Search results: 14 results for “by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton”
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14 results
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Newsworthy: Poems
Newsworthy: Poems
by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
$18.00Newsworthy wrestles with living in a culture infected by white supremacy where current media is distrusted, cursory, and impossible to escape. And yet, we yearn to know. We crave a thoughtfulness--apart from soundbites and viral videos--that plumbs deeper, one that reawakens our shared humanity by reminding us that under headlines beat all of our "pierced hearts."
A leading light in the new poetic guard, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton's collection is a poetic reimagining of the newspaper, collecting cutouts from the editing floor to resurrect those who would otherwise be forgotten. Not content to further sensationalize the horrors perpetrated on Black Americans by a broken justice system, Mouton boldly relays stories of police brutality by reinventing poetic form and function, reminding us that wisdom, context, and every angle of truth is what infuses information with elucidation.
Akin to An American Marriage, Newsworthy grounds the fragility and danger inherent in contemporary Black experience in an "ordinary" family: mother, father, brother (Josh), and sister (Amandla), following their near and lived tragedies against the backdrop of murdered black Americans. Amandla serves as a surrogate for all of us, regardless of skin color, morphing from naive bystander to headline herself. Alongside her, we witness the exponential compilation of threat. We learn to conceive of dread, anger, compassion, suffering, and love as survival tactics. And we uncover what we should have seen all along: that to be human in the world is to rectify its injustices. With Newsworthy, Mouton brings us news of the heart.
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Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth
Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood, and Myth
by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
$19.99In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.
Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.
Mouton writes, “The phrases of my mother and grandmother began to seem less colloquial and more tied to stories that had been lost along the way. . . . Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity to fill in the gaps that colonization has stolen from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”
Mouton’s memoir is a song of praise and an elegy for Black womanhood. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America. Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form. -
PRE-ORDER: Hush, Hush, Hurricane
PRE-ORDER: Hush, Hush, Hurricane
$18.99A poignant picture book about a family's resilience in the midst of the climate crisis as they prepare for an incoming storm.
The weather is always changing where Arianna lives. From baking summers to icy winters, she and her family have learned to cope with whatever the weather throws at them. But one time of year frightens Arianna more than anything else: hurricane season.
Hurricanes don't come to her southern US city every year, so she watches the sky and waits in worry. When a storm looms close by, Arianna and her parents stock up on food and water, refill first-aid kits, and board up windows. And when the hurricane arrives and floods Arianna’s home, her mother softly sings, “Hush, hush, hurricane, don’t you creep. Hush, hush, hurricane, let us sleep.” Arianna spends a long night in her parents’ arms. By morning, the storm has faded, and everyone's all right.
With lyrical text by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton and stunning illustrations by Trudy Tran, Hush, Hush, Hurricane reassures us that it's okay to be afraid when scary things happen, while offering helpful reminders: Be prepared, have a plan, and take care of your family and neighbors. Features backmatter that includes an emergency preparedness list and author's note.
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holler, Child with Latoya Watkins-August 31 at 7:30 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Holler, Child with Latoya Watkins-August 31 at 7:30 PM
from $0.00We're celebrating Latoya Watkins second book, Holler, Child: Stories!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, August 31st at 7:30 PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support the author and programming.
ABOUT BOOK
Set in the same Black community in Texas as PERISH, LaToya's debut novel, each story focuses on unique characters that illuminate life in Texas; they offer briliant, heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful perspectives from the women and men in the community, and touch on big themes like race, power, inequality, and more.
In one story, the appearance of a horse in a man's suburban backyard places a former horse breeder in trouble with the police, while in another, following the mass suicide of his entire congregation, the mother of a cult leader tries to honor him in a way she couldn't while he was alive.
Fresh and urgently told, HOLLER, CHILD is a wise follow-up to LaToya's debut novel.- This collection features 11 stories--six of which have been previously published and five of which are entirely new for this collectionABOUT AUTHOR
LaToya Watkins’s writing has appeared in A Public Space, The Sun, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review, The Pushcart Prize Anthology (2015), and elsewhere. She has received grants, scholarships, and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and A Public Space (she was one of their 2018 Emerging Writers Fellows). She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish was her debut novel.
