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When he's not writing, you can usually find him hitting the gym, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, or staying up to date with the latest fashion trends. \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kindred Stories","offers":[{"title":"RSVP ONLY","offer_id":45118098407679,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"RSVP WITH BOOK","offer_id":45118098440447,"sku":"9798985470635-event","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0527\/3577\/0820\/files\/signingpartydouglasbellelovecake_c0550450-6679-4648-902f-28a054d82fd6.png?v=1714650220"},{"product_id":"irl-author-talk-pretty-with-kb-brookins-kiese-laymon-may-29-7pm","title":"IRL Author Talk: Pretty with KB Brookins \u0026 Kiese Laymon - May 29 @ 7:30 PM","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eCelebrate the release of \u003cem\u003ePretty: Memoir\u003c\/em\u003e with author, KB Brookins!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEVENT DEETS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhen: Wednesday, May 29 @ 7:30 PM CST\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhere: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eHow: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP with book to support the author and our programming. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eABOUT THE BOOK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEven as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective—the tropes, the presumptions—\u003ci\u003ePretty \u003c\/i\u003eis as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I should be able to define myself, but I am not. Not by any governmental or cultural body,” Brookins writes. “Every day, I negotiate the space between who I am, how I’m perceived, and what I need to unlearn. People have assumed things about me, and I can’t change that. Every day, I am assumed to be a Black American man, though my ID says ‘female,’ and my heart says neither of the sort. What does it mean—to be a girl-turned-man when you’re something else entirely?” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInformed by KB Brookins’s personal experiences growing up in Texas, those of other Black transgender masculine people, Black queer studies, and cultural criticism, \u003ci\u003ePretty \u003c\/i\u003eis concerned with the marginalization suffered by a unique American constituency—whose condition is a world apart from that of cisgender, non-Black, and non-masculine people. Here is a memoir (a bildungsroman of sorts) about coming to terms with instantly and always being perceived as “other”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eABOUT THE AUTHOR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKB BROOKINS is a Black, queer, and trans writer and cultural worker from Texas. They are the author of \u003cem\u003eFreedom House\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eHow to Identify Yourself with a Wound\u003c\/em\u003e. Brookins has poems, essays, and installation art published in \u003cem\u003eAcademy of American Poets, Teen Vogue, Poetry Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, Prizer Arts \u0026amp; Letters, \u003cem\u003eOkayplayer\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePoetry Society of America, Autostraddle\u003c\/em\u003e, and other venues. They have earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, Equality Texas, and others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eKiese Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLong Division,\u003c\/em\u003e which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHow to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, \u003c\/em\u003enamed a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times critics. Laymon’s bestselling memoir, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHeavy: An American\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMemoir\u003c\/em\u003e, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discovery Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is the recipient of 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard. Laymon is at work on the books, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGood God\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCity Summer, Country Summer, \u003c\/em\u003eand a number of other film and television projects\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eHe is the founder of “The Catherine Coleman Literary Arts and Justice Initiative,” a program based out of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, aimed at aiding young people in Jackson get more comfortable reading, writing, revising and sharing on their on their own terms, in their own communities. Kiese Laymon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kindred Stories","offers":[{"title":"RSVP ONLY","offer_id":45118546379007,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"RSVP WITH BOOK","offer_id":45118546411775,"sku":"9780593537145-event","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0527\/3577\/0820\/files\/prettywithkbbrookins_dce38fef-1186-4313-8241-5bffc4fe62c4.png?v=1716257313"},{"product_id":"blessings-a-novel","title":"Blessings: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eMoonlight meets Purple Hibiscus in this searing debut of self-acceptance, sexual awakening, and first love set in a Nigeria on the verge of criminalizing same-sex relationships\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eObiefuna has always been the black sheep of his family—sensitive where his father, Anozie, is pragmatic, a dancer where his brother, Ekene, is a natural athlete. 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And I'm learning a thing or two myself.\"--Billy Porter, Emmy award-winning actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling that anything is possible within themselves\"--Princess Nokia, musician and co-founder of the Smart Girl Club\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.\"-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"An affirming, thoughtful read for all ages.\" -- School Library Journal, starred review\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. 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