MARA Book Club Meeting: James T. Campbell on “Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005“
This evening at 6:00 pm
Good Afternoon:
The Make America Read Again (MARA) Book Club will be meeting this evening at 6:00 pm Eastern time to discuss James T. Campbell’s fascinating book, “Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005.” In lieu of a fiction wine pairing, the author has designated the following poems by Langston Hughes as the wine pairing for this book—for reasons that will become obvious once you begin the introduction:
MARA Book Club events are for paid subscribers only. If you are not a paid subscriber and want to join, I’ll give you a hint about how you can fix that:
Information about how to attend is below the paywall.
Friday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable Holly Berkley Fletcher proved the revolutionary nature of the show by talking without an agenda or chosen topic for an hour:
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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the horse, seen here exercising truly extraordinary patience by not stepping on a dog:
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is not the dog, which should not be rewarded for its idiocy.
Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is not the Grout White Shark, which is ineligible because it is not a real Beast:
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