ABOUT MODERATOR
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020.
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AUTHOR TALK: Expecting Inequity with Khiara M. Bridges- October 29 @ 7 PM
AUTHOR TALK: Expecting Inequity with Khiara M. Bridges- October 29 @ 7 PM
from $5.00Celebrate the release of Expecting Inequity with Khiara M. Bridges! The event will feature a moderated conversation, audience Q&A, and book signing, followed by a community art activation led by The Call Me Mother Experience.
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, October 29 @ 7PM CST
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, HTX 77004)
How:
- RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat.
- RSVP WITH BOOK to reserve your seat and purchase a copy Expecting Inequity, supporting both the author and our store programming. The book will be available for pickup at the event.
Please Note: Books purchased from other retailers are not permitted in the bookstore and are not eligible for the signing or photo line. To participate in the signing and photo opportunity, you must purchase a copy from Kindred Stories. If you already purchased your book from Kindred Stories, you may select the RSVP Only ticket option and bring your Kindred Stories copy to the event.
If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend the event, your ticket is non-refundable. If your ticket includes a book, an email will be sent to all attendees before and after the event with instructions on how to receive your book. Books must be claimed within 14 days following the event. If your book is not retrieved it will be returned to the publisher and will not be available for pick up in the future.
ABOUT THE BOOK
An unsettling exploration of the persistence of racism in reproductive healthcare in the US—and why even affluent Black women are imperiled by substandard care.
From a leading expert on race, class, maternal health, and reproductive rights.
Racism in maternal healthcare is not reserved for the poor. An unsparing picture of inequities in prenatal care and childbirth in the United States, Expecting Inequity reveals that not only are black people three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, but racial disparities in maternal mortality persist across income levels. That is, wealthier black people are much more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period than their white counterparts. Focusing on a San Francisco obstetrics clinic that caters to the affluent, Khiara Bridges looks at the choices around prenatal care and childbirth that class-privileged, pregnant black people are making in order to survive what has been called the “black maternal health crisis.”
Bridges, whose previous work exposed how race and racism are embedded in maternal healthcare for the poor, draws on two years of participant-observation to show how wealthier black people try to leverage their class privilege to avoid some of the negative effects of their blackness—only to discover that in a country that has never reckoned with its horrific racial past, there is no escaping racism’s reach. Throughout the book, engaging, heartbreaking, infuriating stories of women’s experiences with pregnancy and prenatal care illustrate how race and racism matter regardless of wealth or status.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Khiara M. Bridges is the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley School of Law.
She is a nationally-recognized expert on the intersection of race, class, and reproductive rights. Her scholarship has appeared in the most influential law reviews in the country, including the flagship law journals at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, among many others. She is also the author of three books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), and Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019, 2026). Her fourth book, Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans, was released in March 2026.
Bridges graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically-trained ballet dancer who danced professionally in New York City for twenty years before moving to the Bay Area.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is a multi-modal storyteller whose work documents, examines, and celebrates the complexities of Black American life. She has authored Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co., 2023), which won the Carr P. Collins award for Best Nonfiction through the Texas Institute of Letters, and Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books, 2027). This three-time TEDx speaker has contributed to Glamour, Texas Monthly, and ESPN's Andscape and written theatrical works that have premiered at Chicago Opera Theater, the Kennedy Center, and National Sawdust. Her upcoming immersive art installation, The Call Me Mother Experience, amplifies the Black Maternal Health crisis.
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Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas
Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas
$20.00“We turn to poetry in our greatest moments of joy and sorrow to help us tune in to our emotions and connect with others,” writes Johnston. In Praisesong for the People, poetry brings us together to celebrate the people across the state who make this land feel like home.
Edited by Amanda Johnston, the 61st Texas Poet Laureate and first Black woman to receive this honor, this vibrant anthology collects the work of 70 emerging and established poets across the state. Commissioned to write original poems celebrating everyday people, the poets in Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas are as diverse as the landscapes they inhabit, and reflect the intersecting identities of Texas’s population across age, gender, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disability, and immigrant communities. In these poems, their voices gather in a heartfelt chorus to praise the people in their communities who offer small kindnesses, asking nothing in return.
