[This is a Virtual Ruby* event, taking place over Zoom. Join us: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82551258037?pwd=U2ltOUJVVVBSU3R0ajRkOThPSmxPQT09. Nonmembers are welcome to join; please donate if you are able! ]

Jean Rhys said that "reading makes immigrants of us all," that "it takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." Now more than ever, it's vital—and heartening—to read, and read widely. We'll read thrilling, mind-blowing, intriguing, heartbreaking, comic, strange, and/or provocative books by women and nonbinary people of color—and, each month, we'll gather to talk about what we've read! When possible, we'll also have the writer join us.

This August, we'll be reading THE REVISIONERS by local author and friend of The Ruby, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. Margaret will be joining us for the discussion.

About THE REVISIONERS

"Sexton takes on [Toni Morrison's artful invocation of the ghost] in her new novel The Revisioners. . . She writes with such a clear sense of place and time that each of these intermingled stories feels essential and dramatic in its own way." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"A powerful tale of racial tensions across generations." —People

In 1924, Josephine is the proud owner of a thriving farm. As a child, she channeled otherworldly power to free herself from slavery. Now her new neighbor, a white woman named Charlotte, seeks her company, and an uneasy friendship grows between them. But Charlotte has also sought solace in the Ku Klux Klan, a relationship that jeopardizes Josephine’s family.

Nearly one hundred years later, Josephine’s descendant, Ava, is a single mother who has just lost her job. She moves in with her white grandmother, Martha, a wealthy but lonely woman who pays Ava to be her companion. But Martha’s behavior soon becomes erratic, then threatening, and Ava must escape before her story and Josephine’s converge.

The Revisioners explores the depths of women’s relationships—powerful women and marginalized women, healers and survivors. It is a novel about the bonds between mothers and their children, the dangers that upend those bonds. At its core, The Revisioners ponders generational legacies, the endurance of hope, and the undying promise of freedom.

About MARGARET WILKERSON SEXTON

MARGARET WILKERSON SEXTON, born and raised in New Orleans, studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, A Kind of Freedom, was long-listed for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, won the Crook's Corner Book Prize, and was the recipient of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

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While we shelter in place during the Covid19 pandemic, The Ruby's physical location will be closed. But as a collective, we'll continue to gather online for virtual workshops, events, and discussions. All are welcome to join us for these events. * For those who can afford it and would like to support The Ruby during this uncertain time, we are offering 3 tiers of virtual membership: $5/week, $15/week, and $25/week. (Though we have some money in our emergency savings account to get us through the next little while, we're pretty nervous about the future, and how long this might go on for.) Please help only if it's feasible for you. If you're in a tough time financially right now, we absolutely get it. Please, take care of yourself and stay connected to this community so we can help.

Here are the tiers of virtual membership (use these links to sign up):

$5/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/aRsJyABygL4FvvEJT

$15/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/o56ggrnNNx9rzn6AA

$25/week - https://www.joinit.org/o/the-ruby/q37HfmWSQMoLzPt4p

Want to make a one-time donation of more or less? We can still accept donations through last year's GoFundMe. Link is here.

Our Virtual Ruby calendar will be updated as events are added.

[Virtual Ruby] AUTHORS OF COLOR BOOK CLUB: The Revisioners by Margaret