Reading & Discussion: Nell Painter’s ‘I JUST KEEP TALKING: A LIFE IN ESSAYS’
Thursday, May 9, 7pm
Tickets: $7 TSL Members, $10 General Get Tickets HERE
Time & Space Limited 434 Columbia St Hudson, NY 12534
Thursday, May 9th, 2024 at 7:00 PM Nell Painter’s I JUST KEEP TALKING: A LIFE IN ESSAYS (2024) Ms. Painter will read from her upcoming Book of Essays, followed by a conversation with author and journalist Sarah Broom. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at this event.
Join Nell Painter, author of the New York Times bestseller The History of White People; Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol; and the National Book Critics Circle finalist Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, for a reading from her new book of essays: I JUST KEEP TALKING, published this year by Penguin Random House. Throughout her prolific writing career, Painter’s unique vantage on American history has pushed the boundaries of personal narrative and academic authorship. I Just Keep Talking assembles her writing for the first time into a single volume, displaying the breadth and depth of Painter’s decades-long historical inquiry into Black political thought. Through deft analysis and cultural critique, Painter nimbly portrays the trials of a country frequently at war with itself. Along with Painter’s writing, this collection displays her original artwork, testifies to the dialectic of tremendous change and stasis that continues to shape American history. Painter will be interviewed after the reading by journalist and author, Sarah Broom, whose work has been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine and is the author of THE YELLOW HOUSE (Grove Press).
Tickets: $7 TSL Members, $10 General. (Note: online ticket sales will shut off approximately 30 minutes before the event)
About the Book: From the New York Times bestselling author of The History of White People and Old in Art School, a finalist for the NBCC Award, comes a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American history as we know it.
Throughout her prolific writing career, Nell Painter has published works on such luminaries as Sojourner Truth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Malcolm X. Her unique vantage on American history pushes the boundaries of personal narrative and academic authorship. Led by an unbridled curiosity for her subjects, Painter asks readers to reconsider ideas of race, politics, and identity. I Just Keep Talking assembles her writing for the first time into a single volume, displaying the breadth and depth of Painter’s decades-long historical inquiry and the evolution of Black political thought—and includes a dazzling introduction and coda being published for the first time in this collection. From her mining of figures like Carrie Buck and Martin Delaney for their resonance today, to a deep dive into the history of exclusion through the work of Toni Morrison, to a discussion of the American political landscape after the 2016 election, Painter nimbly portrays the trials of a country frequently at war with itself.
Along with Painter’s writing, this collection offers her original artwork, threaded throughout the book as counterpoint and emphasis. Her visual art shows a deft mind turning toward the tragedy and humor of her subjects; pulling from newspapers, personal records, and original sketches, Painter’s artwork testifies to the dialectic of tremendous change and stasis that continues to shape American history.
These essays resist easy answers in favor of complexity, the inescapable sense of our country’s potential thwarted by its failures. This collection will surely solidify Painter’s place among the finest critics and writers of the last half century.
