BOOK LAUNCH: Friends And Family w/ Natalie Baszile & Dana Johnson

WHO & WHAT: Join Rep Club for a discussion on 'Family And Friends' by filmmaker and author Natalie Baszile, in conversation with Dana Johnson.

From the author of Queen Sugar, a piercing examination of friendship and loyalty as two best friends find themselves at odds over their beliefs on race, identity, and allyship, especially when it comes to their teenage children.

WHEN: Doors at 6:30pm, event promptly at 7pm.

WHERE: Reparations Club, 3054 S. Victoria Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90016

HOW:

TICKET w/ BOOK: This ticket guarantees a seat including a signed book available for pick up at the event.

FREE RSVP (No Book Included): This Free RSVP DOES NOT include a copy of the book and entry is based strictly on capacity at the door. Books may be available for purchase in-store.

SIGNED BOOK ONLY: Can't make it IRL but still want a signed copy? Order directly from our site!

Please email us at questions@reparations.club if you have any additional needs, questions, or accessibility concerns.

About the Book:

Babs and Nora became friends thanks to their kids. Now, the desire to protect their children might tear them apart.

Babs and Nora have spent a decade’s worth of morning walks sharing family secrets, local drama, and advice—everything from tips on lingerie choices to Babs’s suggestions to Nora, a white woman, on how to raise Nathan, her adopted Black son.

But their worlds are turned upside down when the cops are called on their kids while they’re home alone, leading to a traumatic police encounter for Nathan. In the aftermath, Babs and Nora find themselves divided as never before, and Nathan looks for refuge with Babs and her family, where, unlike in his own home, race, identity, and culture are always up for discussion. Babs can see that Nathan is a young Black man without community trying to find himself. Torn between respecting Nora’s boundaries and embodying the values so important to her own family, Babs will make a choice that will shape their lives forever.

Set in a tight-knit enclave in the Bay Area, Friends and Family is an eye-opening exploration of friendship and privilege, race and community, and what it means to truly be a good friend and ally.

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Queen Sugar, was named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, an NAACP Image Award nominee, and was the inspiration for the acclaimed television series co-produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey. Her non-fiction book, We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land & Legacy, was a Wall Street Journal Book of the Year. Natalie's non-fiction work has appeared in National Geographic, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Bitter Southerner, and numerous anthologies. Natalie has had residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, SFFILM, and the Djerassi Resident Arts Program. Her short film “Black Girl in Paris” premiered at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival. A native Californian, Natalie’s southern roots stem from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama. She lives in the Bay Area.

Dana Johnson is the author of the short story collection In the Not Quite Dark. She is also the author of Break Any Woman Down, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the novel Elsewhere, California. Both books were nominees for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her work has appeared inPloughshares, Zyzzyva, The Paris Review and Callaloo among others, and has been included in several anthologies. Among her latest work is Trailblazer: Delilah Beasley’s California, a fictionalized account of the life of African American historian and scholar Delilah Beasley. Born and raised in and around Los Angeles, she is a professor of English at the University of Southern California.