About this Event
We are very excited to welcome JoAnne McFarland to Asbury Book Cooperative! She will be presenting her newest title AMERICAN GRAPHIC in conversation with local author and poet, Mychal Mills!
The $20 event ticket reserves your seat and purchases a copy of AMERICAN GRAPHIC! The $5 ticket reserves a seat only; you will receive a $5 voucher upon arrival to spend at the store for a purchase that night!
Walk-ins to this event are welcome but space is limited.
Hope to see you in the shop!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
With candor and insight, American Graphic confronts personal and cultural pasts. Juxtaposing historical documents—recipes from the first cookbook published by a Black woman in the States, reward posters for people fleeing enslavement—with intimate moments from the present, the book's magic is to bend time so we see that the past’s rivers flow through us into the future. Spare yet lyrical in its language, American Graphic is a concentrate of feeling and vision.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
JoAnne McFarland is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and curator. She is the Artistic Director of Artpoetica Project Space in Gowanus, Brooklyn, which exhibits works that focus on the intersection of language and visual representation. Her poetry collections include A Domestic Lookbook and Pullman, both recently published by Grid Books, Identifying the Body and the digital album Tracks of My Tears, both published by the Word Works, and Acid Rain, published by Willow Books. JoAnne has artwork in the permanent collections of the Cooper/Hewitt Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the Columbus Museum of Art, and the Department of State, among many others. She has had fellowships at the BARD Graduate Center Library, KALA Art Institute, the National Arts Club, Cave Canem, Van Alen Institute, and the Painting Center. JoAnne's artwork is represented by Accola Griefen Fine Art. www.joannemcfarland.com
BOOK REVIEWS:
In the slaughterhouse of the nation, the history, the language, JoAnne McFarland writes: “The feather inside me won’t be quiet.” And of the winter: “It could change in a heartbeat, it will change as our hearts are beating.” American Graphic is a field of marks and feelings quite impossible to describe. Minimalist yet dense, a thicket of sparse reckoning out of which beauty is pulled to the surface with muscle and voice, color and hand. Dynamic and exacting, McFarland’s is a brilliant, singular vision. American Graphic is an astonishing work. —aracelis girmay
JoAnne McFarland’s American Graphic serves us a mesmerizing potion of personal history peppered with documentation of national cruelty and lifted with homage to Black ingenuity and resilience. Festooned with Adinkra signposts and latticed threadwork, McFarland masterfully weaves a call-and-response seam between past and present. Ingredients provided here are ambitious craft, persistent attention to memory, a sensual, fetter-free eros, and a reader willing to emancipate the way they understand poetry.
—Tyehimba Jess
ABOUT THE MEDIATIOR:
Mychal Mills is a poet, self-published author and transformational leader based in New Jersey. From a young age, Mychal has been dedicated to serving and building his community, a passion that has continued throughout his life. In 2014, he co-founded Konscious Youth Development & Service (KYDS), a nonprofit organization that has been transforming the lives of youth, schools, and communities throughout New Jersey. KYDS focuses on facilitating mindfulness, social-emotional learning, trauma-healing, restorative practices, and resilience building. Under Mychal's leadership, KYDS has partnered with over 120 schools in New Jersey, positively impacting 15,000 youth, 7,000 educators, and thousands of community members.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Asbury Book Cooperative, 644A Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, United States
USD 7.18 to USD 23.18
