Howard County Library System’s author events are a key component of the HCLS curriculum. Notable, best-selling, and local authors provide customers with enlightening experiences throughout the year. Bringing the community together to celebrate the literary arts is a hallmark of HCLS customer service. Join us for these opportunities to meet one of your favorite authors or discover someone new!
There are 21 upcoming classes.
Author Works: Nyani Nkrumah: Wade in the Water (In-Person)
Date: 03/27/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walker’s classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, a gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class that explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.
Stunning…The author is supremely gifted at bringing both her characters and their close-knit rural town to life. Readers will eagerly await more from this writer. — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, Mississippi Wade in the Water tells the story of Ella, a black, unloved, precocious eleven-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ella’s community to carry out some research. Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there. The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. James’s carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.
Told in two voices, Ella’s and Ms. St. James’s, and set around richly developed characters, this riveting, page turning coming of age story will keep readers entranced until the last shocking revelation.
Nyani Nkrumah was born in Boston and grew up in Ghana, West Africa and later Zimbabwe. Her love of writing comes from her mother, a former English and literature teacher who entertained her kids by reciting poetry and Shakespeare soliloquies on the way to school.
Nyani graduated from Amherst College where she dual majored in Biology and Black Studies. She also has a Masters from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a Ph.D from Cornell University. She is also a Fulbright Fellow. In her other life, she lives in the Washington DC area with her family and works in international development. She is also known as Nyaneba Nkrumah.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation.
This registration page is for the IN-PERSON event at the Miller Branch. To register for the ONLINE version, please click here.
Author Works: Nyani Nkrumah: Wade in the Water (Online)
Date: 03/27/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Resonant with the emotional urgency of Alice Walker’s classic Meridian and the poignant charm of Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, a gripping debut novel of female power and vulnerability, race, and class that explores the unlikely friendship between a precocious black girl and a mysterious white woman in a small Mississippi town in the early 1980s.
Stunning…The author is supremely gifted at bringing both her characters and their close-knit rural town to life. Readers will eagerly await more from this writer. — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, Mississippi Wade in the Water tells the story of Ella, a black, unloved, precocious eleven-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ella’s community to carry out some research. Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there. The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. James’s carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.
Told in two voices, Ella’s and Ms. St. James’s, and set around richly developed characters, this riveting, page turning coming of age story will keep readers entranced until the last shocking revelation.
Nyani Nkrumah was born in Boston and grew up in Ghana, West Africa and later Zimbabwe. Her love of writing comes from her mother, a former English and literature teacher who entertained her kids by reciting poetry and Shakespeare soliloquies on the way to school.
Nyani graduated from Amherst College where she dual majored in Biology and Black Studies. She also has a Masters from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a Ph.D from Cornell University. She is also a Fulbright Fellow. In her other life, she lives in the Washington DC area with her family and works in international development. She is also known as Nyaneba Nkrumah.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation.
Register here for the ONLINE version of this event. To register for the In-Person event, click here.
Poetry Picnic in the Enchanted Garden
Date: 04/01/23Time: 3:30pm - 5:30pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 6 - 11 (Grades 1-6), Ages 11-13 (Middle School), Ages 14 - 18 (High School), Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Writing
Description:
Are you a student, teen or adult who writes poetry? Maybe you just want to explore more of this fascinating medium of writing. To kick off National Poetry Month in April, come join our FREE Poetry Picnic in the Enchanted Garden on April 1st from 4 to 5:30 pm for an afternoon rich with fun and verse. Community members of all ages will be able to write their own poetry, read the works of famous poets, and participate in an open mic!
If the weather is inclement, this event will be moved indoors.
In partnership with the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo) and organized by the Bauder Youth on Board.
Veterans Book Group (online)
Date: 04/02/23Time: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Community & Culture
Description:
Veterans, both active and retired military, are invited to this online discussion series. During five monthly facilitated sessions, discussions center on military experiences and a unique set of readings, which may include classics, fiction, memoirs, poetry, short stories, articles, and essays. The readings relate in some way to military experiences or offer a veteran’s perspective.
Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions. Registration is open to veterans/active duty only, please.
