Courtney Thorsson: The Sisterhood
@ Seminary Co-op Bookstore
5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
Opening Monday, February 19th, from 6PM - 7PM
Courtney Thorsson will discuss The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture. She will be joined in conversation by Tara Betts. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.
At the Co-op
Presented in Partnership with The Center for the study of Race, Politics, and Culture
About the Book: One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan’s Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves “The Sisterhood,” the group—which also came to include Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson, and others—would get together once a month over the next two years, creating a vital space for Black women to discuss literature and liberation. The Sisterhood tells the story of how this remarkable community transformed American writing and cultural institutions.
About the Author: Courtney Thorsson is an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Oregon, where she teaches, studies, and writes about African American literature from its beginnings to present using Black feminist methods. Her first book, Women’s Work: Nationalism and Contemporary African American Women’s Novels (Virginia 2013), argues that Toni Cade Bambara, Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange, and Toni Morrison reclaim and revise cultural nationalism in their novels of the 1980s and 90s. Her writing has appeared in publications including Callaloo; African American Review; MELUS; Gastronomica; Contemporary Literature; Legacy; and Public Books. She is the recipient of a Public Scholars Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the research and writing of The Sisterhood.
About the Interlocutor: Tara Betts, author of Refuse to Disappear, Break the Habit, and Arc & Hue. Refuse to Disappear is available at SPD Books now.
Event Location:
Seminary Co-op Bookstore
5751 S. Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637
Official Website
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Tags: Courtney Thorsson, Hyde Park, Seminary Co Op Bookstore, Tara Betts, The Sisterhood
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