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NW Academy Visiting Writer Series: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
October 18, 2018 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
FreeFrom Northwest Academy’s website:
Please join us on Thursday, October 18, for visiting writer Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of A Kind of Freedom. Northwest Academy high school students have been reading A Kind of Freedom this school year and will have the opportunity to have a conversation with Wilkerson Sexton about her writing. Prior to Wilkerson Sexton’s talk, two student authors, Lily Cohn and Mazie Drummond, will be reading excerpts from original works of short fiction.
We are honored to be hosting this phenomenal author at Northwest Academy, so please help us make her feel welcome and show our support for Lily and Mazie with an amazing turnout! We hope to see you all there!
From event release flier:
Please join us on Thursday, October 18th for visiting writer Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of A Kind of Freedom. Northwest Academy high school students have been reading A Kind of Freedom this school year and will have the opportunity to have a conversation with Wilkerson Sexton. Prior to Wilkerson Sextons talk, two student authors who will be reading excerpts from original works of short fiction.
This event is free and open to the public.
Who: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, A Kind of Freedom
What: Visiting Author/lecture
When: Thursday, October 18, 6:30-7:30 pm
Where: 1208 SW 13th, Portland OR 97205
About the author:
Margaret Wilkerson Sexton was born and raised in New Orleans. She studied creative writing at Dartmouth and law at UC Berkeley. She was a recipient of the Lombard fellowship and spent a year in the Dominican Republic working for a civil rights organization. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her stories have been published or are forthcoming in Grey Sparrow Journal, Limestone Journal, and Broad! Magazine. She lives in the Bay Area, California.
About A Kind of Freedom:
Evelyn is a Creole woman who comes of age in New Orleans at the height of World War II. Her family inhabits the upper
echelon of Black society and when she falls for Renard, she is forced to choose between her life of privilege and the man
she loves.
In 1982, Evelyn’s daughter, Jackie, is a frazzled single mother grappling with her absent husband’s drug addiction. Just as
she comes to terms with his abandoning the family, he returns, ready to resume their old life. Jackie must decide if the
promise of her husband is worth the near certainty he’ll leave again. Jackie’s son, T.C., loves the creative process of
growing marijuana more than the weed itself. He finds something hypnotic about training the seedlings, testing the levels,
trimming the leaves, drying the buds. He was a square before Hurricane Katrina, but the New Orleans he knew didn’t
survive the storm. But fresh out of a four-month stint for drug charges, T.C. decides to start over—until an old friend
convinces him to stake his new beginning on one last deal.
For Evelyn, Jim Crow is an ongoing reality, and in its wake new threats spring up to haunt her descendants. A Kind of
Freedom is an urgent novel that explores the legacy of racial disparity in the South through a poignant and redemptive
family history.
About Northwest Academy:
Northwest Academy is an independent, arts-focused middle and high school in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The school is accredited by the Northwest Association of Independent Schools.
Simone Coker-Kamna, scoker-kamna@nwacademy.org, 503.482.7539