ThoughtGallery.org > The Harry Belafonte Black Liberation Speaker Series: Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid

The Harry Belafonte Black Liberation Speaker Series: Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid

Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid published their debut novels just months apart to great acclaim. In Leilani’s Luster, Edie is a young Black woman trying both to navigate a career in publishing and to figure out her role in a romantic entanglement with an older white couple experimenting with an open marriage. Reid’s Such a Fun Age follows Emira, a young Black woman working as a babysitter in the home of an upper-class white Philadelphia family. Following a humiliating confrontation in a supermarket, in which Emira is accused of kidnapping her two-year-old charge, she must confront the true depths of white supremacy and white privilege. Luster and Such a Fun Age were both immediate bestsellers, and Reid was a finalist for the 2020 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award.

In conversation with writer Roxanne Fequiere, Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid come together for one night to discuss their novels, and the overlapping thematic and narrative resonances that have made both so compelling for so many readers.











When: Mon., Nov. 16, 2020 at 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Where: New York Public Library—Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Ave.
917-275-6975
Price: Free
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Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid published their debut novels just months apart to great acclaim. In Leilani’s Luster, Edie is a young Black woman trying both to navigate a career in publishing and to figure out her role in a romantic entanglement with an older white couple experimenting with an open marriage. Reid’s Such a Fun Age follows Emira, a young Black woman working as a babysitter in the home of an upper-class white Philadelphia family. Following a humiliating confrontation in a supermarket, in which Emira is accused of kidnapping her two-year-old charge, she must confront the true depths of white supremacy and white privilege. Luster and Such a Fun Age were both immediate bestsellers, and Reid was a finalist for the 2020 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award.

In conversation with writer Roxanne Fequiere, Raven Leilani and Kiley Reid come together for one night to discuss their novels, and the overlapping thematic and narrative resonances that have made both so compelling for so many readers.

Buy tickets/get more info now