"EASTER RISING" with Michael Patrick MacDonald March 14, 2008

The Dorchester Arts Collaborative (DAC), Dorchester Historical Society (DHS) and Commonwealth Museum present the second installment of the Corita Kent Arts & Culture Talks, with a conversation between author and South Boston native Michael Patrick MacDonald and Boston Magazine columnist Joe Keohane. The lecture series is named for artist Corita Kent, best known for her Rainbow Gas Tank near the Southeast Expressway in Dorchester. This Irish-American themed program for St. Patrick's Day is FREE and takes place at the Commonwealth Museum, 220 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester (in between UMass Boston and the JFK Library) on Friday, March 14, 2008 at 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7. There is ample free parking at the Commonwealth Museum, and shuttle buses are available from the JFK/UMass T-stop. For more information call (617) 727-9268.
The conversation, planned for St. Patrick's Day weekend, will focus on MacDonald's most recent book, Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion (out in March 2008 in paperback). Easter Rising focuses on Michael's teenage years, largely spent trying to escape South Boston's Old Colony Housing Project. Using storytelling narrative to reveal teen struggles with post-traumatic stress from violence and death, the book addresses ideas around teen depression, alienation, and resiliency. It effectively uses music, specifically the punk-rock of the late 70's, as a liberating force, opening the door to the world beyond South Boston, and culminates in trips to Ireland, where the author discovers the surprising roots of the fierce Irish-American pride that informs, nurtures and destroys so much in his home neighborhood.
There will be time for Q & A and book signing after the talk.