Experiencing America Book Club: Between The World And Me

What does it mean to live in America now?

What does America look like?

How did we get to be who and where we are?

Let's talk about our lives in America today.

Our book selections, provided by the CT State Library, will be from the Experiencing America collection, made up of adult and young adult books offering perspectives and voices that are intentionally human-centered explorations of identities and systems impacting contemporary America.

In October the group will review Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

"In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward."—ta-nehisicoates.com

Join us to engage in this monthly multigenerational book discussion for adults and teens.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Clinton Human Rights Committee.

Registration is not required, but guests may register if they would like to request a copy of the book and receive a reminder email the day before the event.