The Arts and Justice Collective* ( www.theartsandjusticecollective.com ) hosted an evening with the award winning author Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen:An American Lyric in conjunction with with their year long project to spark thoughtful conversation through book discussions of Ms. Rankin’s small but impactful book. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Racial Justice Collective has collaborated with libraries and nonprofits across the Cape. As their website explains “Cape Cod is full of white space, and people of color can often feel othered and experience racism on a daily basis here. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s not. Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen: An American Lyric” will have our community exploring how racism and microaggressions show up in these current times”.
The ladies of the Arts and Justice Coalition share their organizations’ work and introduce the speakers.
Activist and author Marley Dias speaks of her life experience and introduces the Keynote Speaker Ms. Rankine. At 10 years old, she founded #1000BlackGirlBooks that became a national movement to get books featuring protagonists of color into classrooms. Dias hosted a Netflix show that was called “Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices”. “Dias serves as the host and executive producer of the series, whose books and conversations center on themes of identity, respect, justice and action. She has also been the Ambassador for the National Education Association’s Read Across America program since 2021. And did I mention she’s a university junior?! (some of Marley Dias info above taken from Wikipedia).
There are many more book discussions about Citizen scheduled. You can find the full list on the Arts & Justice pulldown page at www.belongingbookscapecod.com or in the Special Events section of the MLK page on this website.
*The Arts and Justice Coalition is AmplifyPOC, Belonging Books and the Cordial Eye.