The result is a bracing, often humorous examination by one of America’s most acclaimed essayists of what it is to grow, parent, write, and simply exist at this time as a Black American male. Whether confronting the medical profession’s racial biases, considering the complicated legacy of Michael Jackson, paying homage to his writing mentor, or attempting to break free of personal and societal stereotypes, Walker elegantly blends intimate revelation and cultural critique.

It is on the knife’s edge between fury and farce that the essays in this exquisite collection balance. How to Make a Slave and Other Essays was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award.Jerald Walker will discuss his book, 'How to Make a Slave & Other Essays', a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction, followed by questions & answers with interviewer, Kevin Cartwright.ĭate and Time: Thursday, Janu 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM PSTįor the Black community, Jerald Walker asserts in 'How To Make a Slave” that 'anger is often a prelude to a joke, as there is broad understanding that the triumph over this destructive emotion is in finding its punchline.” The author of two previous books, Walker is Professor of Creative Writing at Emerson College. Walker joins us to discuss that sojourn with his signature blend of fury and farce and to talk about the complicated legacy of Michael Jackson, getting medical care while Black, becoming more than the sum of your victimization and the struggle to break free of both personal and social stereotypes. In his latest book, How to Make a Slave and Other Essays, Jerald Walker traces a journey parallel to Douglass’s, from his days as a high school dropout drug dealer on the South Side of Chicago, to a place at the table of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the white suburb where he is raising his children and a university professorship.These powerful essays, dubbed “restless” and “brilliant” by the The New York Times, won him a coveted spot on the newspaper’s Best Books of the Year list. “ou shall see how a slave was made a man.” “ You have seen how a man was made a slave,” Frederick Douglass famously wrote in his autobiographical narrative.

Jerald walker how to make a slave