About this Event
What if instead of asking, "why don’t our schools work?" we asked, "what if they’re actually doing what they were built to do?"
Got your attention yet?
The brilliant, award-wining author, Eve L. Ewing will tackle this question and so much more when we welcome her for the launch of her latest book, "Original Sins". Eve will be in conversation with writer and sociologist, Janine de Novais.
Q&A will follow the discussion.
All copies of Original Sins will be signed.
See you there!
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About the book:
If all children could just get an education, the logic goes, they would have the same opportunities later in life. But this historical tour de force makes it clear that the opposite is true: The U.S. school system has played an instrumental role in creating and upholding racial hierarchies, preparing children to expect unequal treatment throughout their lives.
In Original Sins, Ewing demonstrates that our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Education was not an afterthought for the Founding Fathers; it was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson as an institution that would fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. The most insidious aspects of this system fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.
By demonstrating that it’s in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom. This book will change the way people understand the place we send our children for eight hours a day.
About the author:
Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side, and a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably the Ironheart series, and is currently writing Black Panther. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues.
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Doors open at 6:00pm.
Buy your book now and save on the General Admission fee!
All tickets are non-refundable.
Street parking available. Wheelchair accessible entrance also available through the rear parking lot.
Children older than 5-years old need a ticket for entry.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
First United Methodist Church of Germantown, 6001 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, United States
USD 11.43 to USD 38.11