Lessons in Gratitude

A Memoir on Race, the Arts, and Mental Health (Campus Voices: Stories of Excellence from the University of Michigan)

De: Aaron P Dworkin

Narrado por: Leon Nixon

Duración: 9 h y 22 m

Resumen del Editor

Lessons in Gratitude tells the story of Aaron Dworkin, a MacArthur Fellow, social entrepreneur, and spoken word artist who has dedicated his life’s work to changing the face of classical arts in the world. The themes of persistence, passion, and loyalty shine through stories of an unhappy childhood, a lifelong search for identity, and the obstacles of race, culture, and class. Listeners will learn how the author greets these challenges and how they drove him to make a difference for people who are shut out of opportunity. Persistence in the face of multiple failures and false starts ultimately led Dworkin to create the Sphinx Organization, whose mission is to address the underrepresentation of Black and Latinx people in the field of the classical arts.

Aaron’s unique journey, which begins with his adoption by a white Jewish couple from Chicago at two weeks of age, leads him to the ultimate reunification with his birth family at the age of 31. Lessons of Gratitude is a coming of age story that examines the difficulties of biracial identity across generations and the challenges that mixed race families still face today. It is also a painful and honest adoption memoir, further complicating the narrator’s experiences of racial identity throughout his life and shaping his experiences with his own children. Through his work in the arts and the impact of this work, Dworkin has been able to “pay forward” the first thing that offered him unconditional love—music.

©2024 Aaron P. Dworkin (P)2024 University of Michigan Regional

Reseñas de la Crítica

“No one has been more effective than Aaron Dworkin in opening doors for talented musicians heretofore excluded from our nation's orchestras. He has created institutions that will continue to transform our world.”—Mary Sue Coleman, Former President of the University of Michigan

“My respect and gratitude for Aaron Dworkin is as old as the hills and deep as the canyons of our country. He is at once an artist who inspires us to reconsider the world and our understanding of it, and an entrepreneur who leads us to a better future.”—Deborah F. Rutter, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

“An open, honest, and compassionate account of a singular life in which music, art, community, and humanity are inextricably connected. Aaron Dworkin’s story is proof positive of the immense power of the arts to change the world for the better, in ways both big and small, immediate and long-lasting.”—Lara Downes, host of NPR’s Amplify and a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist