Tuesday, October 21, 1 PM Eastern: Register Today
From bustling cities to small towns, Black bookstores have long been hubs of culture, activism and community. In “Prose to the People,” Mitchell combines narrative storytelling, essays, interviews, poetry and photography to capture the history, significance and ongoing vibrancy of more than 50 Black bookstores from the Northeast to the West Coast. The book also features contributions from acclaimed authors, activists and journalists, with a foreword by Nikki Giovanni.
During this webinar, Mitchell will discuss the inspiration behind the book, the stories of these essential cultural spaces, and the role Black bookstores play in shaping literature, community and activism today. She’ll be joined by University of Pennsylvania’s Jasmine Johnson, the granddaughter of the founders of Marcus Books, the oldest Black bookstore in the country. Johnson contributed an essay about her grandmother for “Prose to the People.”
Read an excerpt from “Prose to the People” here.
Guest Speakers:
Katie Mitchell is a storyteller and bookseller. Katie lives, works, and writes in Atlanta, Georgia. Her online and pop-up Black bookstore, Good Books, has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, PBS, and many other outlets. Katie is a Dorothy Porter Wesley fellow. Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores is her debut.
Jasmine Johnson is an assistant professor of Africana Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
This webinar is pay-what-you-wish. Pay as little or as much as you want or nothing at all. Your donation helps Next City to program future events like this one.