Location

Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse

2578 Frankford Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19125

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"Don't Forget Your Crown" Book Discussion

I'm here to tell you how to stop getting mind screwed, toyed with, and taken for granted. It's killing your hope in love, and likely even eating away at your sense of self. – Derrick Jaxn

Date: Sunday, June 2nd

Location: Good Karma Cafe
Time: 2pm

"Children of the Blood and Bone" Book Discussion

Date: Sunday, January 27^th

Location: Jersey Java Tea and Co.

140 N Haddon Ave, Haddonfield, NJ 08033

Time: 2pm

Description:  Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.  Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy.

We Are Taking the Book Club on the Road With a Road Trip to Toronto!

We will discuss "The Polished Hoe" by Austin Clarke on the ride, spend Saturday touring Toronto and have brunch on Sunday before heading back. Lodging accommodations and additional information will be provided to those who RSVP. Cost should be between 100-200 per person for an Airbnb depending on number of people. A deposit will be required mid-September to hold your place.

If interested please rsvp by emailing April Jones at a_jones91@hotmail.com. In the Subject Line please put “Daughters of the Dust Book Club”. Thanks!

A Gathering of Waters" Book Discussion and Brunch

 

 

Let's get together and discuss A Gathering of Waters, by Bernice McFadden and Esther the Whore, a spirit that haunts its characters!

 

Money, Mississippi—a town made infamous by the murder of teenager Emmett Till in 1955—is the narrator of this tale of a town drenched in troubled spirits and troubled waters. McFadden portrays the lives of the Hilson family, fleeing the race riots of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1920s, for safety in Money. But they encounter an even greater threat in a spirit that drifts through them, destabilizing relationships between husbands and wives, mothers and children. She threads their lives through racial tumult and flooding into the 1950s, when young Tass Hilson meets a young boy visiting from Chicago and begins a budding romance just before his historic death. Traumatized by the violent death of her young love, Tass grows up, marries, and moves on to Detroit to raise a family, but she never forgets Emmett. When her husband dies, Tass gives in to the tug of memories and returns to Money, Mississippi, and the spirits that reside there. McFadden makes powerful use of imagery in this fantastical novel of ever-flowing waters and troubled spirits. --Vanessa Bush 

Date: Sunday, August 26^th

Location: Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, 13107 Town Center Boulevard, Voorhees, NJ
Time: 2pm

"A Piece of Cake" Book Discussion and a Picnic

 

There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness. Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty. And that’s when things got interesting...

Grab a blanket and picnic basket and lets meet on the grass to discuss "A Piece of Cake"

Date: Saturday, July 28^th
Location: Spruce Harbor Park, Philadelphia
Time: 3pm

"The Coldest Winter Ever" Girl Talk and Hookah

Lets come together to puff and discuss Winter!

 

"The Coldest Winter Ever" is Sister Souljah's debut novel. The Coldest Winter Ever tells the story of streetwise, Winter Santiaga, the teenage daughter of a Brooklyn drug kingpin and a girl much like those Souljah says she meets all the time in her work with the African Youth Survival Camp (for homeless children) and Daddy's House Social Programs (funded by Sean "Puffy" Combs). Winter is precocious, babacious and as tough as a hollow-point bullet. She walks through the story with one hand on her hip, tossing off withering observations on men and money, and her voice is the book's greatest strength.

Date: Saturday, June 23rd

Location:  Orient Hookah Lounge, 1040 N. 2^nd Street, Philadelphia, PA

Time: 5pm

 

"Perfect is Boring" Girl Talk

Supermodel and super CEO of our time Tyra Banks and her mother Carolyn show readers why when you kick perfection to the curb and showcase your unique beauty ain't nobody gonna stop you!

In Perfect Is Boring, Tyra Banks and her mother, Carolyn, get raw, real and cray-in-a-good-way as they share what they’ve learned on Tyra’s journey from insecure preteen to supermodel and entrepreneurial powerhouse. Though she’ll be the first to tell you she is not her daughter’s best friend—‘cause she ain’t that kinda mama!—there’s no doubt that Carolyn’s signature mix of pep talks and tough love got Tyra to where she is today, and here they pay it forward to empower readers with a reminder that perfect really isn’t all that.

Whether they’re writing about watching Tyra’s most imperfect moment go viral (Does “Be Quiet Tiffany!” ring any bells?), no-holds-barred sex talks or how they’ve overcome everything from fashion industry discrimination to media fat-shaming and a misguided attempt at a music career, they never lose their sense of humor or we-got-your-back-spirit. Full of smart, wise, and often hilarious lessons for mothers, daughters, fathers and sons everywhere—including “Take Responsibility for Yourself,” “Lip Gloss + Pizza Sauce = Boss,” and “Fix It or Flaunt It”—Perfect Is Boring is a must-read for anyone who needs a kick in the booty, a pat on the back, or a good reason to laugh-out-loud.

Date: Sunday, May 6, 18

Time: 2pm

Location: Jersey Java and Tea, 140 N. Haddon Avenue, Haddonfield, NJ

"She's Gotta Have It" Girl Talk & Cocktails

Let’s discuss one woman, her four lovers, sex, being a black woman and taking control of our lives in 2018 and beyond!
 

Date: Friday, February 16, 2018

Location: Bank and Bourbon, 1200 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA

Time: 7pm

Chat and Chew "The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl" Book Discussion

 

In this universally accessible New York Times bestseller named for her wildly popular web series, Issa Rae—“a singular voice with the verve and vivacity of uncorked champagne” (Kirkus Reviews)—waxes humorously on what it’s like to be unabashedly awkward in a world that regards introverts as hapless misfits and black as cool.

I’m awkward—and black. Someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be. That someone was right. Where do I start? Being an introvert (as well as “funny,” according to the Los Angeles Times) in a world that glorifies cool isn’t easy. But when Issa Rae, the creator of the Shorty Award-winning hit series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, is that introvert—whether she’s navigating love, the workplace, friendships, or “rapping”—it sure is entertaining. Now, in this New York Times bestselling debut collection written in her witty and self-deprecating voice, Rae covers everything from cybersexing in the early days of the Internet to deflecting unsolicited comments on weight gain, from navigating the perils of eating out alone and public displays of affection to learning to accept yourself—natural hair and all.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl is a book no one—awkward or cool, black, white, or other—will want to miss.

Date: Sunday, December 10, 2017

Location: Jones, 700 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

Time: 2pm

Chat and Chew "The Underground" Book Discussion

 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood—where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned—Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor—engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar’s first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city’s placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver’s Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey—hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre–Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman’s ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.

 

Date: Sunday, November 5, 2017

Location: Ela, 627 South 3^rd Street, Philadelphia, PA

Time: 2pm