leadership and College Experience Camp (LLCEC). "Nepantla" is a Mayan concept referring to the tension found at spaces of convergence where transformation, cultural exchanges, and the birth of something new are possible. The LLCEC provides Latinx and immigrant youth and young adults an immersive college, career, leadership and social justice experience. Participants are empowered through community building, artistic expression, and other cultural activities.

Mountain Top Removal

• Tuesday, October 22, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  Tammy Horn Potter, KY State Apiarist
  Newtown Campus, room SEC 107
  Limited Seating: Food Served, Giveaways

Same Sun Here Author Event with Silas House and Neela Vaswani

• Tuesday, September 24, 9:30am-12:00pm
  9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.: Othering: a Conversation with Silas House and Savannah Sipple
• 11:00a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Reading, Conversation, and Q&A with Silas House and Neela Vaswani

BIACS/India Day

• September 21, 4:00-8:00pm
• Moondance Amphitheatre, Beaumont Center Circle