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For general questions about reservations or event details, please contact the DC Public Library location you are planning to visit. For those in need of disability services related to event registration or room reservation, please reach out to the Center for Accessibility at 202-727-2142 or DCPLaccess@dc.gov. |
We'll be having a lively and interactive discussion with author of Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan.
"Exquisitely compassionate and witty, Big Girl traces the intergenerational hungers and desires of Black womanhood, as told through the unforgettable voice of Malaya Clondon. In her highly anticipated debut novel, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan explores the perils-and undeniable beauty-of insatiable longing. Growing up in a rapidly changing Harlem, eight-year-old Malaya hates when her mother drags her to Weight Watchers meetings; she'd rather paint alone in her bedroom or enjoy forbidden street foods with her father. For Malaya, the pressures of her predominantly white Upper East Side prep school are relentless, as are the expectations passed down from her painfully proper mother and sharp-tongued grandmother. As she comes of age in the 1990s, she finds solace in the music of Biggie Smalls and Aaliyah, but her weight continues to climb-until a family tragedy forces her to face the source of her hunger, ultimately shattering her inherited stigmas surrounding women's bodies, and embracing her own desire. Written with vibrant lyricism shot through with tenderness, Big Girl announces Sullivan as an urgent and vital voice in contemporary fiction"-- Provided by publisher.
All genres and readers are welcome. Reading the club selection is not a requirement to attend (just be forewarned that there will be spoilers). Titles will be decided by the group leaders and/or members and a limited number of copies will be set aside at the Parklands-Turner Library.
