About:

This is a one-night book discussion using the Zoom platform.

Thursday, April 13, 7-8:30 pm CST

About this class:

Instructor Brad Kroupa will lead the class through the book There There by Tommy Orange.

This Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestseller is a wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. A contemporary classic, this “astonishing literary debut” (Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale) “places Native American voices front and center before readers’ eyes” (NPR/Fresh Air).

Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. They converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow and together this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.

A book with “so much jangling energy and brings so much news from a distinct corner of American life that it’s a revelation” (The New York Times). It is fierce, funny, suspenseful, and impossible to put down--full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force. There There is at once poignant and unflinching, utterly contemporary and truly unforgettable.

Instructor bio:

Brad Kroupa (Arikara) earned his doctoral degree in anthropology and education from Indiana University. After earning his doctorate, Brad began work at the Arikara Cultural Center, located in White Shield, ND on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. From 2013-2017, he led cultural, language, historical, educational, and community building efforts in this role. In 2015, he established the Arikara Community Action Group (ACAG) – now called Indigenous Youth Rising (IYR) – a 501(c)3 with the mission of implementing and supporting educational projects for Native people emphasizing cultural self-determination, community-oriented and directed research projects, and educational enrichment. Currently, Brad is faculty at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND. He is also a research associate with the American Indian Studies Research Institute in Bloomington, IN.

Humanities North Dakota classes and events are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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