(Photo above: Walidah Imarisha)
Deschutes Public Library and Oregon Humanities present a Think & Drink conversation on criminalization, poverty, prisons, harm and systems of accountability within the U.S. criminal justice system with writer and educator Walidah Imarisha.
This free event is open to the public and will take place at McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend on October 9. Doors open at 6pm; the event starts at 6:30pm. Food, beverages and books will be available for sale.
Imarisha is the author Angels with Dirty Faces: Three Stories of Crime, Prison, and Redemption, which won the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. In the book, Imarisha—dealing with the complexities of her own experience with sexual assault and accountability—takes readers behind prison walls to visit her adopted brother Kakamia and his fellow inmate Jimmy “Mac” McElroy, a member of the brutal Irish gang the Westies.
Together they explore the questions: People can do unimaginable things to one another—and then what? What do we as a society do? What might redemption look like? Kirkus Reviews called the book “A brave, honest search for answers regarding incarceration.”
Imarisha is the editor of two anthologies, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements and Another World is Possible: Conversations in a Time of Terror, as well as the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars.
Imarisha has been a lecturer in Stanford University’s Program of Writing and Rhetoric, and has also taught in Portland State University’s Black Studies Department, Oregon State University’s Women’s Studies Department and Southern New Hampshire University’s English Department.
www.deschuteslibrary.org
People with disabilities needing accommodations (alternative formats, seating or auxiliary aides) should contact Liz at 541-312-1032
