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Register 18 Seats Remaining
Join us to read and discuss "Kindred," by Octavia Butler, a novel that uses time travel to explore themes of slavery and racism in America. We'll have dinner at 6:00 p.m. and the book discussion will begin at 7:00 p.m. Come for dinner, the discussion, or both!
About the book:
"Experience the novel that redefined American literature by the New York Times bestselling author of "Parable of the Sower," MacArthur “Genius," and Nebula and Hugo award winner Octavia Butler.
Selected by The Atlantic as one of the "most consequential novels of the past 100 years."
"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."
Dana's 26th birthday celebration ends when she's ripped from 1976 California and thrust onto a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. Her mission: keep alive the white boy who will grow up to assault her ancestor—because without him, she'll never be born.
Every trip back grows more dangerous. Dana feels the lash, wears the chains, endures the daily terror that defined millions of lives. She can't just read about slavery's horrors—she lives them, bleeds from them, nearly breaks under them.
Butler doesn't let you observe from a safe distance. You're trapped in Dana's skin as she navigates impossible choices: submit to survive, or resist and risk everything. You'll feel her desperation as she fights to preserve her humanity while the plantation's brutality threatens to consume her.
This isn't historical fiction—it's time travel that cuts straight to the bone of American racism. Butler pioneered the neo-slavery narrative that inspired Colson Whitehead's "Underground Railroad" and Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Water Dancer." But "Kindred" remains unmatched in its raw power to make slavery's legacy feel immediate, personal, and inescapable.
(The summary above is from Amazon.)
Calvert Library strives to make all our events accessible. For access questions or requests, please call 410-535-0291.