May 17th the readers of MMW met to discuss Isabel Wilkerson's, The Warmth of Other Suns. She is the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. Kudos! For those who like history, or maybe those who weren't sure if they like history, this is an excellent read, incorporating three case studies of Black people who left the South during the Great Migration, 1915-1970. Her work shifts from a sweeping panoramic perspective to the close up lives of three personal examples. Ida Mae Brandon Gladney a plantation sharecropper from Mississippi migrated to Chicago in the 1930's. George Swanson Starling, a fruit picker, left Florida for New York in the 1940's, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster became a surgeon, left Louisiana in the 1950's to move to California.
Our discussion led from those days, to present day with comments on US and world economy, white flight, gangs, Studs Terkel, Ken Burns story of Italian Americans and much more.
If you'd like to join in on our lively discussion, the next read will be The Huntress by Kate Quinn. We'll meet on zoom at 6:30, July 19th. Be in touch with Ken Stephenson to get a zoom link. See you then!
What a wonderful review of the meeting Chris! And also great to read something that you wrote beyond your terrific poetry! Great post! Keep ‘em coming!