Sarah Mesle TANGLED

October 22 | In-Store | 6:00 PM

Sarah Mesle, Tangled

White women and their hair. In Tangled, writer Sarah Mesle unpacks white hair as a potent emblem of the “all-American” woman–and as a meticulously fashioned weapon of racism and classism. Sarah will be joined by Heather Radke. Followed by a book signing.

Doors and minibar open at 5:30PM

Getting here: We are located at 1620 Orrington Avenue, in downtown Evanston, just one block east of the Davis Street Metra and CTA public transit stops. There is metered street parking as well as numerous parking garages nearby.

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About the book: The stories we tell about white women and their hair are tightly woven with our ideals of purity, aesthetics, and power. Tangled unpacks white hair as a potent emblem of the “all-American” woman—and as a meticulously fashioned weapon of racism and classism. From Reagan’s rise in the 1980s to the zeitgeisty early aughts to MAGA’s triumph in 2016, these essays uncover a nation’s entwined hopes and sins through 7 hair moments in pop culture.

A cultural critique on America’s glorification of white bodies and the privilege it affords white women, Tangled calls those women in, urging them to confront their own hair stories so they can begin to untangle the knots.

About Sarah: Sarah Mesle is professor of writing at the University of Southern California and is the author of Reasons and Feelings: Writing for the Humanities Now. The former senior humanities editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Mesle is also the founding co-editor of the LARB channel Avidly and the short books series Avidly Reads. Mesle’s writing about gender, media, and culture has appeared in venues ranging from Studies in American Fiction to InStyle to the New York Times Magazine.

About Heather: Heather Radke is a writer and Contributing Editor for WNYC's award-winning podcast Radiolab. Her first book, Butts: A Backstory, came out in 2022 and was named a best book of the year by Time, Esquire, and Publishers Weekly. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including The Believer and The Paris Review. Her next book is about the cultural history of pre-adolescent girlhood. She recently returned to the Chicago area after a decade in New York City.