Praise the bus driver who ferries us safely across town. Praise the abuela who dries our tears. Praise the librarian who protects young curiosity. Praise the therapist with an open door, the teacher fluent in the language of affirmation. With story, testimony, and song, these poets give our unsung community heroes their flowers.
With an introduction by Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston.
Featuring praise poems by Kendra Allen, C. Prudence Arceneaux, Sara Bawany, Gaby Benitez, Claire Bowman, Lauren Brazeal Garza, KB Brookins, drea brown, Marie Brown, Jenny Browne, Joe Brundidge, Cloud Delfina Cardona, Paola Carrasco, Camari Carter Hawkins, Avery C. Castillo, Julieta Corpus, Victor Leo Cruz, Logen Cure, Terry Dawson, Audrea Diaz, Tarfia Faizullah, Icess Fernandez Rojas, Carrie Fountain, Mag Gabbert, Jasmine Games, Daniel García Ordaz, Chera Hammons, Alicia Harmon, SG Huerta, Amanda Johnston, Katelin Kelly, Aris Kian, Ella Kim, Jennine “DOC” Krueger, Dr. Rosalee Martin, Kaitlyn Marzetta McClung, Jasminne Mendez, Lupe Mendez, Zell Miller III, Jonathan Moody, Bo Hee Moon, Lisa L. Moore, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, mónica teresa ortiz, Sebastian Páramo, Bianca Alyssa Pérez, Emmy Pérez, Phillip Periman, Kenan Phillip, Julie Poole, Amanda Puryear El, Octavio Quintanilla, jo reyes-boitel, Gerard Robledo, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, Jan Seale, ire’ne lara silva, Shasparay, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ebony Stewart, Nomi Stone, Robert Tinajero, Sam Treviño, Pat Tyrer, Alexandra van de Kamp, Eddie Vega, Annar Veröld-Miranda, Edward Vidaurre, April Sojourner Truth Walker, and Sasha West.
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: The Grandest Garden with Gina L. Carroll - June 6 @ 7:30 PM CST
IRL AUTHOR TALK: The Grandest Garden with Gina L. Carroll - June 6 @ 7:30 PM CST
from $5.00Celebrate the release of The Grandest Garden with Gina L. Carroll!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, June 6, 2024
Where: Kindred Stories Reading Garden (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to support our programming and the author.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this coming-of-age story about the cycle of life in and out of the garden, Bella Fontaine comes to understand as a young woman trying to make her way in the world, that when it’s time to leave home, it’s time—whether you feel ready or not.
Bella Fontaine is on her own. Fresh out of college and with the winnings from her first international photography competition, she decides to leave Los Angeles to forge a new life in New York City. But will she be able to overcome the trauma of her childhood and her break from home to make it as a successful artist and professional photographer in a new city? Or will her secrets catch up with her ,and keep her from developing the relationships she needs to make her dreams come true?
We meet young Bella just after her tenth birthday, and her grandmothers, Olivette and Miriam, each with a beautiful, mature garden as different from each other as the two gardeners who tend them. As Bella’s homelife begins to unravel, she relies on her grandmother’s gardens as her refuge for stability and belonging. But when Miriam moves in with Olivette in search of healing, the grandmothers bond in a way that makes Bella feel excluded. What happens next sends Bella out into the world before she is ready.
The Grandest Garden is a poignant coming-of-age story about the ties that bind us to our people and how to survive when they break.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gina L. Carroll is the author of A Story That Matters: A Gratifying Way to Write About Your Life and editor of Stories Are Medicine: Writing to Heal, An Anthology. A self-pro-fessed story wrangler, Gina founded StoryHouse Texas, a creative space dedicated to cultivating and amplifying the diversity of vision and voice in story. The Grandest Garden is her debut novel. She currently lives in Houston, Texas. To learn more about Gina, visit www.ginacarroll.com.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page, and everything in between. She is the author of Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) which was translated into German (Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023), and an upcoming children's book, Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books). Honored as part of Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's Andscape, to name a few.
