Politics and Prose Presents

Certain as I've never been of anything in the world that you have a right or a duty to know, that you absolutely must know, I sail through the mouth of that river into the sea of her life. Amna, Nimo, Mouna--these are all names for a single Egyptian woman whose life has mirrored that of her country. After her death in 2015, her son, Nour, ascends to the attic of their house where he glimpses h...

It is impossible to deny the impact of lies and white supremacy on the institutional conditions in US prisons. There is a particular power dynamic of racist intent in the prison system that culminates in what Brittany Friedman terms "carceral apartheid." Prisons are a microcosm of how carceral apartheid operates as a larger governing strategy to decimate political targets and foster dece...

The Accidental Critic  recalls the “Happy Talk” days of local television news, when stations discovered the value of assembling a news “team.” Longtime television personality Arch Campbell participated in the creation of one of America’s most successful on-air collaborations at WRC-TV, Washington, D.C.  The combination of Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, George Michael, and Bob Ryan, with comic relief...

As the American Revolution broke out in New England in the spring of 1775, dramatic events unfolded in Virginia that proved every bit as decisive as the battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill in uniting the colonies against Britain. Virginia, the largest, wealthiest, and most populous province in British North America, was led by Lord Dunmore, who counted George Washington as his close f...

Lionel Barber — Gambling Man: The Secret Story of the World's Greatest Disruptor, Masayoshi Son - with Brody Mullins — at Conn Ave As Wall Street swooned and boomed through the last decade, our livelihoods have--now more than ever--come to rely upon the good sense and risk appetites of a few standout investors. And amidst the BlackRocks, Vanguards, and Berkshire Hathaways stands arguably the m...

Jimmy Lai escaped mainland China when he was twelve years old, at the height of a famine that killed tens of millions. In Hong Kong, he hustled; no work was beneath him, and he often slept on a table in a clothing factory where he did odd jobs. At twenty-one, he was running a factory. By his mid-twenties, he owned one and was supplying sweaters and shirts to some of the biggest brands in the Unite...

In London's swinging sixties, Victor Johnson, a young immigrant from the Caribbean, arrives in Britain with dreams of becoming a journalist in the "mother country." Instead, he finds work collecting rent for Peter Feldman, a landlord equally kind and unscrupulous, and then falls into a relationship with Peter's lonely secretary Ruth, herself a migrant from the north of England. S...

Described by Bryan Stevenson as "the center of the quest for environmental justice in America," Catherine Coleman Flowers has dedicated her life to fighting for the most vulnerable communities--rural, poor, of color--who have been deprived of the basic civil right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment. Both deeply personal and urgently political, the essays in  Holy Ground  draw...

on the rise and 18 to 20-year-olds voting for the first time in American history, the Democratic Party and the nation were on the cusp of long overdue change. A More Perfect Party   explores this monumental coming together of Huey P. Newton, Barbara Lee, Berry Gordy, David Frost, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn and others. Chisholm and Huey P. Newton discussed voter turnout and community engagement. She...

In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929-1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust. Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles...

Amid international outcry over income inequality, labor abuses, and racial injustice,  Conscience Incorporated  examines the gaps in current corporate social responsibility measures. The rise of new technologies such as smartphones and social media have made it easier than ever to document and spread awareness of corporate misconduct. Despite these developments, large corporations often fail to me...

During his seven-decade career in public life, George Sewall Boutwell, the son of a Massachusetts farming family of modest means, was a key figure in the politics of racial and economic equity and the principled use of American power abroad. From 1840 to 1905, Boutwell was at the center of efforts to abolish slavery, establish the Republican Party, facilitate President Lincoln's Emancipation P...

She was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, the longest-serving labor secretary, and an architect of the New Deal. Yet beyond these celebrated accomplishments there is another dimension to Frances Perkins's story. Without fanfare, and despite powerful opposition, Perkins helped save the lives of countless Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. "Immigration problems usually have to b...

