Home

Calendar

Filter

Search

Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America — A Discussion with Tara Bynum and Kabria Baumgartner

Tara Bynum and Kabria Baumgartner

On Thursday, March 2, at 2:30 p.m. CST, Professors Tara Bynum (English, CLAS) and Kabria Baumgartner (History and Africana Studies, Northeastern University) will discuss Bynum's new book, Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America (University of Illinois Press), which tells the stories of four early American writers who expressed feeling good despite living while enslaved or only nominally free.

Bynum, a 2021 recipient of the Book Ends: Obermann/OVPR Book Completion Workshop award, says that she and Baumgartner will discuss "the pleasure of reading in the 'archive,' the individual and collective experiences of joy in the lives of Wheatley, Gronniosaw, Marrant, and Walker, and what these 18th-century pleasures mean for us at present."

Note: If you order Reading Pleasures from the University of Illinois Press website, you can receive a 30% discount with the code F22UIP (valid till June 30, 2024).  

Free and open to all, but registration is required.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact in advance at