Busboys and Poets Books Presents DON’T CRY FOR ME
Date and Time
May 15, 2022 6:00 pm
Location
14th & V
2021 14th St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20009
May 15, 2022 6:00 pm
14th & V
Don’t Cry For Me by Daniel Black is a novel that is sure to haunt you after you finish it. We follow Jacob, a Black man who grew up in rural Arkansas, on his deathbed contemplating his life. He decides to write letters to his estranged son Isaac, looking to make amends for his failures. But Jacob is looking for more than absolution- he wants his only son to know the context behind the trauma he has inherited from Jacob himself. He wants to contextualize the intergenerational trauma that led to familial strife and the resulting estrangement between father and son. A daring and penetrating novel, Don’t Cry For Me shows one family’s struggle with love’s hard edges. Black offers an authentic portrait of reckoning and reconciliation, with hope and healing not far behind.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, with an introduction from a member of our Busboys and Poets team, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Signed copies of Don’t Cry For Me will be available for purchase before, during and after the event. Copies may be purchased through Eventbrite. Please note that this event will not be livestreamed.
Full menu and full service are available throughout the event!
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books. Proof of RSVP may be requested on arrival if capacity is reached.
Daniel Black is an author and professor of African American studies and English at Clark Atlanta University. His books include The Coming, Perfect Peace and They Tell Me of a Home. He is the winner of the Distinguished Writer Award from the Middle-Atlantic Writer's Association and has been nominated for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, the Ernest J. Gaines Award,and the Georgia Author of the Year Award. He was raised in Blackwell, Arkansas, and lives in Atlanta, Georgia. You can follow him on twitter and Instagram @drdanielblack
Don’t Cry For Me: A Black father makes amends with his gay son through letters written on his deathbed in this wise and penetrating novel of empathy and forgiveness, for fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robert Jones Jr. and Alice Walker.
As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay.
But most of all, Jacob must share with Isaac the unspoken truths that reside in his heart. He must give voice to the trauma that Isaac has inherited. And he must create a space for the two to find peace.
With piercing insight and profound empathy, acclaimed author Daniel Black illuminates the lived experiences of Black fathers and queer sons, offering an authentic and ultimately hopeful portrait of reckoning and reconciliation. Spare as it is sweeping, poetic as it is compulsively readable, Don't Cry for Me is a monumental novel about one family grappling with love's hard edges and the unexpected places where hope and healing take flight.
