Sunday, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
July 25, 2021
Free on Zoom
RSVP below
In a series a short and seriocomic essays, Jerald Walker’s How to Make a Slave ventures into the troubled territory that is America’s racial landscape. Drawing from his personal experience, Walker is an informed observer challenging our fascination with a post-racial America. In doing so, he invents a new way to write about race.
Join us on Sunday, July 25th from 2:00—3:30 pm for an open discussion of Jerald Walker’s How to Make a Slave and Other Essays.
The Lit Lantern Reading Series
In keeping with Lampblack’s mission to foster meaningful conversation about Black literature, one which interrogates existing criticisms and advances more authentic interpretations of Black work, we are launching the Lampblack Reading Series. At the end of each month, we will meet to discuss the work of a Black writer. The reading series is multi-genre (nonfiction, fiction and poetry), and will feature works by a geographically and stylistically diverse group of writers of the African diaspora.
Additionally, the last month of each quarter will be reserved to discuss the work of a living writer. In lieu of a group discussion, we will invite the writer for a reading and Q&A session.
Previous Readings
June: The Rinehart Frames by Cheswayo Mphanza
Mphanza’s debut collection seeks to expand the boundaries of Blackness, history, imitation and art, as well as challenge their attendant proscriptions. In this ekphrastic body of work, Mhpanza is both wanderer and critic, skillfully transcending time, space and form.
May: Annotations by John Keene
On one level, John Keene’s experimental first novel is a deep exploration of race, class and sexuality in the American South. But with its poetic approach, Annotations is also an exploration of form, reimagining what the American novel can do.