TCBHGS- Quarterly Between the Lines Book Club will feature books and topics related to the interpretation of the African American Experience
About this Event

TCBHGS Between The Lines Virtual Book Club

Join us for the TCBHGS Between The Lines Virtual Book Club - a fun and interactive online event for bookworms of! Whether you're a fan of thrillers, romance, or fantasy, this book club has something for everyone. Connect with fellow book lovers worldwide as we dive into captivating stories and engage in lively discussions.

Our virtual book club offers the perfect opportunity to explore new genres, discover hidden literary gems, and share your thoughts on the latest bestsellers. No need to worry about traffic or dressing up - simply grab your favorite beverage, cozy up on your couch, and get ready to embark on a literary adventure from the comfort of your own home!

Quarterly, we'll select a featured book for the club to read. Through our virtual meetings, you'll have the chance to meet your peers, ask burning questions, and gain unique insights into the writing process. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to connect with fellow book enthusiasts and expand your literary horizons. Join the TCBHGS Between The Lines Virtual Book Club today!

July Book:

To Free the Captives

A Plea for the American Soul

By Tracy K. Smith

In 2020, heartsick from constant assaults on Black life, Tracy K. Smith found herself soul-searching and digging into the historical archive for help navigating the “din of human division and strife.” With lyricism and urgency, Smith draws on several avenues of thinking—personal, documentary, and spiritual—to understand who we are as a nation and what we might hope to mean to one another.
In Smith’s own words, “To write a book about Black strength, Black continuance, and the powerful forms of belief and community that have long bolstered the soul of my people, I used the generations of my own patrilineal family to lean backward toward history, to gather a fuller sense of the lives my own ancestors led, the challenges they endured, and the sources of hope and bolstering they counted on. What this process has led me to believe is that all of us, in the here and now, can choose to work alongside the generations that precede us in tending to America’s oldest wounds and meeting the urgencies of our present.”
To Free the Captives touches down in Sunflower, Alabama, the red-dirt town where Smith’s father’s family comes from, and where her grandfather returned after World War Iwith a hero’s record but difficult prospects as a Black man. Smith considers his life and the life of her father through the lens of history. Hoping to connect with their strength and continuance, she assembles a new terminology of American life.
Bearing courageous witness to the terms of Freedom afforded her as a Black woman, a mother, and an educator in the twenty-first century,Smith etches a portrait of where we find ourselves four hundred years into the American experiment. Weaving in an account of her growing spiritual practice, she argues that the soul is not merely a private site of respite or transcendence, but a tool forfulfilling our duties to each other, and a sounding board for our most pressing collective questions: Where are we going as a nation? Where have we been?