Boston Book Festival 2018

Some say that slavery is America’s original sin--a grave crime that cast a hereditary stain on Americans through the generations. The three works considered in this session offer solid evidence to confirm that racism is alive today, but offer glimpses of hope nonetheless. Jabari Asim, in We Can’t Breathe, shows how the past informs the present in essays that explore black experience “with a voice that is both compelling and convincing,” according to Kirkus Reviews. In The Injustice Never Leaves You, Monica Muñoz-Martinez relates how vigilantes and officers of the law killed Mexican residents of Texas with impunity between 1910 and 1920 and how the violence lingered in those communities for generations. Laura Wides-Muñoz, in The Making of a Dream, tells the stories of five young undocumented activists whose own stories intersect with the watershed events of the last two decades, from 9/11, to the “Dream Acts” during the Obama presidency, to the rebirth of the anti-immigrant right and the election of Donald Trump. Participate in this important and timely conversation on a problem that just won’t go away, moderated by WBUR’s Maria Garcia, senior editor of the ARTery. Sponsored by Harvard University Press.