The Hoover Library's Stories of Exile program series will wrap up in December with a tale closer to home. Authors Irene Latham and Charles Waters will be at the library on Tuesday, December 19 at 6 pm to discuss their young adult novel-in-verse, African Town. The true story of the last American slave ship, the Clotilde inspires this story. In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilde. These two fantastic authors have given voice to the ship's human "cargo" along with the white men that set this voyage in motion. This book should be read by everyone - exiled from their homes, the captives made a home in Alabama that thrives to this day. Following this exciting guest appearance by the authors, we will discuss the book further at our last book club meeting on Thursday, December 21 at 6:30 pm. Preceding these events, we will show the Netflix documentary, Descendent, about the actual discovery of the Clotilde ship in Mobile's backwaters and the community reaction to the discovery. It will be on Sunday, December 17 at 1:30 pm in the Library Theatre.
Our thanks go out to the Yiddish Book Center and the Birmingham Jewish Federation for making this program series possible.
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