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Damon Young on "That's How They Get You"

Presented by MahoganyBooks

Join MahoganyBooks for an exciting evening with award-winning author Damon Young as we celebrate his latest collection, "That's How They Get You." Damon will be joined in conversation by Glory Edim and Panama Jackson. Grab a friend and come out to celebrate this timely anthology!

About the Book: That's How They Get You

From the Thurber Prize-winning author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker comes a pioneering collection of Black humor from some of the most acclaimed writers and performers working today.

A critic explores the paradox of finding community in "the dozens" while grieving. A violent town ritual sparks an all-too-familiar moral panic. An email thread between friends discusses why we need an updated Green Book—but for public toilets. All across the nation, "Karens" become illegal overnight. These are just a few of the hilarious worlds contained in Damon Young's groundbreaking anthology, featuring the best, funniest, and Blackest essays, short stories, letters, and rants.

With words that roast, ignite, and burn while connecting to and coalescing around a singular thesis, That's How They Get You emphasizes how and why Black American humor is uniquely transfixing. This is a mixture of not just observational anxieties and stream-of-consciousness lucidities but also acute political clarity about America. Edited and with an introduction by Damon Young, the critically acclaimed author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker, this collection features new material from an all-star roster of contributors, including Hanif Abdurraqib, Mahogany L. Browne, Wyatt Cenac, Kiese Laymon, Deesha Philyaw, Roy Wood Jr., and Nicola Yoon.

About the Author:

Pittsburgh writer Damon Young's debut memoir, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays (Ecco), won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. A founder of the culture blog Very Smart Brothas and creator and host of the Crooked Media podcast Stuck with Damon Young, Damon has been a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and a columnist for GQ. He was also the inaugural writer-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh's David C. Frederick Honors College.

About the Conversation Partners:

Glory Edim is a literary tastemaker, entrepreneur, and advocate for diverse voices in literature. In 2015, she founded Well-Read Black Girl (WRBG), an online platform and book club dedicated to celebrating the works of Black women authors and creating a supportive online community for readers. Under Edim’s leadership, WRBG has grown into a nonprofit organization, hosting events, book festivals, and author conversations that highlight the richness and diversity of Black literature. Her efforts have earned her accolades such as the 2017 Innovator’s Award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and the Madam C.J. Walker Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. As an author, Edim has contributed to the literary landscape with her bestselling anthologies Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves, On Girlhood: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library, and her memoir Gather Me.

Panama Jackson is an award-winning writer, author, and columnist for theGrio.com, and host of the Dear Culture podcast on the Grio Black Podcast Network. He is also an adjunct lecturer at Howard University. Panama is co-founder and former senior editor of the award-winning website VerySmartBrothas.com, cited as “the blackest place on the internet” by The Washington Post. He graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in economics and holds a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland, College Park. He really enjoys getting paid to be Black for a living.

Event Guidelines:

6:30 PM - Doors Open | 7:00 PM - Conversation Begins | 8:30 PM - Event Ends