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Image for event: Community Led Book Discussion: "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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Community Led Book Discussion: "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

2023-04-11 14:00:00 2023-04-11 15:30:00 America/New_York Community Led Book Discussion: "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Join a lively discussion! This month we are discussing "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Find a copy at your local branch! Oxon Hil - Small Meeting Room

Tuesday, April 11
2:00pm - 3:30pm

Add to Calendar 2023-04-11 14:00:00 2023-04-11 15:30:00 America/New_York Community Led Book Discussion: "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Join a lively discussion! This month we are discussing "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Find a copy at your local branch! Oxon Hil - Small Meeting Room

Oxon Hil

Small Meeting Room

Join a lively discussion! This month we are discussing "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Find a copy at your local branch!

About the Book

"The author’s account of growing up with a former Black Panther for a father in a disintegrating corner of Baltimore.

Unlike so many of his compatriots in the Black Power movement, Paul Coates didn’t burn out in disappointment after the heat of ’60s idealism turned to ash. Instead, he raised his family, a polyglot mix of children from four mothers, to exacting standards in a Baltimore that by the time of the author’s childhood in the late ’70s and early ’80s was experiencing a drug-and-violence-fueled societal breakdown. In Coates’s poetic account of his youth, Paul provided a bulwark against the buffeting waves of the crack wars outside: “We were a close-knit circle, but a circle surrounded by dire wolves.” While Paul rescued the works of lost or little-known writers through his Black Classic Press (still in existence) and pushed his children to succeed, the author watched with mixed worry and jealousy as his older brother Bill ran the streets and built his rep. The details of Coates’s travels through disintegrating neighborhoods and schools that seemed almost designed to torment a bookish, dreamy kid would be pedestrian in many writers’ hands, but he wields words with a rare grace that gives his story an uncommon power. “The world was filled with great causes—Mandela, Nicaragua, and the battle against Reagan,” Coates writes. “But we died for sneakers stitched by serfs, coats that gave props to teams we didn’t own, hats embroidered with the names of Confederate states.” It’s one of the saddest descriptions of the crack epidemic ever put to page. Given the tragic number of African-Americans who didn’t survive that epidemic, it’s a pleasure to read the author’s awed appraisal of a father who never stopped striving for the best in his family and community, no matter how hopeless the view outside his window.

A rare, lyrical family memoir that rises above banal domesticity." --From Kirkus Reviews

Borrow the book from PGCMLS: Print | eAudiobook | eBook

AGE GROUP: | Adults |

EVENT TYPE: | Discussions |

TAGS: | |

Oxon Hill

Phone: (240) 455-5451
Branch manager
Melanie Townsend Diggs

Hours
Mon, May 05 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Tue, May 06 12:00PM to 8:00PM
Wed, May 07 12:00PM to 8:00PM
Thu, May 08 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Fri, May 09 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Sat, May 10 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, May 11 1:00PM to 5:00PM
Mon, May 05 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Tue, May 06 12:00PM to 8:00PM
Wed, May 07 12:00PM to 8:00PM
Thu, May 08 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Fri, May 09 10:00AM to 6:00PM
Sat, May 10 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, May 11 1:00PM to 5:00PM

About the branch

Ask a Librarian Telephone Reference - (240) 455-5451

Dial 7-1-1 to place a call through Maryland Relay

Oxon Hill is home of the Sojourner Truth Room and the Speak Your Truth! Oral History Project.

Upcoming events

Fri, May 09, 10:30am - 11:30am
Small Meeting Room
This event is full

Sat, May 10, 11:00am - 1:00pm

Sat, May 10, 1:30pm - 3:00pm

Mon, May 12, 10:00am - 4:30pm
Author Room

Tue, May 13, 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Author Room

Wed, May 14, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Lecture Hall

Wed, May 14, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Thu, May 15, 10:30am - 11:00am
Foundry

Thu, May 15, 11:15am - 11:45am
Foundry

Thu, May 15, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Foundry

Thu, May 15, 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Small Meeting Room

Sat, May 17, 10:00am - 2:00pm

Sat, May 17, 11:00am - 1:00pm

Mon, May 19, 10:00am - 4:30pm
Author Room

Tue, May 20, 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Author Room

Tue, May 20, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Lecture Hall

Cancelled
Tue, May 20, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Wed, May 21, 12:00pm - 4:00pm

Wed, May 21, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Thu, May 22, 10:30am - 11:00am
Foundry

Thu, May 22, 11:15am - 11:45am
Foundry

Thu, May 22, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Lecture Hall

Thu, May 22, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Foundry

Sat, May 24, 11:00am - 1:00pm

Cancelled
Tue, May 27, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Wed, May 28, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Thu, May 29, 10:30am - 11:00am
Foundry

Thu, May 29, 11:15am - 11:45am
Foundry

Thu, May 29, 3:30pm - 5:00pm
Foundry

Thu, May 29, 4:30pm - 5:30pm
Small Meeting Room

Fri, May 30, 10:30am - 11:30am
Small Meeting Room
This event is full

Sat, May 31, 11:00am - 1:00pm

Mon, Jun 02, 10:00am - 4:30pm
Author Room

Cancelled
Tue, Jun 03, 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Wed, Jun 04, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Lecture Hall,Small Meeting Room

Wed, Jun 04, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Small Meeting Room

Wed, Jun 04, 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Thu, Jun 05, 10:30am - 11:00am
Foundry

Thu, Jun 05, 11:15am - 11:45am

Sat, Jun 07, 11:00am - 1:00pm