African American Literature Discussion Group: January: A Great Time for African American Books!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

January: A Great Time for African American Books!

Happy New Year everyone! We have so many exciting events planned for January! In addition to our fabulous "11 Months" Wrap-Up Party on Sunday January 18th, EPL is offering five African American themed book discussions this month: fiction, nonfiction, plays, and graphic novels.. As usual, all books are available at the 2nd floor Reader's services desk; call 847-448-8620 to reserve copies.

This month we are launching a collaboration with Evanston's Comix Revolution bookstore, and our discussion of March, the graphic novel biography of Congressman John Lewis takes place there. All other events are at the Main Library.

African American Literature Discussion: A Dreadful Deceit

Tuesday, January 6, 7 pm, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
A power outage forced us to close the library early the day of our December discussion, but we will be back in our usual spot this coming Tuesday to talk about Dreadful Deceit, Jacqueline Jones' examination of race versus economics, and how various individuals have defined , or BEEN defined racially over the centuries.

GLBT Book Discussion: Giovanni's Room

Tuesday, January 13, 7 pm, Small Meeting Room, Main Library
James Baldwin, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, was one of a handful to write from both an African American and a gay perspective. Join us for Giovanni's Room, which chronicles a young American's sexual awakening in 1950s Paris.

League of Graphic Novel Readers: March

Friday, January 16, 7pm, Comix Revolution, 606 Davis Street (map)

The autobiography of Civil Rights legend and current US Congressman John Lewis, March: Book One takes Lewis from rural Alabama to lunch counter sit-ins and a life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King. Copies of March: Book One will be held at the Reader's Services desk on the 2nd floor and will be available for purchase at Comix Revolution.
The first 25 people to show up to the 1/16 meeting will receive a free copy of March, courtesy of Comix Revolution!

A Year of August Wilson: Radio Golf

Monday, January 19, 2015, 6 pm, Community Meeting Room, Main Library

So sad: Radio Golf is our final August Wilson discussion!
In 1997, entrepreneur Harold Wilks is on the verge of becoming Pittsburgh's first black mayor, but his identity is shaken when the past begins to catch up with him, revealing secrets that could be his undoing. Ultimately, he must recognize the price of his success and decide whether he is willing to pay it.

African American Literature Discussion: How To Be Black

Tuesday, January 20, 7 pm, Small Meeting Room, Main Library

Part autobiography, part humorous manifesto, How To Be Black chronicles Baratunde Thurston's inner city childhood, private school education and successful career at Harvard and in corporate America, using his experiences to illustrate the perils of being "The Black Friend", "The Black Employee" "The Black Spokesperson" and, inevitably "The Angry Negro". Accompanied by essays both humorous and thoughtful by a panel of "professional black people"

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Welcome to the African American Literature Discussion Group blog!

Whether you are new to our group or a long-standing participant, feel free to check here for dates and locations of our book discussions, book reviews, commentary on African American literature, library issues, author events, or merely to share a post about an issue of interest. The AAL book group meets the third Tuesday of each month in the Evanston Public Library first floor Small Meeting Room and is open to the public. A list of upcoming titles is available on the Evanston Public Library website and you may register and pick up copies of each month’s titles at the library’s second floor Reader’s Services desk.

Here's a complete list of books we've discussed!

Check us out on GoodReads too!

Till our next post, happy reading!

Sincerely,

Lesley Williams
Book Discussion Facilitator

Evanston Public Library
1703 Orrington Avenue
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 448-8620

What to Read Next...The Hanging Bridge

From guest reviewer Vaughan Jones: We all have had lessons in history in college, but being young, and never being in the Jim Crow environment, there was no real connection to the level of hate and white supremacy in the community. The book connected how the lynching and violence was used as a continuing campaign of subjugation to have a cheap and spiritually defeated labor force be brutalized for the slightest of infractions. It was like reading Theodore White's " Making of a President". It put the reader right there n Shubuta, Clark County MS. You felt like you were witnessing the barbarism and hate, at the scene. I can understand how the African Americans in Clarke County endured the environment and like the Jews of Europe, not all of them felt they had alternatives. They just had to endure. Just unbelievable. The book is completely readable for all levels and not making it as A. Bartlett Giamatti once called academic writing, "High Institutional". The focus was on the 2 separate lynchings of 6 young black residents (4 in 1918 and 2 in 1942), and how Clark County's continued to resist to any form of change. But your highlighting the work of Walter White and the early NAACP took so much courage, very few people understand the risks those people took in getting the story on the lynchings across the South. You also highlighted the real genocidal acts taking place outside of Mississippi in other areas, an example was the outright murder of the Black farmers in Arkansas. In a lot of ways, the US is not unlike other countries like Germany who want only to either brush over the barbarism and crimes. In the writing of "The Hanging Bridge, Prof. Ward transitioned and highlighted the work of the African Americans, who were able to get Early Childhood Care, through Head Start and the efforts of the county political leadership to manipulate and hinder any efforts to have any political or economic independence. This book would be a great addition to the curriculum of Evanston Township High School and surrounding high schools for the students to have the insight on why the language of demagogues is so dangerous. It is not unlike a virus that infects a population with the results being mob actions and murders.

African American Literature Discussion Group