This event has passed
Imbolo Mbue — Every Story Is a Love Story - with Angie Kim — at Union Market
Past event
About This Event
From the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers, a captivating novel about love lost—and the weight of regretWhat if I’d never gotten into that car? What if I’d pulled out of the driveway five minutes earlier, or ten minutes later?Three years ago, Wolo’s pregnant wife was killed in a tragic car accident. In an instant, the great love of his life was gone, and so was their beautiful future: the twins they were expecting, the PhD she was on the cusp of finishing, and the house they’d just bought in New Jersey. In the face of a loss that seemed insurmountable, Wolo has slowly rebuilt a semblance of a life: he goes to work, hangs out with a small circle of friends, and fends off the matchmaking efforts of the older women in his family. The grief that dogged him has, with time, become a little gentler.Until a letter arrives one day, unbidden, threatening to upend his life once again. It is from Victoria, the woman who was behind the wheel that terrible day. Wolo’s family pastor tells him the letter is the work of the devil; his mother expressly forbids him from making further mention of it; his father’s second wife calls, from Cameroon, to tell him to destroy it. But Wolo ponders it for days, and ultimately agrees to meet with the woman who killed his wife. When he does, the compassion and deep remorse of the woman affects him in ways he had never imagined, and he begins to wonder if the long road to healing can be shared. What do we owe to those who have hurt us? Are we defined by our worst moments and our deepest regrets? And, more than anything, can forgiveness ease our suffering? Moving and full of life, Every Story Is a Love Story charts the uneven path from heartbreak to healing.Imbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were, about a fictional African village’s fight against an American oil company, was named by the New York Times as “One of the 10 Best Books” of 2021. A native of Limbe, Cameroon, Mbue lives in New York.Mbue will be in conversation with Angie Kim, who moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics’ Award, and the Pinckley Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Angie Kim lives in northern Virginia with her family.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.
About the Venue
Politics & Prose · Politics and Prose at Union Market
Politics and Prose is a beloved and award-winning staple for book lovers around the nation's capital and the world. So Many Books, So Little Time.
Visit store pageMore at Politics & Prose · Politics and Prose at Union Market
Joanne Hyppolite & Toni Greenbaum — Bodyworks: The Jewelry of Art Smith - with Karen Davidov — at Union Market
Explore the wearable modern art of Art Smith, one of the world’s most celebrated 20th-century jewelersThis striking jewelry coffee table book features 160 photos of more than 60 jewelry piecesMid-century modernist jeweler Art Smith (1917-1982) considered the human body to be as integral to his jewelry as the metals, wire, and semiprecious stones he used to make it, calling his necklaces “neck pieces” and his rings “hand decorations.” Bodyworks: The Jewelry of Art Smith presents 160 images, including previously unpublished design sketches and historic photographs alongside newly commissioned photography. Together, they offer a comprehensive visual record of Smith’s bold, fluid, and creative designs, including: “Lava” bracelet which evokes volcanic movement through its layers of long, curving, and patinated sheet metal“Lil’s Wire” pendant, inspired by the atom, representing Smith’s interest in mid-century scientific discoveries and the space age“Minetta” necklace with a carnelian stone, whose name alludes to the historical Little Africa neighborhood in New York CityArt Smith was influenced by jazz, dance, visual art, pan-African regalia, and relationships he formed with New York’s African American arts community. In his Greenwich village studio, he created custom pieces for many high-profile clients, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and jazz pianist Duke Ellington, and had work featured in Vogue. Art Smith was a luminary to his contemporaries and remains one to today's artists. With stunning photography and essays that reflect on his life, influences, and legacy, Bodyworks is the magnificent retrospective Smith's pioneering career deserves.The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. Joanne Hyppolite is the Assistant Director for Culture at the museum and curator of the Cultural Expressions permanent exhibition which showcases Art Smith's work. Under her direction, the museum has acquired two major archival collections on Art Smith.Toni Greenbaum is an art historian specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century jewelry and metalwork. She has written extensively on modernist jewelry, including Messengers of Modernism: American Studio Jewelry 1940-1960, considered the standard text on the subject.Moderating the conversation will be Karen Davidov, an independent art and design producer, and founder of the Jewelry Library in New York City.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.
Midnight Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses Release Party
Book release party for A Court of Splintered Harmony!Join us for an evening of excitement - we'll have:Costume contestTriviaCraftsFace paintingSnacks and a midnight champagne pop!The book is included in the ticket price.
Zaina Arafat — Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope - with Stephanie Merry — at Union Market
A poignant, moving essay collection on the longing and hope of living in diaspora and what it means to be Palestinian today, from the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of You Exist Too Much.Fewer and fewer Palestinians living in the diaspora today have direct experiences of their homeland. How can they maintain a connection to a land so volatile, ever shrinking, and nearly unattainable? And how can a child of diaspora raise a child of diaspora, at a time when Palestinians throughout the world—particularly those living in their homeland—are more vulnerable than ever to censorship, violence, and erasure?Luminous, joyous, and evocative, Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope is Zaina Arafat's highly anticipated follow-up to her award-winning novel You Exist Too Much. In essays that move from Nablus to the Appalachian Mountains and from Amman to Manhattan, Arafat reveals “in a singularly compelling voice” (Leslie Jamison) that to live in diaspora is to exist in a state of longing: longing to be elsewhere, longing to return home, and longing to know what home is. A call to action and a call to love, Our Arab holds many truths at once—about society, identity, and family—and flashes with radical compassion, fierce pride, bitter loss, and righteous anger, forming an incredibly complex portrait of what it means to be Palestinian today.Zaina Arafat is the author of Our Arab and the debut novel You Exist Too Much, winner of a Lambda Literary Award. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Granta, Harper's Bazaar, The Believer, Vice, and BuzzFeed. She teaches writing at Barnard College and lives with her family in New York.Joining Arafat in conversation will be Stephanie Merry, a features editor at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2008. She previously served as deputy editor of The Post's Book World and was a staff writer covering movies, television and other forms of cultureThis 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.