June 13, 2022 FAC/STAFF

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Today: Staff Council and DEI Division Book Read!

Please join the DEI Division Office and Staff Council as we read the postmodern thriller The Trees by Percival Everett.

Publisher’s Description:
“Percival Everett’s The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.
The detectives suspect that these are killings of retribution, but soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile up, the MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for years, uncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this bold, provocative book, Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, and does so in a fast-paced style that ensures the reader can’t look away. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on America’s pulse.”

The Trees is the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Award winner for fiction.“The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures…. Today it remains the only American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity. Past winners have presented the extraordinary art and culture of peoples around the world, explored human-rights violations, exposed the effects of racism on children, reflected on growing up biracial, and illuminated the dignity of people as they search for justice”

We will meet at noon for 3 Tuesdays in June:
June 14 Chapters 1 – 33
June 21 Chapters 34 – 67
June 28 Chapters 68 -108

Please bring your lunches to enjoy while we meet in LC 206.

This is open to all Staff & Faculty, meetings will be held on campus with a Zoom option
All participants who opt for a hard copy of the book will receive a copy of the paperback by campus mail.

Click here to register: https://forms.gle/8D1mGzTyEqPYYJWZ8