SALT THE WATER | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Oct 9, 2023 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Oct 9, 2023 6:00 pm
450K
Cerulean Gene is free everywhere except school, where they’re known for repeatedly challenging authority. Raised in a free-spirited home by two loving parents who encourage Cerulean to be their full self, they’ve got big dreams of moving cross-country to live off the grid with their friends after graduation. But a fight with a teacher spirals out of control, and Cerulean impulsively drops out to avoid the punishment they fear is coming. Why wait for graduation to leave an oppressive capitalist system and live their dreams?
Cerulean is truly brilliant, but their sheltered upbringing hasn’t prepared them for the consequences of their choice — especially not when it’s compounded by a family emergency that puts a parent out of work. Suddenly the money they’d been stacking with their friends is a resource that the family needs to stay afloat.
Salt the Water is a book about dreaming in a world that has other plans for your time, your youth, and your future. It asks, what does it look like when a bunch of queer Black kids are allowed to dream? And what does it look like for them to confront the present circumstances of the people they love while still pursuing a wildly different future of their own?
Author Candice Iloh will be joined by conversation partner Ebony LaDelle and special guest Rasheed Copeland. Copies of the book will be available for purchase before and after the event, and Candice will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of SALT THE WATER will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books.
Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian American writer whose books center home. They are from the Midwest by way of Washington, DC, and Brooklyn, New York. They are a proud alumna of the Rhode Island Writers Colony, and their work has earned fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, and Kimbilio Fiction and a residency with Hi-ARTS, where they debuted their first one-person show in 2018. Candice became a 2020 National Book Award Finalist and, in 2021, a Printz Award Honoree for their debut novel, Every Body Looking. Salt the Water is their third novel.
Ebony LaDelle is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, Apple Books’s best book of 2022, an Amazon’s Editor Pick, and featured on the Today show. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, among others. Born in Michigan, awoken at Howard University, and cultivated in Brooklyn, Ebony can usually be found eating out somewhere or being the undisputed Mom Friend of any group. You can visit her online at EbonyLaDelle.com and follow her on social at @EbonyLaDelle.
Rasheed Copeland is a native of Washington, DC. He is a father and author of Mud Jubilee (Self-published, 2021) and The Book of Silence: Manhood as a Pseudoscience (Sergeant Press, 2015). He is a multiple recipient of the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Award and has performed and facilitated writing workshops across the country and internationally. He placed 2nd in the world at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam. His work has been featured in online publications such as Poets.org, Split This Rock, and the Crab Orchard Review.
