The Woods Hole Public Library is joining libraries and residents from across Massachusetts for the Commonwealth Watch Party and Conversation. The program is in collaboration with the Library of Congress and National Book Festival 2021. Participants will view a video of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson discussing Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, in a presentation specially recorded for National Book Festival. Live conversation will follow, facilitated by long-time Massachusetts Representative and civil rights advocate Byron Rushing, founding member of the Library Caucus and former Trustee of the Boston Public Library, and Professor Roopika Risam, noted public scholar in Digital Humanities and African Diaspora at Salem State University and inaugural recipient of the Massachusetts Library Association’s Civil Liberties Champion Award.
This past summer, the WHPL’s Social Justice Book Group read and discussed Caste, and we hope this event will facilitate continued conversation on the same topic.
The virtual event will take place on Wednesday, September 22, beginning at 7:00 pm. To register please go to: https://bit.ly/NBF2021MassWatchParty
With the theme “Open a Book, Open the World,” the 2021 National Book Festival is expanded this year to accommodate virtual events and attendance. The Massachusetts program has been organized by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and Massachusetts public libraries as a “Festival Near You” event, designed to bring readers together for meaningful conversation that spans our commonwealth. More information about the 2021 National Book Festival, is available on their website.