Pages

Monday, June 10, 2024

Reminder: Book Club Features "Passing" by Nella Larsen, June 26

 

 


 

Black Americans, Jewish Americans:

Racial and Ethnic "Passing" in Literature and the Struggle to Belong

 

Virtual Book Club

 

Presented in partnership with the New Brunswick Free Public Library, the

New Brunswick African American Heritage Committee, and the

Rutgers University Libraries–New Brunswick 

Free and open to the public

SESSION TWO: June 26, 7:00 p.m.

Led by Donavan L. Ramon, Assistant Professor of English, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and 2023 Bildner Visiting Scholar

Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned and married to a racist white man who is unaware of her African American heritage, she has decided to "pass" as a white woman and has severed all ties to her past. Tensions mount when she reunites with childhood friend Irene Redfield, who is just as light-skinned, but has chosen to remain within the African American community.

 

 

Presented in conjunction with the interdisciplinary symposium "Black Americans, Jewish Americans: Historical Intersections, Collisions, and Passings" and made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.