Friday, October 2, 2026
5 p.m.
Josten Performing Arts Library Mezzanine

Join Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies Andrea Hairston ’74 for a live reading of her 2026 book, The Redemption Center is Closed on Sundays!

Come grab a seat on Josten’s purple-carpeted mezzanine and hear Andrea read an excerpt from what has been described as “an extra-dimensional murder mystery with conundrums, alien tricksters, and a dog detective who just doesn’t know the meaning of ‘stay.’”

JostenLive! is free and open to all.

About Andrea Hairston

Andrea Hairston ran away from the physics lab to the theatre when she was a young thing and has been a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer ever since. She is a novelist, poet, essayist, playwright, and L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College.

She describes her work as “literary speculative fiction in the carnival tradition.” When speaking of her work, Andrea notes, “ I love words, ideas, and sentences that reveal truth. Poetry is a mode of thought. By speculative I mean, I pour libation to the Magic If. I ask what might be, what could have been. I do Carnival jams, a festival of characters and ideas, a celebration of community and spirit.”

Contact

Janet Spongberg, Josten CirculationCoordinator: jspongbe@smith.edu