Author and Photographer to Discuss Oral History of Kenyan Freedom Fighter (has video)

The Boy is Gone: Conversations with a Mau Mau General.

Author Laura Lee Huttenbach and photographer Mary Beth Koeth will visit the College of Charleston on Sept. 11, 2015, to discuss their collaboration on the book The Boy is Gone: Conversations with a Mau Mau General, an oral history that documents the life of a Kenyan freedom fighter.

The program begins at 3 p.m. in Addlestone Library, Room 227, and is free and open to the public.

Huttenbach will read from the book. Koeth, who traveled with the author to the General’s tea farm in December 2013 to photograph his family and the spectacular natural setting, will also show her work.

Huttenbach is an Atlanta native and a graduate of the University of Virginia. She has written about her travels in Africa, South America, and the Middle East and is recognized as one of the country’s best young travel writers. The Boy is Gone is her first book.

Koeth’s photographic portraits, including “The People of the Eighth Street Bus Stop,” “Miami Boyfriends,” and “The Collector,” have won awards from the American Advertising Federation, Graphis, Applied Arts, and CMYK Magazine.

The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library, the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the African Studies Program, and the Global Awareness Forum.

In the video below, Huttenbach describes her efforts to tell the General’s story.