{"id":10195,"date":"2012-02-29T04:30:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T10:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=10195"},"modified":"2012-02-28T23:16:27","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T05:16:27","slug":"poet-and-father-to-discuss-parenthood-and-down-syndrome-at-austin-peay-state-universitys-asanbe-diversity-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2012\/02\/29\/poet-and-father-to-discuss-parenthood-and-down-syndrome-at-austin-peay-state-universitys-asanbe-diversity-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet and father to discuss parenthood and Down syndrome at Austin Peay State University’s Asanbe Diversity Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – When George Estreich, an award-winning, Oregon-based poet, first saw his newborn daughter Laura, he was curious about her eyes. His mother, after all, was Japanese, which might account for the slight, almond shape. But this was something different, he would soon learn.<\/p>\n

Young Laura had Down syndrome.Rather than turning to verse to understand the mysteries behind his daughter\u2019s condition, Estreich spent the next several years studying Down syndrome. What resulted from his research is the deeply personal, poetic memoir, \u201cThe Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and the Stories We Inherit.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 1:00pm on March 23rd, Estreich will visit Austin Peay State University\u2019s Honors Common to deliver a lecture on his book as part of this year\u2019s Asanbe Diversity Symposium. A panel discussion will follow at 3:30pm.<\/p>\n

\"George<\/a>

George Estreich, The Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and the Stories We Inherit.<\/p><\/div>\n

The symposium, sponsored and organized by the APSU Department of Languages and Literature, was established 17 years ago in memory of Dr. Joseph Asanbe, who was the first professor of African and African-American literature at APSU. The event is co-sponsored by the College of Education, the Honors Program, the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, the Office of Academic Affairs and the Women\u2019s and Gender Studies Program.<\/p>\n

Kim Edwards, author of \u201cThe Memory Keeper\u2019s Daughter,\u201d described Estreich\u2019s memoir as \u201cwise and moving,\u201d and said that he \u201cwrites with a poet\u2019s eye and gift of language, weaving this personal journey into the larger history of his family, exploring the deep and hidden connections between the past and present.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estreich also looks at the history of Down syndrome, including Victorian-era physician John Langdon Down\u2019s referring to it as \u201cMongolian idiocy.\u201d Estreich juxtaposes this callous misdiagnosis with the story of his love for his daughter.<\/p>\n

The Asanbe Diversity Symposium is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the 1:00pm lecture. For more information, contact the APSU Department of Languages and Literature at 931.221.7891.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – When George Estreich, an award-winning, Oregon-based poet, first saw his newborn daughter Laura, he was curious about her eyes. His mother, after all, was Japanese, which might account for the slight, almond shape. But this was something different, he would soon learn. Young Laura had Down syndrome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,589,5430,2021,6622,6627,7155,262,825,12961,12960,12963,7159,12962,11478],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-2Er","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10196,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10195\/revisions\/10196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}