On October 19, 2016, Oregon Humanities presented a Think & Drink conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Think & Drink sparks provocative conversations about big ideas through live, unrehearsed conversations in pubs and theaters around the state.
Boo is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a former reporter and editor for The Washington Post. Her reporting from disadvantaged communities in the United States and abroad, from group homes for adults with cognitive disabilities to housing projects in Oklahoma City, has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and a National Magazine Award for Feature Writing.
In her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Boo tells the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking stories of families striving toward a better life in Mumbai, India. The book details life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. It won the 2012 National Book Award for nonfiction.
In Portland, Boo joined Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, for a conversation about oppression, poverty, and the role of journalism in combatting social injustice.