Eat, Drink and Be Literary: BAM presents Dinaw Mengestu
The Brooklyn Academy of Music hosted the latest installment of this year’s Eat, Drink & Be Literary program Wednesday evening, shining its spotlight on Dinaw Mengestu. Born in Ethiopia, Mengestu’s family immigrated to the United States when he was two, settling in Peoria, Ill. He has written three novels — “The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,” “How to Read the Air” and “All Our Names,” which was published last year.
Circulating among the tables as people ate and drank, Mengestu encouraged a few of his friends to drink a bit more wine before he spoke, and preemptively begged the audience’s forgiveness for a cold he had been nursing when he took the stage. But once he began reading from the text of his new book, his apparent stage fright melted. The narrative stilled the air in the room and transported its occupants to a table in a small Midwestern diner, where a bi-racial couple wrangled with the intricacies of modern, quiet racism.
The story slowed down a common enough scene, deconstructing it into individual facets and allowing readers (or in the event’s case, listeners) to examine each piece like an archaeologist turning over and scrutinizing an artifact in incredible detail. Mengestu moved beyond black and white — not only the couple’s skin tones, but the way in which people often view racism and discrimination — to pause over often overlooked gray areas and examining their significance. For example, what is the meaning of a certain look, and how can someone take a stand against a feeling by continuing to eat a plate of eggs? Racism and human nature, he pointed out, are complex.