Registration Open for Gaines Center's Bale Boone Symposium With Tayari Jones

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 29, 2019) — The Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky will welcome Tayari Jones, winner of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction, as the featured speaker of the Bale Boone Symposium scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, at the Singletary Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Tayari Jones, professor of English and creative writing at Emory University, is the author of four novels: "An American Marriage," an Oprah Book Club pick and the Women's Prize for Fiction award-winner; "Silver Sparrow," chosen for the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read Library; "The Untelling"; and "Leaving Atlanta." Jones is a recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, United States Artist Foundation and Black Mountain Institute.

Registration for the Bale Boone Symposium event featuring Jones can be found online here. Guests with an Eventbrite registration ticket will be given priority admittance before 6:50 p.m., but will not be guaranteed seating after 6:50 p.m. All seating is first-come, first-served. Jones' books will be available for purchase at the event and she will do a book signing following the lecture.

Those who did not pre-register for the symposium will be admitted at 6:50 p.m. First year Lewis Honors Students must show their provided pass, or they will be asked to wait until 6:50 p.m.  

For more information on the Tayari Jones event, contact Gaines Center Associate Director Chelsea Brislin at clbris4@uky.edu.

Through the Bale Boone Symposium, the Gaines Center sponsors an array of public humanities and arts events to promote dialogue, intellectual exploration and partnerships among the campus, Bluegrass and Commonwealth communities. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the symposium demonstrates the commitment of Joy Bale Boone and George Street Boone to the betterment of the humanities.

Founded in 1984 by a generous gift from John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities functions as a laboratory for imaginative and innovative education on the University of Kentucky's campus. Devoted to cultivating an appreciation of the humanities in its students and faculty, the center embraces varied paths of knowledge and particularly strives to integrate creative work with traditional academic learning.

The Gaines Center was also designed to provide a link, intellectual as well as geographic, between the campus and town communities. The center sponsors an array of public events — seminars, workshops and culinary programs — that bring together the rich and varied resources of the Lexington community and the University of Kentucky.