All reading materials are provided. Space is limited.
1st Sundays; February 5 - June 4 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Online.
The Veterans Book Group is moderated by David Owens. David Owens is a Navy veteran who served for six years onboard two U.S. Navy warships. Owens attended the U.S. Naval Academy and now runs a small media content production business based in the D.C. metropolitan area. Owens loves to read and, even more so, enjoys the discussions and camaraderie of the veteran book groups!
The Veterans Book Group is coordinated statewide by Maryland Humanities and is presented locally in partnership with Howard County Library System. The Veterans Book Group is supported in part by the Wawa Foundation.
Reading Selections:
February 5: In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson
March 5: The Sable Arm: Black Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861 - 1865 by Dudley Taylor Cornish
April 2: Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience by Anuradha Bhagwati
May 7: Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay
June 4: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone. For any questions, please email [email protected].
Meet BOB Author Christine Day - I Can Make This Promise (Online)
Date: 04/03/23Time: 7:00pm - 7:30pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: Ages 6 - 11 (Grades 1-6)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Please join us for a 30-minute live Q&A with Christine Day!
Christine Day's first two novels, I Can Make This Promise and The Sea in Winter, were American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor titles. She also wrote She Persisted: Maria Tallchief, a chapter book biography in Chelsea Clinton's series about inspirational women. Her next book, We Still Belong, is coming to shelves on August 1st, 2023. Christine lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
What's On Your Shelf? Fiction and Nonfiction Book Chat
Date: 04/13/23Time: 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Community & Culture
Description:
Share fiction and/or nonfiction titles that are on your bookshelf and we will share titles from our shelves. If you don't have a title to share, find inspiration in what others recommend and start building your reading list.
Readers also have the opportunity to ask for recommendations or to ask our instructors questions about books, reading, and the library. Previous discussion topics have included book donations, Little Free Libraries, and Goodreads (the world's largest website for readers and book recommendations).
The Language of the Experience: Unlocking Your Voice In Writing
Date: 04/15/23Time: 10:30am - 11:30am
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 14 - 18 (High School), Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Writing
Description:
Are you a poet or writer? This is for you.
Some writers feel a pressure that to be “a good writer” they need to use elevated, poetic or flowery language. However, the language of our experiences can be the most powerful tool in our writing. In this workshop, we’ll read examples of writing that uses “the language of the experience,” as well as take part in a “translation” exercise to explore finding our unique voice.
Meg Eden Kuyatt is a 2020 Pitch Wars mentee, and teaches creative writing at colleges and writing centers. She is the author of the 2021 Towson Prize for Literature winning poetry collection “Drowning in the Floating World” (Press 53, 2020) and children’s novels, most recently “Good Different,” a JLG Gold Standard selection (Scholastic, 2023). Find her online at https://linktr.ee/medenauthor.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation.
Creating from Wounds: A Generative Workshop
Date: 04/15/23Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Branch: Savage Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Author & Literary Events
Description:
In these difficult times, it can be so easy for us to drown in the relentless awful in our news cycle and world. How do we find the glimmers of beauty in so much pain? The power of poems is that they allow us to create from disaster, making something out of the brokenness to process and cope. In this workshop, Meg Eden will share tools that she has used in writing her latest poetry collection, exploring the beauty and magic that the natural object, form and personification can lend to our poems, and in turn, our spirits. Participants will have time during the workshop with interactive prompts, and will also receive resources to continue writing on their own.
Getty Museum Series: The Monuments Men (online evening)
Date: 04/18/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: All Ages / Families
Program type: History & Genealogy
Description:
The Monuments Men
It’s no secret that the Nazis confiscated hundreds of thousands of works of art from Jewish families, collectors and dealers. It’s also a well known fact that the Allies were responsible for discovering and rescuing many of these precious paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects. Some passed directly through the hands of the Monuments Men as they were discovered in the salt mines of Austria, in caves, other buildings and even at Herman Goring’s summer home. These works were restituted to their owners or their family’s heirs via different means including the Allied forces, through governments, and even from museums. Some works found their way back shortly after the war, others took over 50 years to be returned to their rightful owners. Their stories are as fascinating as the objects themselves.
