"The Virginia Roots of Today's Radical Right and the Crisis of American Democracy," with Professor Nancy MacLean

Wednesday, December 13th 2017, from 7-9pm at VCU's Cabell Library (901 Park Avenue, Richmond VA), historian and author Nancy MacLean, of Duke University, will give a talk based on her new book, which asserts that the modern far right traces its ideological roots to the capitalist economist James McGill Buchanan. 

Free, open to the public, but you must register. 

To register and for more information, see this link. 

Books For a Better World: "Sis, You OK?" with Nikkea Shareè

Tomorrow, Tuesday November 14th 2017, from 6:30-8pm, at the Hull Street Library (1400 Hull Street, Richmond VA), the library will be holding the final event of the Books for a Better World Series. This event will include a screening of the short documentary, "Sis, You OK?", followed by a discussion with creator Nikkea Shareè. This film addresses domestic violence and mental health. From the event description:

"Social justice, healing, and history are the themes we’ll explore in the "Books for a Better World" author series held on second Tuesdays (March-November) at Hull Street Library. Join local authors and scholars for engaging book discussions followed by Q&A and book signing, and light refreshments."

Free, open to the public. Children are welcome but should be accompanied by an adult, and some material may not be appropriate for children. 

For more info or to ask a question, call 804-646-8699 or email natalie.draper@richmondgov.com. 

Community Discussion with the Tilted Scales Collective: "A Tilted Guide to Being a Defendant."

Thursday, August 10th 2017, from 7-9pm, at the Comm Room (3110 West Leigh Street, Richmond VA), the Scuffletown Anti-Repression Committee is hosting the Tilted Scales Collective, a small collective of legal support organizers. They will hold a community discussion on their new book, "A Tilted Guide to Being a Defendant." From the event description:

"With increasing confrontations with the far right, cops, FBI, ICE, capitalism, the Trump administration, and the systems of dominance that seek to keep us down, the importance of resistance is crystal clear. So too are the costs and risks of our resistance. Since the inauguration, there have been hundreds of new felony charges filed against us across Turtle Island. Our book aspires to be a resource for radical left struggle to help us all figure out ways to deal with serious criminal charges so we can strengthen our organizing and fight for liberation more strategically."

Free, open to the public. A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to the Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC), a prison abolitionist collective that produces a free resource directory that is mailed to prisoners nationwide upon request.

For more info and to RSVP, see this link.

Book Talk with Dave Coogan, coauthor of "Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail"

Today, from 6:30-8pm at the Hull Street Library (1400 Hull Street, Richmond VA), the Books for a Better World book talk series will host Dave Coogan, local author, discussing his book "Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail." The book is the culmination of a writing class at the Richmond City Jail. 

Free, open to the public. 

For more info and to RSVP, see this link. 

Book Talk with Bryan Stevenson, Author of "Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption"

Wednesday, April 12th 2017, at 6pm, at VCU's Siegel Center (1200 West Broad Street, Richmond VA), author and attorney Bryan Stevenson will speak on his memoir, "Just Mercy: a Story of Justice and Redemption," about the Equal Justice Initiative. Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicating to defending the poor, wrongly condemned, women, and children. 

The event is free and open to the public, with no registration required. 

Reading and Signing with Tressie McMillan Cottom: "Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy"

Friday, April 14th 2017, from 7-8pm, at Chop Suey Books (2913 West Cary Street, Richmond VA), there will be a book talk and signing with Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of "Lower Ed: the Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy." From the event description: 

"More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their bucolic not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is known about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years--during the so-called Wall Street era of for-profit colleges. In Lower Ed Tressie McMillan Cottom--a bold and rising public scholar, herself once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges--expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today."

Free, open to the public. Parking is available on the street and in various public free parking garages, the nearest being located at 18 South Colonial Avenue. For more information and to RSVP, see this link. 

Book Talk and Signing, "Writing Our Way Our: Memoirs from Jail" with David Coogan

Saturday, November 12th 2016, from 12-2pm, at Book People Richmond (536 Granite Avenue, Richmond VA), David Coogan and several authors of the collaborative book, "Writing Our Way Out: Memoirs from Jail" will appear to discuss and sign copies. The book was written while its authors were incarcerated at the Richmond City Jail, and compiled by Coogan, who was teaching a writing class.

Free, open to the public. 

For more info and to RSVP, see this link. 

Book talk, "Scalawag: A White Southerner's Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism" with Edward Peeples: Book People Richmond

Friday, November 11th 2016, from 5-7pm, at Book People Richmond (536 Granite Avenue, Richmond VA), Edward Peeples, author of the Civil Rights movement memoir "Scalawag: A White Southerner's Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism," will speak on his book and sign copies.

"Scalawag" is a personal memoir of a white working-class man joining the struggle for collective liberation, but also presents a political history. A white man born to a single mother in Richmond in 1935, Peeples was raised under Jim Crow and taught the brutal ideology of white supremacy. But by nineteen, he rejected it, and became a "race traitor". He joined the Black freedom struggle, and began a life of political work.

Free, open to the public. For more information and to RSVP, see this link. 

Book talk, "Hidden Figures" with Margot Lee Shetterly: Library of Virginia

Tuesday, October 2th 2016, from 5:30-7:30pm, at the Library of Virginia (800 East Broad Street, Richmond VA), author Margot Lee Shetterly will speak on her new book, Hidden Figures, which tells the story of the pioneering African American women who did the calculations (by hand!) that made space flight possible, in a time when Jim Crow laws ensured that NASA was segregated.

Wine and cheese reception from 5:30-6pm, book talk from 6-7pm, and book signing from 7-7:30pm.

No cost is listed. To RSVP, see the link.

Book talk, "God of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity" with Kristin Swenson: Chop Suey Books

Tuesday, October 25th 2016, from 6-7pm, at Chop Suey Books (2913 West Cary Street, Richmond VA), there will be a book talk featuring Kristin Swenson on her book "God of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity." From the event description:

"What happens if we imagine the Jesus of Christian theology to be realized in the nonhuman natural world around us? Basic to Christian belief is the notion that God, the creator of all, inhabited the earth in order to call to us. God of Earth embraces this central premise of Christianity - Jesus as both fully divine and fully carnate - and then allows for the possibility that such a Jesus need not be limited to a human man. What if Jesus were "God of earth" - not only over earth but also in and through it? As Swenson tracks that question through the cycle of a church year, she invites readers to reconsider our relationship to the nonhuman natural world and so experience new dimensions of the sacred and new possibilities for hope and healing."

Free, open to the public. For more information and to RSVP, see the link.

Book talk, "Catching Homelessness: a Nurse's Story of Falling Through the Safety Net" with Josephine Ensign: Fountain Bookstore

Tomorrow, October 11th 2016, from 6:30-8pm, at Fountain Bookstore, Inc.(1312 East Cary Street, Richmond VA), Richmond author Josephine Ensign will read from her new memoir, "Catching Homelessness: A Nurse's Story of Falling Through the Safety Net." The book discusses Ensign's work with Richmond's homeless in the 1980s, during which time she became homeless herself. Proceeds from this event will go to The Daily Planet's Health Care for the Homeless program.

For more information and to RSVP, see the link.