Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, follows the parallel paths of sisters and their progeny through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to Mississippi plantations, the American Civil War and Jazz Age Harlem. Gyasi illuminates slavery’s troubled legacy for kin who were taken and kin who stayed—showing the memory of captivity inscribed on the soul of our nation. Okunyi Chol, who is earning her MLIS at SJSU, will lead our discussion and perhaps reference the sequel, Transcendent Kingdom. So, grab a copy of the book (or books) here, or at your local library, and join us.

Join: https://sjsu.zoom.us/j/83405715474
Password: 583863
See the book’s character map here, timeline context here, Ghanaian history here, and Yaa Gyasi’s backstory here.

Grammy-nominated indie rockstar, Michelle Zauner, of Japanese Breakfast fame has written Crying in H Mart, a must-read memoir of family, food, and finding oneself. Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner’s novel is unflinching in its exploration of her experience as a mixed race person seeking cultural acceptance. DPWC member, and SJSU alum, Martin Tran (below), will lead us into a deep discussion about the novel on Zoom. So, grab a copy from an indie bookseller or local library and join us.

Join: https://sjsu.zoom.us/j/84897631683?pwd=U3E0b3BnWVZTZ2lmdFh6VTZLVGFaZz09
Password: 320450

Keenan Norris, PhD, is a novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His latest novel, The Confession of Copeland Cane, is set in East Oakland, California in a very near future where the author introduces readers to a startlingly contemporary voice in Jacqueline who is torn about taking testimony from Copeland, a fugitive who fell out of time. The story that unfolds between Jacqueline and Cope is urgent as it exposes the true dangers of coming of age in America: miseducation, over-medication, radiation, and incarceration. DPWC members, Denesia Webb and Carmen Kennedy, will channel the same sense of urgency to start a conversation with the author this April 7th, so, grab the book from Unnamed Press and join us.

MK Chavez is the author of Mothermorphosis. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Dear Animal, is shown here, and we will discuss both books with her and more. Chavez co-founder and co-curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges, curator of the Fruitvale Friday readings at Nomadic Press, co-director of the Berkeley Poetry Festival, and recipient of a 2016 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award will be in conversation with DPWC member Gabriela Iniguez at this event. So, grab one or both of her books from Nomadic Press and join us.

Vernon Keeve III, aka, Trey, is a Virginia born writer, living and teaching in Oakland. They hold an MFA from CCA and a teaching MA in literature from Bard College. Their full-length collection of poetry received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Keeve’s Southern Migrant Mixtape is a collection that relays the experiences and observations of a Black, queer man from Virginia who thought they were leaving racism and sexual intolerance behind in the regions where they initially experienced them. Find the book on Nomadic Press.

Daniel B. Summerhill is a tenure track professor of Poetry/Social Action and Composition Studies at California State University Monterey Bay. He has performed throughout the United States, and made appearances in both Canada and the UK. His collection in Divine, Divine, Divine is an exploration of the divine and the deviant, a consideration of the Black tongue as a home, life and death through the lens of language. This poetry collection is an ode to the experiences that make us whole and acknowledgment of the things that fracture us. Find his book on Nomadic Press.

Tureeda Mikell is an educator, consultant, griot/elocutionist/Story Medicine Woman, activist for holism, and an award winning poet who has published/performed nationally and internationally. She is a Qigong healer, consultant for the Bay Area Writing Project at U. C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education and a BAWP fellow. She’s published 72 CA Poets in the school’s student anthologies and she’s a former Alameda County area coordinator for CA Poets in the Schools and state-wide programs. Mikell is the Tree of Life Health Literacy Project’s founding director and the Arts Is Education coach for the counties of Alameda, S.F., and Contra Costa, Mikell is also a winner of the 2015-16 Oakland Arts Grant for Unbroken Circles. Find her book on Nomadic Press.

Julinda LeDee is a San Josean who’s earned her MPA in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco (USF) and her BA in Sociology, with an African American Studies minor, from San Jose State University (SJSU).

LeDee uses her experience to inform her poetry, prose, and performance. Her gift is connecting with people. To this end she created Speak for Impact and is self-published with a writing style that’s infinitely accessible. Find her on Amazon.

Julia Reyes is a defiant teen who lives in a troubled Chicago neighborhood with her parents and sister, Olga. Olga seems perfect, but when a sudden accident takes her life, Julia discovers Olga might not have been the daughter her parents had in mind. In fact, as Julia uncovers her sister’s secrets, she discovers things she ironically she has never really known about her parents and what is seeded in the tragic story of their border crossing. Buy it from Marcus Books.

Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, Black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends, and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and totally irresistible. Buy it from Marcus Books.