Bailey Torres
Staff Writer

Best-selling author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot, will be at California State University, Bakersfield tonight at 7 p.m. in the Icardo Center. This is the culminating event of the One Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern project. The project is led by the Kern County Library and “encourages the entire community to share experiences related to a single book through discussions, educational programming, and entertainment,” according to the project’s website.

Skloot’s visit is “an opportunity for all of CSUB and Bakersfield to come together as a reading community,” said Dr. Emerson Case, coordinator of CSUB’s first-year experience program; a program that assists freshmen in achieving academic success throughout their college career. The first-year experience program has joined with the Kern County Library on the One Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern project.

“I’m thrilled that One Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern has selected ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ as its community read,” said Skloot via email. “I’m excited and encouraged by how open the public and scientists have been to really discussing the issues raised in my book and using those discussions to begin working toward a future that involves more transparency about research practices and better communication and trust between scientists and non-scientists.”

Skloot’s presentation will have a direct message to students.

“Follow your curiosity. Take classes that interest you, even if they’re outside your major. When you hear things that make you curious, ask questions.”

Skloot will be discussing how the HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks first intrigued her. Henrietta Lacks was a poor, black woman whose cells were taken without her consent at Jonh’s Hopkins hospital in 1951. Her “immortal” HeLa cells have been used in many medical advancements including: the polio vaccine and gene mapping. In her email, she explains that until she became interested in Henrietta Lacks, she planned to be a
veterinarian. She said, “I would be a veterinarian today, and I’d still be wondering who Henrietta Lacks was,” had she not followed her curiosity.

In regards to the success of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Skloot expressed happiness and gratitude. She said, “There are so many factors in the publishing process that are out of the writer’s control. I knew all that going in, but I always believed that the facts of this story are so incredible that if I could get them out to people, they would have the same reaction I did, which was “Oh, my God. I have to tell people about this.”

In his email, Case mentions that at this event Skloot “will discuss her writing and research experience.”

“Students can expect to have the opportunity to hear a published, best-selling author speak directly about her work – about how she was inspired to write the book, how she gathered the evidence, and the writing process that she went through,” continued Case.

Case said that he is expecting about 2,000 people to attend the free event. There will be free parking in Lot I after 6 p.m. Skloot will give a 25 to 30 minute presentation on her book that will set the stage for the audience’s questions followed by a book signing. Copies of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” will be available for purchase.“I think the main thing is that students will have the opportunity to see that Rebecca Skloot is a normal, living breathing person just like they are, and that hopefully they will be inspired to go off and research and write their own work in the future,” said Case.