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Imani Perry--Breathe: A Letter to My Sons

Event date: 
Saturday, September 28, 2019 - 7:30pm to 9:00pm

 

Charis welcomes the award winning author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberryto discuss her new book, Breathe: A Letter to My Sons, which explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world.

Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love--finding beauty and possibility in life--and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. 

Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. 

With original art for the cover by Ekua Holmes, Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.

This is a Charis Circle event. The suggested donation is $5. 

Event address: 
184 S. Candler St.
Decatur, GA 30030
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons By Imani Perry Cover Image
$19.95
Email or call for price.
ISBN: 9780807076552
Published: Beacon Press - September 17th, 2019

2020 Chautauqua Prize Finalist

2020 NAACP Image Award Nominee - Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction)

Best-of Lists: Best Nonfiction Books of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · 25 Can't-Miss Books of 2019 (The Undefeated)


Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry By Imani Perry Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9780807039830
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 Days
Published: Beacon Press - September 17th, 2019

Winner of the 2019 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction

Winner of the Shilts-Grahn Triangle Award for Lesbian Nonfiction

Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018