When Black women and girls are targeted and murdered their cases are often categorized by police officers as "N.H.I." - "No Humans Involved." Dehumanized and invisible to the public eye, they are rarely seen as victims. In the United States, Black women are killed at a higher rate than any other group of women, but their victimhood is not covered by the media and their cases do...

In beautifully melancholy stories of magical realism, the women and girls in  Softie  transform their bodies and test their sanity, trying to find meaning in the loneliest of places. A former child star haunted by a past she can't remember. An Afro-French girl with an obsession for ear lobes. A loner whose only friend is hiding a terrible, otherworldly secret. Each of these stories shares situ...

Local denizens Jorge Goldstein (PhD, JD) and his daughter Thalia Goldstein (PhD), each writing separately, have - by coincidence - published interdisciplinary books within a few months of each other. Both books combine a science field with the arts and humanities. Their joint appearance at P&P to discuss their books promises to be a fun and fascinating presentation. Anyone interested in creati...

With a diverse set of contributors, including Oprah Winfrey, Stacey Abrams, and Branford Marsalis,   HBCU Made  celebrates the experience of going to a historically Black college or university. In moving essays, a wide range of alums share their accounts of how they chose their HBCU, their first days on campus, the dynamic atmosphere, and how they were shaped by their rigorous training. A collecti...

Born into slavery on a Mississippi plantation, Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield has been raised in the safety of Philadelphia's Quaker community by a wealthy adoptive mother. Sheltered and educated, Eliza's happy childhood always included music lessons to nurture her unique gift: a glorious three octave singing voice that leaves listeners in awe. But on the eve of her twenty-fourth birthday, yo...

The Arabic word  sumūd  is often loosely translated as "steadfastness" or "standing fast." It is, above all, a Palestinian cultural value of everyday perseverance in the face of Israeli occupation.  Sumūd   is both a personal and collective commitment; people determine their own lives, despite the environment of constant oppressions imposed upon them. This anthology spans the 2...

Creature Needs  is a polyvocal call to arms about animal extinction and habitat loss that harnesses the power of literature and scientific research to move us, and stir our hearts and minds, toward action and change. A collection of new literary works by prominent writers paired with excerpts from recent scientific articles that inspired and informed them, this innovative anthology engages the col...

"The kid was objectively a tiny worm, even worse, a worm with my nose." Welcome to Sarah Hoover's unflinching take on motherhood and its expectations in which the beatific narrative women have been fed--one of immediate connection to your child followed by a joyful path of maternal discovery--turns out to be not quite true. In  The Motherload , Hoover provides a candid, funny, and sobering look at...

On July 30, 1902, tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of New York's Lower East Side to bid farewell to the city's chief rabbi, the eminent Talmudist Jacob Joseph. All went well until the procession crossed Sheriff Street, where the six-story R. Hoe and Company printing press factory towered over the intersection. Without warning, scraps of steel, iron bolts, and scalding water...

The orphan story has been mythologized: Step one: While a child is still too young to form distinct memories of them, their parents die in an untimely fashion. Step two: Orphan acquires caretakers who amplify the world's cruelty. Step three: Orphan escapes and goes on an adventure, encountering the world's vast possibilities. The Sun Won't Come Out Tomorrow  upends this. Pairing powerful critiques...

This event is in partnership with the  Washington DC ACS Lawyer Chapter .  In 1974, the Supreme Court issued a momentous decision: In the case of  Milliken v. Bradley , the justices brought a halt to school desegregation across the North, and to the civil rights movement's struggle for a truly equal education for all. How did this come about, and why? In  The Containment , the esteemed legal s...

More than a century of civil rights activism reached a mountaintop with the arrival of a Black man in the Oval Office. But hopes for a unified, post-racial America were deflated when Barack Obama's presidency met with furious opposition. A white, right-wing backlash was brewing, and a volcanic new movement--a second civil rights movement--began to erupt. In  New Prize for These Eyes , award-wi...