Docent Lee Rubinstein holds dual degrees in English and History with a minor in Art History. She has been leading students through the galleries at the Getty since the program's inception in 2012. Additionally, in 2007, Lee created the curriculum for, and now runs, a volunteer art program in underserved schools in Los Angeles.
Image: Monuments men image from the web.
UPCOMING CLASS:
May 10 @1-2 pm: Molten Color: Glass in the Getty Collection. REGISTER.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone.
Getty Museum Series: The Monuments Men (online afternoon)
Date: 04/19/23Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: All Ages / Families
Program type: History & Genealogy
Description:
The Monuments Men
It’s no secret that the Nazis confiscated hundreds of thousands of works of art from Jewish families, collectors and dealers. It’s also a well known fact that the Allies were responsible for discovering and rescuing many of these precious paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects. Some passed directly through the hands of the Monuments Men as they were discovered in the salt mines of Austria, in caves, other buildings and even at Herman Goring’s summer home. These works were restituted to their owners or their family’s heirs via different means including the Allied forces, through governments, and even from museums. Some works found their way back shortly after the war, others took over 50 years to be returned to their rightful owners. Their stories are as fascinating as the objects themselves.
Docent Lee Rubinstein holds dual degrees in English and History with a minor in Art History. She has been leading students through the galleries at the Getty since the program's inception in 2012. Additionally, in 2007, Lee created the curriculum for, and now runs, a volunteer art program in underserved schools in Los Angeles.
Image: Monuments men image from the web.
UPCOMING CLASS:
May 10 @1-2 pm: Molten Color: Glass in the Getty Collection. REGISTER.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone.
Reading Human Rights: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Date: 04/25/23Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Reading Human Rights is a monthly book discussion hosted by the Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity and Howard County Library System. We read books that promote cultural awareness, diversity, equity.
“Riveting, fearless, and vividly original” (Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author), this instant New York Times bestseller explores the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing.
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
Then the notes begin to appear on Nella’s desk: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
It’s hard to believe Hazel is behind these hostile messages. But as Nella starts to spiral and obsess over the sinister forces at play, she soon realizes that there’s a lot more at stake than just her career. Having joined Wagner Books to honor the legacy of Burning Heart, a novel written and edited by two Black women, she had thought that this animosity was a relic of the past. Is Nella ready to take on the fight of a new generation?
“Poignant, daring, and darkly funny, The Other Black Girl will have you stressed and exhilarated in equal measure through the very last twist” (Vulture). The perfect read for anyone who has ever felt manipulated, threatened, or overlooked in the workplace.
Zakiya Dalila Harris spent nearly three years in editorial at Knopf/Doubleday before leaving to write her debut novel The Other Black Girl. Prior to working in publishing, Zakiya received her MFA in creative writing from The New School. Her essays and book reviews have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Guernica, and The Rumpus. She lives in Brooklyn.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation. Please note that your email may be shared with Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity for communication related to this event.
Registered customers should place a hold request on the title using their library card in order to receive a copy to read before the discussion. Availability of physical copies is not guaranteed.
Divisive U.S. Politics: A Comparative Analysis
Date: 04/25/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Branch: Central Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: History & Genealogy
Description:
Are our current politics more divisive than ever? Maybe not.
There have been other periods in American history when, arguably, political differences rivaled, or exceeded, our current situation.
Author Stan Haynes offers that the 1840s and 1850s were such a time. The headlines from these decades sound familiar: a president whom many believed did not hold the office legitimately, a mob attack in Washington, calls for impeachment, election fraud, and accusations of backstabbing and betrayal.
Explore whether our current times are unprecedented, or whether dysfunction in Washington is not solely a modern political phenomenon.
Stan Haynes, an attorney and author of four books, has had a lifelong interest in American political history. His two historical fiction books, And Tyler No More and And Union No More, are set in the 1840s and 1850s. Vist his website at www.stanhaynes.com.
Copies of Mr. Haynes' books will be available for purchase at the event.
