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The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
''The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears'', is the first novel by the Ethiopian author Dinaw Mengestu. Published in 2007 by the Penguin Group, the novel focuses on the life of Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant living in Washington, D.C. after fleeing his country's revolution seventeen years earlier. Running a failing grocery store he ruminates on the past as he faces his own inward crisis of displacement and identity while simultaneously marveling at the gentrification of his neighborhood. This book took almost four years to write and Mengestu spent the most of a year revising it. The original version of this novel was published in the UK as ''Children of the Revolution''. The name was changed by the publishers before being published in the US because they did not want the book to sound political. ''The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears'' (2007) was translated into 12 languages, and named a ''New York Times'' Notable Book. The book was also awarded ''The Guardian'' First Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu (ዲናው መንግስቱ) (born 30 June 1978) is an Ethiopian-American novelist and writer. In addition to three novels, he has written for ''Rolling Stone'' on the war in Darfur, and for ''Jane Magazine'' on the conflict in northern Uganda. His writing has also appeared in '' Harper's'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', and numerous other publications. He is the Program Director of Written Arts at Bard College. In 2007 the National Book Foundation named him a "5 under 35" honoree. Since his first book was published in 2007, he has received numerous literary awards, and was selected as a MacArthur Fellow in 2012. Early life Dinaw Mengestu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 1978, during a period of political repression that became known as the Red Terror, his father, who was an executive with Ethiopian Airlines, applied for political asylum while on a business trip in Italy; Mengestu's mother was pregnant with him at the time. Two years later, when Mengestu was a to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Central Illinois, consisting of the counties of Fulton County, Illinois, Fulton, Marshall County, Illinois, Marshall, Peoria County, Illinois, Peoria, Stark County, Illinois, Stark, Tazewell County, Illinois, Tazewell, and Woodford County, Illinois, Woodford, which had a population of 402,391 in 2020. Established in 1691 by the French explorer Henri de Tonti, Peoria is the oldest permanent European settlement in Illinois according to the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. Originally known as Fort Clark, it received its current name when the Peoria County, County of Peoria organized in 1825. The city was named after the Peoria tribe, a member of the Illinois Confederation. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln made A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In Washington, D
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopian Literature
Ethiopian literature dates from Ancient Ethiopian literature (around 300 AD) up until modern Ethiopian literature. Ancient Ethiopian literature starts with Axumite texts written in the Geʽez language using the Geʽez script, indigenous to both Ethiopia and Eritrea. Axumite literature (330–900) There is linguistic evidence of Semitic languages being spoken in Ethiopia since 2000 BC. Ge'ez literature began with Christianity being declared the state religion around 340 AD by King Ezana. However, Christianity has existed since 100 AD in Ethiopia. The oldest known example of the old Ge'ez script is found on the Hawulti obelisk in Matara, Eritrea. The oldest surviving Ge'ez manuscript is the 5th or 6th century Garima Gospels. Almost all texts from this early "Aksumite" period are religious (Christian) in nature, translated from Greek. Up till the 4th century, Aksumite royal inscriptions are commonly in both Greek and Ge'ez; but from 350, the Aksumite kings increasingly employed o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopian-American History
Ethiopian Americans are Americans of Ethiopian descent, as well as individuals of American and Ethiopian ancestry. History In 1919, an official Ethiopian goodwill mission was sent to the United States to congratulate the Allied powers on their victory during the First World War. The four-person delegation included ''Dejazmach'' Nadew, the nephew of Empress Zawditu and Commander of the Imperial Army, along with '' Blattengeta'' Heruy Welde Sellase, Mayor of Addis Ababa, ''Kentiba'' Gebru, Mayor of Gondar, and Ato Sinkas, ''Dejazmach'' Nadew's secretary. After his official coronation, Emperor Haile Selassie sent forth the first wave of Ethiopian students to continue their education abroad. Almost a dozen Ethiopian students likewise went to the United States. They included Makonnen Desta, who studied anthropology at Harvard, and later became an interim Ethiopian Minister of Education; Makonnen Haile, who studied finance at Cornell; and Ingida Yohannes, veterinary medicine at Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopians In Washington, D
Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of the Horn of Africa. The first documented use of the name "Ethiopia" from Greek name "Αἰθίοψ" (Ethiopian) was in the 4th century during the reign of Aksumite king Ezana. There were three ethnolinguistic groups in the Kingdom of Aksum; Semitic, Cushitic, and Nilo-Saharan (ancestors of the modern-day Kunama and Nara). The Kingdom of Aksum remained a geopolitically influential entity until the pillage of its capital — also named Axum — in the 10th century by Queen Gudit. Nevertheless, the core Aksumite civilization was preserved and continued into the successive Zagwe dynasty. By this time, new ethnic groups emerged – the Tigrayans and Amharas. During the Solomonic period, the latter established major political and cultur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Kite Runner
''The Kite Runner'' is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from 1973 Afghan coup d'état, the fall of Kingdom of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet–Afghan War, Soviet invasion, the exodus of Afghan refugees, refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. Hosseini has commented that he considers ''The Kite Runner'' to be a father-son relationship story, emphasizing the familial aspects of the narrative, an element that he continued to use in his later works. Themes of guilt and redemption feature prominently in the novel, with a pivotal scene depicting an act of sexual assault inflicted upon Amir's friend Hassan, which Amir fails to prevent, and which ends their friendship. The latter half of the book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darfur
Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur ( ar, دار تنجر, Dār Tunjur, links=no) when the Tunjur ruled the area. Darfur was an independent sultanate for several hundred yearsRichard Cockett Sudan: Darfur and the failure of an African state. 2010. Hobbs the Printers Ltd., Totten, Hampshire. until it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. As an administrative region, Darfur is divided into five federal states: Central Darfur, East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur and West Darfur. Because of the War in Darfur between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population, the region has been in a state of humanitarian emergency and genocide since 2003. The factors include religious and ethn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and provides approximately $260 million annually in grants and impact investments. It is based in Chicago, and in 2014 it was the 12th-largest private foundation in the United States. It has awarded more than US$6.8 billion since its first grants in 1978. The foundation's stated purpose is to support "creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world". MacArthur's grant-making priorities include mitigating climate change, reducing jail populations, decreasing nuclear threats, supporting nonprofit journalism, and funding local needs in its hometown of Chicago. According to the OECD, the foundation's financing for 2019 development increased by 27% to US$109 million. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georgetown College (Georgetown University), Georgetown College, the university has grown to comprise eleven Undergraduate education, undergraduate and Postgraduate education, graduate schools, including the School of Foreign Service, Walsh School of Foreign Service, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Medical School, Georgetown University Law Center, Law School, and a Georgetown University in Qatar, campus in Qatar. The school's main campus, on a hill above the Potomac River, is identifiable by its flagship Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark. The school was founded by and is affiliated with the Society of Jesus, and is the oldest Catholic institution of higher education in the United States, though the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in 1902, when it separated from Cicero, Illinois, Cicero. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled in Oak Park in 1889, and his work heavily influenced local architecture and design, including the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio. Over the years, rapid development was spurred by railroads and street cars connecting the village to jobs in nearby Chicago. In 1968, Oak Park passed the Open Housing Ordinance, which helped devise strategies to integrate the village rather than resegregate. Today, Oak Park remains ethnically diverse, and is known for its socially liberal politics, with 80% or higher voter turnout in every United States presidential election, presidential election since 2000. Oak Park is closely connected to Chicago with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fenwick High School (Oak Park, Illinois)
Fenwick High School is a selective private Catholic college preparatory school located in Oak Park, a town in Cook County, Illinois that is bordered by Chicago on the north, east, River Forest and Forest Park on the West, and Cicero and Berwyn on the south. Fenwick was founded in 1929 as part of the Province of St. Albert the Great (Dominican Friars). It is the only school directly operated and staffed by the Catholic Order of Dominican friars in the United States. It is named in honor of Cincinnati Bishop Edward D. Fenwick. History Fenwick High School was founded as an all-boys college preparatory high school in 1929 by the Catholic Order of Dominican Fathers and Brothers of the Province of St. Joseph. Since its founding, Fenwick has maintained a strict dress code which includes slacks, dress shirts and ties for the boys and plaid skirts and knee-high socks for the girls. During assemblies, blazers must be worn. Fenwick was originally intended to be a prep school for matricu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