Her most recent choreopoem, PLUMSHUGA: The rise of Lauren Anderson, debuted at Stages Theater and made the cover of the NY Times Culture Section. Her forthcoming opera, She Who Dared, composed by Jasmine Barnes, will debut in Spring 2025. Her memoir, Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co, 2023), recently won the the Carr P. Collins award for Best Nonfiction through the Texas Institute of Letters (2024). Order your copy now.
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AUTHOR TALK: Good Spirits with Tiffanie Barriere - December 10
AUTHOR TALK: Good Spirits with Tiffanie Barriere - December 10
from $10.00Celebrate the release of Good Spirits with Tiffanie Barriere! This special evening will feature an author conversation with Tiffanie and Chef Dominic Lee, owner of Augustine’s, followed by a cocktail tasting featuring recipes from the book. Join us for an engaging evening of conversation, cocktails, and good spirits!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, December 10 @ 7PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St., HTX 77004)
How:
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RSVP ONLY
Reserve your seat and participate in the tasting.RSVP WITH BOOK
Reserve your seat and purchase a copy of Good Spirits, supporting both the author and our store programming. Your book will be available for pickup at the event. Includes the tasting.RSVP (I ALREADY HAVE THE BOOK)
Reserve your seat and let us know you plan to bring a copy of Good Spirits that you previously purchased from another bookseller. Includes the tasting.
Please Note: Generally books purchased from other retailers are not permitted in the bookstore and are not eligible for the signing or photo line. To participate in the signing and photo opportunity, you must either purchase a copy from Kindred Stories or select the RSVP: I Already Have the Book ticket option, which allows you to bring a copy purchased elsewhere. If you already purchased your book from Kindred Stories, you may select the RSVP Only ticket option and bring your Kindred Stories copy to the event.
If you purchase a ticket and are unable to attend the event, your ticket is non-refundable. If your ticket includes a book, an email will be sent to all attendees before and after the event with instructions on how to receive your book. Books must be claimed within 14 days following the event. If your book is not retrieved it will be returned to the publisher and will not be available for pick up in the future.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The must-have companion for classic cocktails, mocktails, and creative drinks, plus historical insights, from a celebrated industry icon.
Good Spirits is a culture-rich cocktail exploration that seamlessly blends practiced technique with deep historical knowledge. For master bartender and cocktail educator Tiffanie Barriere, the bar has always been a place where history, creativity, and community combine. From gold-standard martinis and expert Manhattans to drinks inspired by mood, the cocktail curious will learn not only how to skillfully mix and pour with joy, but also about the fascinating and often untold history behind our favorite drinks and spirits.
In addition to the backstories and recipes for 125 cocktails, enthusiasts will find illuminating essays about choosing and using spirits and the legacies (both bitter and sweet) behind them; important historical figures who invented our favorite drinks, liqueurs, and bar tools; and truths that track the impact of trends and cocktail movements. Zero-proof variations abound thanks to the ingenious concept of cocktail “stock”, while dozens of bold-flavored syrups, shrubs, and infusions make it just as easy and exciting to take a drink in a no-alcohol direction as a boozy one. Insights on tools, garnishing, ice types, and the difference between shaking, rolling, and aerating set you up to hone your mixology and make drinks with confidence.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tiffanie Barriere is a bartender’s bartender and award-winning mixologist, educator, and hospitality leader. The former beverage director at One Flew South, the “Best Airport Bar in the World,” she has been honored as a Food & Wine Game Changer and a Tales of the Cocktail Visionary Award recipient. She has contributed cocktail recipes to several cocktail books and cookbooks, including Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs & Juice and Modern Classic Cocktails. Her work has also been featured in Imbibe, Forbes, Essence, and Southern Living. She is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Rooted in the unique tapestry of Creole culture, Chef Dominick Lee’s culinary journey pays heartfelt homage to his New Orleans heritage. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Lee’s passion for cooking led him to The Art Institute of Houston, where he received the inaugural “Underbelly Scholarship” from James Beard award-winning chef Chris Shepherd. His journey to his Bachelors in Culinary Management included roles as sous chef at Bay Oaks Country Club, Executive Sous Chef under James Beard semifinalist Chef Kiran Verma at Kiran’s and stages at some of the most highly acclaimed restaurants in the country, including Alinea (2 Michelin Stars), Next (1 Michelin Star), and Blue Hill at Stone Barns (2 Michelin Stars). At 29, Lee became one of the youngest executive chefs in Houston, taking the helm at Poitín Bar & Kitchen where he earned accolades such as Texas Monthly’s 2019 Best New Restaurants and a number of “Rising Star Chef” distinctions.
