Beacon Buzz: Melissa Harris-Perry talks racial reconciliation with the authors of Gather at the Table
October 24, 2012
Watch This
Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Leslie Morgan
The authors appeared on the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC where they discussed "Healing wounds of America's Past" and "A National 'Amnesia' of Slavery".
Visit the Gather at the Table website or Like Gather at the Table on Facebook for details on the authors' appearances and for more information about the book.
Upcoming Appearances:
TONIGHT: Wednesday, October 24th at Trinity Church, Boston. Event begins at 7pm. More info...
Thursday, October 25 at Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, CT.
Salons at Stowe: Can We Talk About Slavery? 5-7pm. More info...
Saturday, November 3 at DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago. More info...
Wednesday, November 7 at First Community Church, Columbus, Ohio.
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus by Elinor Lipman
If you couldn't be there, the next best thing is to watch our video of the Elinor Lipman and Friends event at the Brookline Booksmith featuring Anita Shreve, Wally Lamb, Stephen McCauley, Chris Castellani, Mameve Medwed, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Alexandra Marshall, Michael Lowenthal, & Joan Wickersham.
Notable Mentions
Sacred Ground: Pluralism, Prejudice, and the Promise of America by Eboo Patel
Wall Street Journal's “India Real Time” blog:
Interfaith cooperation played a key role in everything from the American civil rights movement, to the swaraj movement in India, to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. I believe that if religious communities worked together to apply shared values like compassion and hospitality we would be able to go a long way to solving many of the great problems in our world today, everything from poverty to malaria.
Interview on Religion and Politics.org:
Continue to partake of the banquet of your religious tradition. But all of our traditions have what I call a “theology of interfaith cooperation.” So it’s not just an American thing to be involved in interfaith cooperation. It’s also a very Christian thing to do. One of the wonderful things about religion is that it’s wide, it contains multitudes, including seeming contradictions. As my evangelicals like to say, within the Christian tradition there is both the “Great Commission,” as well as the “Great Cooperation.” In the Sacred Ground, I write about Bob Roberts [evangelical pastor of NorthWood Church], who’s very happy to remind me that he wants to convert me, but he’s also very happy to run big events in Dallas with IFYC methodology.
Coming Very Soon
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman (Release date November 06, 2012—available for preorder)
An excerpt from Faitheist on Salon.com received over 4,000 Facebook “likes” in 24 hours:
I fear that some atheists are doing what I used to do in my antireligious days: engaging in monologue instead of dialogue. After years of dismissing religious people outright, I realized that I was so busy talking that I wasn’t listening. I was treating religion as a concept instead of talking to people who actually lived religious lives. When I started listening, something interesting happened:
I saw that my approach to religion had been distorted. I’d been thinking narrowly about the texts, not about some of their positive applications; of the one-sided stereotypes, not the diverse spectrum of beliefs and practices. It was only after I observed the actual actions of religious communities — and, more importantly, engaged with religious people and their stories — that I was able to see the benefits of working across lines of religious difference.
Author events:
Book release party at Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA on Nov 02
Lecture at Tufts University, Medford, MA on Nov 15
Lecture, reception, and signing at Yale Divinity School, New Haven, CT on Nov 27
Assembly lecture at Lincoln School for Girls, Providence, RI on Nov 28
Bookstore event at Subtext, St. Paul, MN on Nov 29
Bookstore event at Magers & Quinn, Minneapolis, MN on Nov 30
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN on Dec 03
Lecture at Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH on Dec 06
Lecture at Center For Inquiry Transnational Headquarters, Amherst, NY on Dec 14
Have We Got Blurbs for You!
My Mother’s Wars by Lillian Faderman (Release date March 05, 2013—available for preorder)
“Faderman's story of her immigrant mother is so vividly imagined that you can taste the borscht Mary eats, squirm at the claustrophobia of her tiny rented room, and be swept up in the sensual delight that will betray her.”—Janice Steinberg, The Tin Horse
Raising Global IQ: Preparing Our Students for a Shrinking Planet by Carl Hobert (Release date February 12, 2013—available for preorder)
“Brilliant, original, engaging, and hugely important book!”—Edward M. Hallowell, author of Driven to Distraction
Defiant Brides: The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married by Nancy Rubin Stuart (Release date April 09, 2013—available for preorder)
“An ingenious means of bringing new life to the oldest story in our nation’s past: the American Revolution from the perspective of the young and clear-sighted wives of generals Benedict Arnold and Henry Knox. Tracing the parallel lives of two couples with conflicting loyalties, Nancy Rubin Stuart achieves a you-are-there verisimilitude in Defiant Brides that is rare and not to be missed.”—Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism
Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaping Our World by David D. Burstein (Release date February 12, 2013—available for preorder)
“As young social entrepreneurs, Fast Future spoke to our core by telling the story of an exciting turning point that will change the course of history. That is, if we can channel this energy. David Burstein takes a deep and nuanced look at the potential young people have and the terrible missed opportunity of not capitalizing on the innovation of the millennial generation. David himself represents the savvy impatience, the industriousness, and the possibilities of the millennial generation: this book is not to be missed or ignored. And, in Fast Future, he presents us with the opportunity to re-imagine how generations can work together to create a more innovative, equitable world—today.”—Jessica Posner Odede and Kennedy Odede, Co-Founders, Shining Hope for Communities