OTTAWA LAUNCH: Carolyn Whitney-Brown - Tender to the World

Glebe - St James United Church, 650 Lyon St S, Ottawa, ON
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Join Carolyn Whitney-Brown for the Ottawa launch of her new book, Tender to the World: Jean Vanier, L'Arche and the United Church of Canada.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Tender to the World Carolyn Whitney-Brown explores the connections between the two organizations through diverse critical insights from Julia Kristeva, Doreen Massey, and Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as Vanier's controversial articulation of the gift of weakness. Tracing the five-decade relationship between L'Arche and the United Church alongside evolving disability theories, Whitney-Brown examines both the fundamental importance of stories and the agency of people with intellectual disabilities. Inversion - a transformative overturning of expectations in social interactions - can be upsetting or exciting, challenging or inspiring, she argues. This book offers a fresh look at how L'Arche and the United Church have worked to break down walls of difference, illuminating how each tenders something unexpected to the other and to the world.