A Conversation on Race

Malden Reads Special Event: A Conversation on Race

Malden Reads will host a special panel discussion on race inspired by the recent Boston Globe Spotlight Series (Boston. Racism. Image. Reality – bostonglobe.com/race) and the discussions the community has engaged in with this year’s book selection, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and companion books including All American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds.

Through book discussions, film screenings, and other programming, Malden Reads has been committed to meaningful dialogue and building understanding around timely issues of addressing racial inequalities and discrimination, “walking in another person’s shoes,” and finding the voice and courage to stand up for what one believes in. This panel discussion will provide an opportunity to take our understanding around these topics to another level. The event is open to everyone, regardless of whether you had a chance to read the Malden Reads book selections.

The Conversation on Race will be held in the auditorium of the Linden Steam Academy (29 Wescott St. Malden) on Thursday, May 10, beginning at 7:00 p.m. (Please note, that this event was originally scheduled to be at the Beebe School, but had to be changed.) The Conversation on Race is also being held as part of MATV Week through Malden’s Media Center, a collaborative partner for Malden Reads.

The conversation will include the following distinguished group of participants:

Brendan Kiely
Kiely is the co-author (along with Jason Reynolds) of All-American Boys (one of this year’s Malden Reads companion books), which received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award and other awards. Like The Hate U Give, this Y/A story centers around an incident of police brutality of a young black male. Kiely stated, “As a black man and a white man writing together, we could each tell half the story from our own authentic cultural backgrounds and put those two narratives in conversation with each other.” Read his bio here.

Keith Knight
Knight, a Malden native, is a rapper, cartoonist, educator and social activist, creator of three popular comic strips: the Knight Life, (th)ink, and the K Chronicles. His comic musings on race have garnered accolades and stirred controversies, prompting the NAACP to recognize him as a 2015 History Maker, and CNN to tap him to grade America on its progress concerning issues of race. Read his bio here.

Neil Swidey
Swidey is a staff writer for the Boston Globe Magazine, and award-winning author of several books including The Assist: Hoops, Hopes, and the Game of their Lives (one of the Malden Reads 2018 finalists), which tells the true story of a white suburban coach working with an inner city team of black youth in Charlestown, where the last battles of the city’s school desegregation wars were fought a generation ago. His Globe writing has won numerous national awards. Read his bio here.

Kerri Greenidge — participant moderator
Greenidge is an historian, researcher, lecturer, author of “Boston Abolitionists,” and co- Director of the African American Freedom Trail Project. Her work includes historical research for the Wiley-Blackwell Anthology of African-American Literature, the Oxford African American Studies Center, and the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative. “Boston Abolitionists.” Read her bio here.