Veterans Book Group (online)
Date: 05/07/23Time: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Community & Culture
Description:
Veterans, both active and retired military, are invited to this online discussion series. During five monthly facilitated sessions, discussions center on military experiences and a unique set of readings, which may include classics, fiction, memoirs, poetry, short stories, articles, and essays. The readings relate in some way to military experiences or offer a veteran’s perspective.
Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions. Registration is open to veterans/active duty only, please.
All reading materials are provided. Space is limited.
1st Sundays; February 5 - June 4 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Online.
The Veterans Book Group is moderated by David Owens. David Owens is a Navy veteran who served for six years onboard two U.S. Navy warships. Owens attended the U.S. Naval Academy and now runs a small media content production business based in the D.C. metropolitan area. Owens loves to read and, even more so, enjoys the discussions and camaraderie of the veteran book groups!
The Veterans Book Group is coordinated statewide by Maryland Humanities and is presented locally in partnership with Howard County Library System. The Veterans Book Group is supported in part by the Wawa Foundation.
Reading Selections:
February 5: In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson
March 5: The Sable Arm: Black Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861 - 1865 by Dudley Taylor Cornish
April 2: Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience by Anuradha Bhagwati
May 7: Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay
June 4: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone. For any questions, please email [email protected].
Getty Museum Series: Molten Color: Glass in the Getty Collection (online)
Date: 05/10/23Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: All Ages / Families
Program type: Community & Culture
Description:
Molten Color: Glass in the Getty Collection
A little sand, a little heat and you have one of the most interesting materials—glass! In this tour, we’ll look at the Getty's glass collection that dates from the ancient world to the 19th century. Whether it was used in amphorae, windows, clocks, chandeliers or other decorative arts objects, clear and colored glass has a story to tell.
Docent Lee Rubinstein holds dual degrees in English and History with a minor in Art History. She has been leading students through the galleries at the Getty since the program's inception in 2012. Additionally, in 2007, Lee created the curriculum for, and now runs, a volunteer art program in underserved schools in Los Angeles.
Image left: Glass item from the Getty collection
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone.
Reading Human Rights: Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Date: 05/30/23Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Reading Human Rights is a monthly book discussion hosted by the Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity and Howard County Library System. We read books that promote cultural awareness, diversity, equity.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • From the infinitely inventive author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe comes "one of the funniest books of the year.... A delicious, ambitious Hollywood satire" (The Washington Post).
A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?
After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration—Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.
CHARLES YU is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown (the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for fiction), and the novel How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (a New York Times Notable Book and a Time magazine best book of the year). He received the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award and was nominated for two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the HBO series, Westworld. He has also written for shows on FX, AMC, and HBO. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired, among other publications. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he established the Betty L. Yu and Jin C. Yu Writing Prizes, in honor of his parents.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation. Please note that your email may be shared with Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity for communication related to this event.
Registered customers should place a hold request on the title using their library card in order to receive a copy to read before the discussion. Availability of physical copies is not guaranteed.
This is part of HCLS' AAPI month series of classes and events. For a full list of upcoming opportunities, click here.
Meet Children’s Author, Dr. Melissa Munro Boyd TK [families]
Date: 05/31/23Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: All Ages / Families
Program type: Author & Literary Events
Description:
Families. 60 min. Ticket required.
In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Miller Branch is excited to welcome children’s author Dr. Melissa Munro Boyd. Dr. Boyd will read two of her picture books, B is for Breathe and Creating Calm, and present on using literature to help children with identifying and expressing their emotions. She will also share relaxation techniques, including deep breathing and guided imagery.
Books will be available for purchase following her presentation.
Tickets will be available at the children's desk 15 minutes before the class.
Veterans Book Group (online)
Date: 06/04/23Time: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Branch: Online Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Community & Culture
Description:
Veterans, both active and retired military, are invited to this online discussion series. During five monthly facilitated sessions, discussions center on military experiences and a unique set of readings, which may include classics, fiction, memoirs, poetry, short stories, articles, and essays. The readings relate in some way to military experiences or offer a veteran’s perspective.
Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions. Registration is open to veterans/active duty only, please.
All reading materials are provided. Space is limited.
