Description

Award-winning, breakout Native American author Tommy Orange comes to The Music Hall as part of the Writers on a New England Stage series on Thursday, May 16. He will discuss his national bestseller THERE THERE, which explores the Urban Indian experience through twelve unforgettable characters in Oakland, California who converge and collide on one fateful day.

The 7 pm event includes an author presentation followed by an onstage interview with Peter Biello, host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s broadcast of All Things Considered and The Bookshelf from NHPR, an ongoing segment featuring authors from around New Hampshire and the region.

Tommy Orange’s shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities, all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, and all connected to each other in ways they may not yet realize. Together, they are a chorus of voices telling of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism. Hailed as an instant classic, THERE THERE is at once poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, utterly contemporary, and always unforgettable.

About the Author: Tommy Orange is faculty at and a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Angels Camp, California.