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Aaron John Curtis — Old School Indian — at Union Market

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About This Event

There There meets All Fours in this irreverent coming-of-middle-age story about an Indigenous man’s hunger for intimacy, healing, and a second chance.Abe Jacobs is Kanien’kehá:ka from Ahkwesáhsne―or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back. He met the love of his life, started writing poetry, and began an open marriage.Now at forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare disease―one his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a marriage teetering on collapse, Abe returns to the Rez, where he’s persuaded to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge. But Budge―a wry, recovered alcoholic prone to wearing punk T-shirts―isn’t all that convincing. And Abe’s time off the Rez has made him a thorough skeptic.To heal, Abe will undertake a revelatory journey, confronting the parts of himself he’s hidden ever since he left home and wrestling with the imprint left by his once-passionate marriage.Delivered with crackling wit and heart-wrenching tenderness, Old School Indian is a striking exploration of the power and secrets of family, the capacity for healing and intimacy, and the ripple effects of history and culture.Aaron John Curtis is an enrolled member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which he'll tell you is the white name for the American side of Akwesasne. Aaron has judged for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance prizes, the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, and the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Since 2004, Aaron has been Quartermaster at Books & Books, Miami’s largest independent bookstore. He lives in Miami.This event is free with first come, first serve seating. To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.

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Nov21
Author EventWashington, DC

Jennifer Anne Moses and Stuart P. Green — The Rebbe of Baton Rouge - With Amy E. Schwartz — at Union Market

6:00 PM • Saturday, November 21, 2026Politics & Prose · Politics and Prose at Union MarketFree

This event is in partnership with Moment Magazine.Anna Zisk is a professor of Yiddish literature who, after being accused of an inappropriate relationship with a grad student, flees her settled life in Boston and seeks refuge at her childhood home in Baton Rouge. There, she's forced to confront her long-ago first boyfriend, who claims he still loves her; a fraught relationship with her sister; and the uneasy feeling of never having quite belonged in the Deep South. To top it all off, she's been relegated to teaching LSU football players basic composition--a skill they do not crave and will not master. Meanwhile, Adam Kluger, the new rabbi in town, is struggling to keep his congregation afloat in a small southern city where there are barely enough Jews to fill a high school gymnasium. It doesn't help that his ex-fiance left him; the cross-town rival synagogue's rabbi is poaching his shul's members; and he's being haunted by a spectral, Yiddish-speaking, elderly Hasid who pops up at the most inopportune moments. Not to mention that he's falling in love with Anna. The Rebbe of Baton Rouge is funny, absorbing, and twisty. A genre-bending, Yiddish-infused, southern lit rom-com that digs deep into the dynamics of this proud but vulnerable community--their rivalries and friendships; pettiness and generosity; faith and skepticism; insecurities and sense of solidarity.Jennifer Anne Moses is the author of nine previous books of fiction and nonfiction, including Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou, a memoir. Her novels explore family, identity, and the messy beauty of everyday life.Stuart P. Green is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University and the author of several books on criminal law and philosophy.Moses and Green will be in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, the opinion and book editor of Moment Magazine, as well as editor of the magazine's popular "Ask the Rabbis" section. She is editor of the 2020 book Can Robots Be Jewish? And Other Pressing Questions of Modern Life. Before joining Moment in 2011, she spent 17 years as an editorial writer and weekly op-ed columnist at The Washington Post. She has also worked at Harper's, The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly. Schwartz is president of the non-denominational Jewish Study Center, an independent adult education institution in Washington, DC. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.