In 2021, Lee relocated to Europe to study Creole food derivatives and served as head chef at Villa Lena in Tuscany. Two years later, he returned back to The States, opening Alligator Pear in New York City, which showcased a New American menu inspired by New Orleans. Now, Lee has returned to Houston to open Augustine’s, a progressive Creole restaurant exploring the many dimensions of his Creole heritage — debuting Summer 2026.
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PRE-ORDER: Guesting: How to Show Up, Win Over Your Host, and Make the Most of Any Occasion
PRE-ORDER: Guesting: How to Show Up, Win Over Your Host, and Make the Most of Any Occasion
$34.99Gail Simmons will be in conversation with Chris Shepherd on November 17th at the Hobby Center as part of her official book tour. Get tickets HERE!
From author, culinary expert, and Top Chef judge Gail Simmons comes a fun, informative, and trailblazing guide to a rarely-explored side of hospitality: how to be a great guest.
Countless influential voices have written books about hosting, offering tips for what to cook, how to set the perfect table, mix the best drinks and create the most welcoming vibes. But hospitality, by definition, involves at least two people; where is the advice for guests?
Culinary expert and perennial Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is something of a professional on the subject. As a tastemaker and lifestyle authority, she is invited to countless social events running the gamut from world-class fine dining and international affairs to neighborhood potlucks. Through it all, she knows that for any gathering to be a success, guests must rise to the occasion and actively embrace their role.
In Guesting, Gail unpacks the reciprocal nature of this relationship and explores the sometimes-tricky choreography that governs its dance. She also shares her essential tenets of guesting, and proven strategies for navigating any social situation (yes, even assigned seating). From dinner parties to weddings, religious observances to restaurants, Guesting guides readers through all types of “get-togethers” with confidence and grace. It also connects the vital role guesting plays in our wellbeing and the integrity of our collective culture, at a moment when technology and the temptation for short-term comfort have diminished our inherent need to create―and maintain―human relationships.
And since any good guest knows that bringing something to the table is always the right move, Gail shares ideas and recipes for thoughtful store-bought contributions, homemade food gifts, and favorite dishes to share with a crowd. Whether you’re visiting an old friend, going out for dinner, or attending a milestone celebration, Gail has the answers and inspiration to help you become the consummate guest.
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton & Delita Martin- March 7@ 7PM CST
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton & Delita Martin- March 7@ 7PM CST
Sold outJoin us for the official launch event of Black Chameleon: Memory, Womanhood & Myth with author, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and artist, Delita Martin.
Event DEETS
When: March 7, 2023 at 7PM CST
Where: Project Row House Community Gallery (2521 Holman Street, HTX 77004)
How: Please RSVP reserve your spot. Checkout for RSVP with Book to support our store and the author/artists.
About Black Chameleon
In the literary tradition of Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, and Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, this debut memoir confronts both the challenges and joys of growing up Black and making your own truth.
Growing up as a Black girl in America, Deborah Mouton felt alienated from the stories she learned in class. She yearned for stories she felt connected to—true ones of course—but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it. What she encountered was almost always written by white writers who prospered in a time when human beings were treated as chattel, such as the Greek and Roman myths, which felt as dusty and foreign as ancient ruins. When she sought myths written by Black authors, they were rooted too far in the past, a continent away.
Mouton writes, “The phrases of my mother and grandmother began to seem less colloquial and more tied to stories that had been lost along the way. . . . Mythmaking isn’t a lie. It is our moment to take the privilege of our own creativity to fill in the gaps that colonization has stolen from us. It is us choosing to write the tales that our children pull strength from. It is hijacking history for the ignorance in its closets. This, a truth that must start with the women.”
