Event Date/Time: Thursday, September 15, 2022, 7 pm
Location: Hoover Public Library, Library Plaza
The Hoover Public Library invites you to attend the second in a series of community discussions about Birmingham-native Imani Perry’s South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation. The kickoff for the series will take place on Friday, September 2 at 7 pm at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and will feature an interactive, in-person celebration including music, dance and fellowship. The following week, on Thursday, September 15 at 7 pm, the Hoover Library will host the next discussion with two teaching artists, Tania De’Shawn Russell and Brianna “B.J.” Jordynn Wright, leading a panel discussion of three chapters in the book.
The chapters for the Hoover Library event are "An Errand into Wilderness: Appalachia" (pg. 3), "More than a Memorial: Birmingham" (pg. 153), and "Magnolia Graves and Easter Lilies: New Orleans" (pg. 321). Panelists will be Dikerius Blevins, Carey Fountain, and Dr. Samantha Briggs on the Library Plaza stage. This event will be livestreamed to both Facebook and YouTube. Books will be available for checkout at the event. Please note: You don’t have to have read South to America to enjoy this dynamic and interactive series of events.
The PEN America Birmingham Chapter‘s Birmingham Reads program will continue with events around the city. For a full list of programs and locations, visit hooverlibrary.org/birminghamreads.
This series of events is a part of the Birmingham Reads Project, a citywide literary event dedicated to engaging and uniting Birmingham community members in reading one book of fiction or nonfiction in one given year and then discussing it in book groups and at events throughout the city. This year’s selection, South to America, is a sprawling and ambitious book that brings together the perspective of a distinguished historian and the personal narrative of a native-born southerner to better understand the beauty, tragedy and soul of this country. The events are a celebration of the rich and diverse culture created by Black and Southern people, who built American life as we know it.
