Ohio University Alden Library is hosting an Authors @ Alden series. It’s a chance to listen to inspired authors and learn about their stories and lives. This program helps educate the audience on the highs and lows on the different journeys to success.
“Authors @ Alden is an ongoing series where University Libraries hosts authors, writers of various things to come to discuss their writing projects,” Jen Harvey, OU’s library event coordinator, said. “We generally host these once to twice per semester. And they were live (streamed) for a while – when we could have them in person. They were live streamed on our YouTube channel, but now we'll be recording them. Each event is free and open to the public.”
The series has gone through loops this year to create a platform that can be executed and delivered in equally influential ways, although the program is all online. Filmmakers, poets and authors from around the world are only some examples of the educators brought to Athens. Included in this mix are alumni or professors at OU.
J.W. Smith, a Black and blind professor in the School of Communication Studies, is the next author to be featured. Smith will be making an appearance at the Authors @ Alden event on Nov. 5 at 3 p.m. on a virtual platform.
He will be describing his life story as well as discussing his 2019 published book titled From the Back of the Bus to the Front of the Classroom: My Thirty-Year Journey as a Black and Blind Professor.
Smith has faced many adversities throughout his lifetime, and his life journey has brought many new experiences and encounters with new people.
“I went to fill in for one of my grad colleagues for one of his classes, and went in there and he had a small class,” Smith said “I was going to be the cool professor. So I sat on the desk, and they gathered around like a semi circle. I was talking about halfway through the lecture, and this girl said, ‘Excuse me, sir, I don't want to be rude, but could you take off your shades? The sun comes through the window and the shades are blinding me in the mirror.’ I never had gotten to tell her that I was blind. I forgot to tell the students that I was blind.”
Smith has lived a life that he has embraced adversity and never let it stop him from working toward the life he wanted. Ohio became Smith’s home, though he had never intended to end up here.
“I have a chapter entitled ‘How I got to Ohio and why I stayed,’” Smith said. “It's one of my favorite stories. You’ve got to read that chapter, if nothing else.”
During his time in Ohio, Smith met Carolyn Lewis, director and general manager for Emerita. When asked to pick someone to interview him for this event, Lewis was chosen personally.
“We go back a long way from more than 20 years ago –– we both served on the Presidential Advisory Council for the Excess Continental Advisory Council for Disability and Accessibility Planning,” Lewis said. “I became (affiliated with) Communication Studies, which is the department in which he teaches. And so, he became a mentor to me, and I learned so much from him.”
Authors @ Alden works to capture the authenticity of authors everywhere and J.W. Smith will continue the series with a story of his own.
“I don't think I've ever met anyone like him,” Lewis said. “I'm honored that he asked me to do this because I do respect him so much and he’s been a mentor to me through my academic pursuits.”
