Program Officer

Aditya Desai

When we say that we're one Maryland, one book, you know we love it, but at the same time, we always have to contend with the fact that the place that is Maryland used to be called something else by the people who originally lived and settled on this land.
We wanted to see if we could replicate Dean's oral storytelling project and ask, What does being in Maryland mean to you?

Hello, Maryland. My name is and I am the programme officer for literature at the Mail and Humanities. Thank you so much for participating in our 2023 1 male and one book programme, which is, of course, all about there there by Tommy Orange. One of the many characters that this novel follows is Dean, who is a young, aspiring filmmaker. He's doing an oral storytelling project where he gets members of his community to sit down in front of a camera and simply tell them a story about their lives, their experiences, what it means to be native and, most importantly, how they ended up at Oakland. The whole idea of how you migrate from one place to another, how you are connected to one land but then make your home somewhere else is something that is very integral to the history of America, especially the history of indigenous peoples. When we say that we're one Maryland, one book, you know we love it, but at the same time, we always have to contend with the fact that the place that is Maryland used to be called something else by the people who originally lived and settled on this land. So with that, we really wanted to open up the dialogue to you. We wanted to see if we could replicate Dean's oral storytelling project and ask, What does being in Maryland mean to you? Is Maryland home or would you consider home somewhere else? How do you define being a Marylander? We would love to get your responses and share them out on our online pages. This would be a great way to make this truly Maryland's biggest book club. Thank you again for participating, and we're so excited to see what you have to say.

Program Officer Grants

Emily Ross

But my family moved, um, all around the east coast my whole life.
So home to me is really just the east coast.
I moved back to Maryland about two years ago and a funny story is I recently went to the Laurel Dutch County Market and my mom told me that that was the first place she ever took me out in public at five days old.

So I was born in Silver Spring, Maryland. But my family moved, um, all around the east coast my whole life. So home to me is really just the east coast. I moved back to Maryland about two years ago and a funny story is I recently went to the Laurel Dutch County Market and my mom told me that that was the first place she ever took me out in public at five days old. So I'm still discovering what it means to be a Marylander, but I've never lived in a state that has as much Maryland or as much state pride as Maryland does.

Feedback From Maryland Readers for THERE THERE!