Monthly book discussion featuring works by African-American authors. You now have the option to attend in-person or on Zoom! Please register and choose your attendance option. Print copies o f the book are available for checkout at the Eola Road Branch Adult Refere nce Desk on the 2nd floor. Email group facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org for more information.
\nBook description:
\nSummer 1995: Ten- year-old Joan\, her mother\, and her younger sister flee her father&rsquo\ ;s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother&rsquo\;s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family&rsquo\;s trajectory. Half a century earlier\, Joan&rsquo\;s gra ndfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of D ouglass&mdash\;only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black dete ctive in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life\, but family sec rets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected. As she grows up\, Joa n finds relief in her artwork\, painting portraits of the community in Mem phis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn\, who clai ms to know something about curses\, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion\, imagination\, and relentless hope are\, in fact \, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to unders tand that her mother\, her mother&rsquo\;s mother\, and the mothers before them persevered\, made impossible choices\, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger&mdash\;tha t the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush. Unfolding o ver seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time\, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inher itance\, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down\, in a famil y and as a country: brutality and justice\, faith and forgiveness\, sacrif ice and love.
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