'Poisoned City' Author To Discuss Flint Water Crisis At Rider

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — Flint, Michigan grabbed the national spotlight for its contaminated water in 2014, but it had problems long before that.

Crumbling infrastructure, cash-strapped government agencies and cavalier officials all contributed to thousands of residents being exposed to poisonous elements like lead from the city's drinking water.

Lead can cause irreversible damage to the brain and nervous system. Even before the crisis, Flint had long struggled, with many residents living in poverty and the government teetering on bankruptcy.

It’s all chronicled in the book, “The Poisoned City,” by Michigan native and Detroit-based journalist Anna Clark. The book is Rider University’s Shared Read Selection for the 2019-20 academic year, and Clark will visit the university to discuss her book on Oct. 29, 7 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature a talk, Q&A and book signing.

Throughout the academic year, Clark's book is being used in the classroom while also serving as the basis for a series of events on campus, including a mayor's panel on Nov. 13 featuring local government leaders from the communities surrounding Rider to discuss water quality and safety.
While Flint is almost 700 miles away from Lawrenceville, another water crisis has recently been developing closer to home, in Newark. Read more here: Newark Water Crisis: City Takes Steps To ‘Solve Own Problems.’

"One of our goals in selecting the Shared Read is to engage our students and the entire community in complex social issues that are directly relevant to their lives and the larger national discourse," Rider University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs DonnaJean A. Fredeen said. "In her book, Anna Clark skillfully shows how such social issues mixed with politics and history to create a tragedy in Flint."

As a result of the crisis, Flint’s drinking water is now one of the most closely monitored in America. Michigan now has the strictest water standard in the nation, thanks to a new lead and copper rule. But the community still has problems with its water, according to michiganradio.org.

Clark has been published in Elle, The New York Times, Politico and other places. She wrote Michigan Literary Luminaries: From Elmore Leonard to Robert Hayden and edited A Detroit Anthology. Clark graduated from the University of Michigan with a double major in art history and creative writing and literature and a minor in crime and justice. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. She was writer-in-residence in Detroit high schools through InsideOut Literary Arts.

“The Poisoned City” was named one of the best books of 2018 by the Washington Post, the New York Public Library, Amazon and many other outlets. It also won multiple awards including the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism.

Rider’s Shared Read Program encourages all students, faculty, staff and alumni to read the same book, creating, in essence, a book club as big as the University. Copies of “The Poisoned City” were made available for free to the campus community.