We are pleased to welcome the writer, scholar, and speaker Enuma Okoro, as BACAS’ Fall 2019 Literary Guest. She will be at BACAS starting September, during which she will work on her novel in-progress.

When discussing her current work, Okoro shares, “I’ve always been interested in placed-ness and notions of home, in how our sense of self is shaped by the varying narratives we grow up with, from family, from society and from culture. How do these narratives get passed down and what do they teach us about the type of space we can occupy in the world? We all hold multiple layers of identity with which we contend. I wanted to explore how those identities are inherited, formed, challenged and possibly rewritten.”

In anticipation of a future project, Okoro is also researching aspects of the historical Mary and the role of Mary, the Theotokos - Mother of God -  in the Roman Catholic spiritual tradition. Over the course of her time at BACAS, her research will include a focus on the Seven Madonnas of the Campania region, as well as artistic representations and the spiritual significance of Mary in other parts of Italy.

We are also excited to announce Okoro’s inclusion in the Divinum et Faeminae project, an exploration of the sacred from the perspective of the female discourse, which, conceived within the BACAS 2020 Literature Program, will culminate in a multidisciplinary symposium where Letters, Visual Arts, and Music will compare their narrative of that exploration with that of History and Religion.   

More about Enuma: www.enumaokoro.com