Free public reading and discussion with Dorothy Allison, author of the controversial novel Bastard Out of Carolina. 7 p.m. in the theater on the ground floor of Sykes Student Union at 110 West Rosedale Avenue.

Allison describes herself on her website as a “feminist, working class storyteller, a Southern expatriate, a poet, and a happily born-again Californian.” When she appears at West Chester University on Tuesday, Feb. 25, she’ll bring a powerful message about why she insists that “Class, race, sexuality, and gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside.”