Evanston Public Library and Bookends & Beginnings bookstore will host Princeton professor Eddie Glaude, author of “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own,” for a virtual conversation with Imani Perry, author of “Breathe: A Letter to My Sons.” The event will take place from 5 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12.

Registration is at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eddie-glaude-in-conversation-with-imani-perry-begin-again-breathe-tickets-114975538932

In Begin Again, Dr. Glaude looks at James Baldwin’s world and sees our own moment reflected back, in the murder of Black Americans by white cops, a steady assault on voting rights, and the election of Donald Trump. A searing exploration that lays bare the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, the book is a powerful interrogation of who we take ourselves to be and what we must ask and do in order to call forth a new America. Ms. Perry has called Prof. Glaude’s book “an unparalleled masterpiece of social criticism.”

Over the past nine months, Evanston Public Library has hosted dozens of discussions for community members to talk about James Baldwin’s novels and what we can learn from them. This program augments the Library’s extended focus on the works of James Baldwin but is relevant to anyone seeking greater clarity, as America examines itself and the racism that lies in its very foundations. 

The community is invited to this thought-provoking conversation between Eddie Glaude and Imani Perry, a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual whose most recent book Breathe exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition.

Bookends and Beginnings is offering 15% off on either of the books (Begin Again and Breathe) if people purchase them any time before or on the day of the event. The books will include signed bookplates by the authors.

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. He is the former president of the American Academy of Religion, the largest professional organization of scholars of religion in the world. Prof. Glaude is the author of a number of books, including “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul.” He hails from Moss Point, Miss., a small town on gulf coast, and is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. She has written and taught on a number of topics regarding race and African American culture. Besides her newest title, “Breathe,” her books include “Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop”; “May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem”; and “Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant Life of Lorraine Hansberry.”