Kofi, Laura and Sylvia discuss the 2001 novel, Erasure, by Percival Everett. They also talk about the film based on the novel, American Fiction. American Fiction is Cord Jefferson's hilarious directorial debut, which confronts our culture’s obsession with reducing people to outrageous stereotypes. Jeffrey Wright stars as Monk, a frustrated novelist who’s fed up with the establishment profiting from “Black” entertainment that relies on tired and offensive tropes. The film has received five Oscar nominations.

Kofi, Sylvia and Laura discuss graphic literature. They review "Abina and the Important Men," a compelling and powerfully illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. 

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about memoirs, including a discussion of Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu, HCC’s Bauder Lecture book for this year.

In this episode, Kofi, Sylvia, and Laura talk about scary stories! What is scary? Why do we write and read scary stories? Happy Halloween! The stories discussed: “The October Game” by Ray Bradbury, “Survivor Type” by Stephen King, “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, “Free Jim’s Mine” by Tananarive Due, and “Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe.

Come listen to Sylvia, Laura, and Kofi's chat about their summer reading lists, which consist of a wide range of novels, poetry, and memoir. Listeners are invited to join in and read with the hosts. 

Listen to Sylvia, Laura, and Kofi's wonderful discussion of Noor Naga's micro-novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, which follows the story of two nameless characters---one an "American" girl, the other an Egyptian "boy". Naga situates her story in the aftermath of the Arab Spring in 2010s, using unique storytelling techniques to question the limits of identity, identity politics, and shared humanity.