Mouton’s memoir is a song of praise and an elegy for Black womanhood. With a poet’s gift for lyricism and poignancy, Mouton reflects on her childhood as the daughter of a preacher and a harsh but loving mother, living in the world as a Black woman whose love is all too often coupled with danger, and finally learning to be a mother to another Black girl in America. Of the moment yet timeless, playful but incendiary, Mouton has staked out new territory in the memoir form.About Deborah DEEP Mouton
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, educator, activist, and performer and the first Black poet laureate of Houston, Texas. She was formerly ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI). Her recent poetry collection, Newsworthy, garnered her a Pushcart nomination, was named a finalist for the 2019 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and received an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. Its German translation, under the title Berichtenswert, was released in Summer 2021 by Elif Verlag. The opera Marian’s Song, for which she wrote the libretto, debuted in 2020.
About Delita Martin
Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at UA Little Rock in Arkansas, Martin currently works as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press. Martin’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Most recently Martin’s work was included in the State of the Arts: Discovering American Art Now, an exhibition that included 101 artists from around the United States. Her work is in numerous portfolios and collections.
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IRL AUTHOR TALK: Firstborn Girls with Bernice McFadden - April 10 @ 7 PM
IRL AUTHOR TALK: Firstborn Girls with Bernice McFadden - April 10 @ 7 PM
Sold outCelebrate award winning author, Bernice McFadden's memoir, Firstborn Girls!
EVENT DEETS
When: Thursday, April 10 @ 7 PM
Where: Kindred Stories (2304 Stuart Street, HTX, 77004)
How: RSVP ONLY to reserve your seat or RSVP WITH BOOK to ensure your seat an a copy of Firstborn Girls!
There are limited free RSVP ONLY tickets so please make sure that you can make it.
Please note that copies of Firstborn Girls purchased from other retailers will not be allowed in the venue.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From award-winning author and creative writing professor at Tulane University comes an intimate and powerful memoir exploring inherited trauma, family secrets, and the enduring bonds of love between mothers and daughters.
On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar.
Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”
Interwoven with Bernice's personal journey is her family's history, beginning with her four-times enslaved great-grandmother Louisa Vicey Wilson in 1822 Hancock County, Georgia. Her descendants survived Reconstruction and Jim Crow, joined the Great Migration, and mourned Dr. King’s assassination during the Civil Rights Movement. These women's wisdom, secrets, and fierce love are passed down like Louisa's handmade quilt.
A memoir of many threads, Firstborn Girls is an extraordinarily moving portrait of a life shaped by family, history, and the drive to be something more.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bernice L. McFadden is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University and the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Sugar, The Warmest December, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, Glorious, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors' Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction), and Praise Song for the Butterflies (long-listed for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an award-winning writer, director, performer, critic, and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. Praised by the NY Times as an artist who “defies categorization”, her genre-bending works span from stage to page, and everything in between. She is the author of Newsworthy (Bloomsday Literary, 2019) which was translated into German (Berichtenswert, Elif Verlag, 2020), Black Chameleon (Henry Holt, 2023), and an upcoming children's book, Hush Hush Hurricane (Kokila Books, 2025). Honored as part of Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class, she has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's Andscape, to name a few.She has penned stage works including Marian's Song (Houston Grand Opera), The Forest of Secrets (National Sawdust), Atlanta: 1906 (Atlanta Opera) & On My Mind (Opera Theater St. Louis). Serving as Playwright/Director, she produced The World's Intermission, commissioned by Performing Arts Houston (Jones Hall), which has since been adapted for film, and Plumshuga: The Rise of Lauren Anderson, a choreopoem (Stages Theater) which made the cover of the NYT Culture section.Her recent memoir, Black Chameleon examines Black womanhood through afrofuturistic mythology which Mouton later adapted into a storybook opera titled (Lula, the Mighty Griot, HGO) and an independent short film (Headache & Heartthrob). A former Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University, and the Houston Museum of African American Culture, her upcoming projects will debut at The Kennedy Center and American Lyric Theater. She resides in Houston, TX. -
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Stack that Paper
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