1st Sundays; February 5 - June 4 from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Online.
The Veterans Book Group is moderated by David Owens. David Owens is a Navy veteran who served for six years onboard two U.S. Navy warships. Owens attended the U.S. Naval Academy and now runs a small media content production business based in the D.C. metropolitan area. Owens loves to read and, even more so, enjoys the discussions and camaraderie of the veteran book groups!
The Veterans Book Group is coordinated statewide by Maryland Humanities and is presented locally in partnership with Howard County Library System. The Veterans Book Group is supported in part by the Wawa Foundation.
Reading Selections:
February 5: In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson
March 5: The Sable Arm: Black Soldiers in the Union Army, 1861 - 1865 by Dudley Taylor Cornish
April 2: Unbecoming: A Memoir of Disobedience by Anuradha Bhagwati
May 7: Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay
June 4: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone. For any questions, please email [email protected].
Author Works: Tonee Moll: You Cannot Save Here
Date: 06/17/23Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Branch: Savage Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Winner of the 2022 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers' Publishing House, You Cannot Save Here is a collection of poems about how we live when each day feels like the world is ending. The poems ask what we do with the small moments that matter when so much around us—climate disaster, gun violence, pandemics, wars—makes these days feel apocalyptic. The book is a bit speculative and a bit confessional. It's queer, punk, and woven tightly with cultural allusion—from visual art to video games, pop culture to counterculture.
Tonee Moll is an award winning queer writer and educator. They hold an MFA in creative writing and publishing arts, are finishing their dissertation for a PhD in English, and are an assistant professor of English at a Maryland community college. Tonee’s poetry has received the Adele V. Holden award for creative excellence and the Bill Knott Poetry Prize.
Reading Human Rights: Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Date: 06/27/23Time: 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Branch: East Columbia Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Reading Human Rights is a monthly book discussion hosted by the Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity and Howard County Library System. We read books that promote cultural awareness, diversity, equity.
In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade • “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love
This is how you find yourself.
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.
Author, activist, founder of Together Rising, and host of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast Glennon Doyle is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed, a Reese’s Book Club selection, which has sold over two million copies. She is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, and Carry On, Warrior. An activist and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People), Glennon hosts the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. She is the founder and president of Together Rising, an all-women-led nonprofit organization that has revolutionized grassroots philanthropy—raising over $30 million for women, families, and children in crisis. Glennon lives in Florida with her wife and three children.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation. Please note that your email may be shared with Howard County Office of Human Rights & Equity for communication related to this event.
Registered customers should place a hold request on the title using their library card in order to receive a copy to read before the discussion. Availability of physical copies is not guaranteed.
Additional Room for Critical Race Theory
Date: 06/27/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
Understanding Critical Race Theory
Date: 06/27/23Time: 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Branch: Miller Branch
Age group: Ages 19+ (Adults)
Program type: Race, Equity & Inclusion
Description:
This past year, everyone has begun talking about Critical Race Theory, a set of premises developed by legal scholars decades ago to interpret America’s institutions in the context of race and civil rights.
In recent months, legislators in many states have rushed to pass laws to ban the teaching of CRT from K-12 classroom across the country. Yet what exactly is CRT? It can be hard to know. There’s no manifesto or mission statement. That’s made Critical Race Theory a bit of a moving target.
This talk has three quite different goals. The first objective is to locate the origins of CRT, establish its core premises, describe the recent controversy, and interrogate the stakes of it all. The second objective is to show CRT in action—to narrate the histories of voting rights and of crime and punishment in the United States through the lens of Critical Race Theory. The third is to introduce participants to a list of practices that CRT scholars believe all of us can adopt to mitigate the worst legacies of slavery in our current world.
About the presenter:
Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland and author of the book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home which was a finalist for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize.
He is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow (2021-2023) and has held research fellowships at more than two dozen libraries and institutes including residencies at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance at Yale University and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. His work has also been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Bell serves as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a trustee of the Maryland Center for History and Culture, an elected member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and as a board member of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System Foundation.
Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation with a link to join the class/event. This email will also contain the dial-in information if you wish to participate by telephone.
