This month in commemoration of Black History Month, we will be reading Kindred by Octavia Butler.

This book is the second of two books selected in celebration of Black History Month.

We hope you can join our special moderators, Ericka S. and Tracy M., to discuss this critically acclaimed best-selling book.

"Sometimes I wrote things because I couldn’t say them… couldn’t keep them bottled inside me." -- Dana

In her ground-breaking masterpiece, Butler explores the idea of familial and spiritual connections spanning centuries, physical travel beyond time and space, and an unexplainable bond between an aspiring writer from NYC and a ne'er-do-well enslaver in the South of her ancestors. Once highly contested as science fiction, Kindred has earned its rightful place as a neo-slave narrative within the canon of African–American contemporary fiction.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has somehow been summoned across centuries and miles to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the dilapidated quarters of enslaved people. Against her will, each time her stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin. (Ericka S.)

Doubleday,  264 pp, first published in 1979

PDF available courtesy of Duke University Press: 
https://freebooksmania.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/kindred_.pdf
Also editions from diverse publishers available.

Kindred has been adapted for television and online theater (featuring Alfre Woodard, Lynn Whitfield, and Ruby Dee).

Join us for the moderated discussion starting at 7:30 p.m. or join us earlier for a social with drinks and traditional German dishes starting at 6:00 p.m.  Cost is what you order.