Day: Saturday September 19th

True justice isn’t found in fixing broken systems; it’s about complete restructuring. Referencing Audre Lorde’s quote, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Deemed bold, brutal, and unflinching, Burn Down Master’s House by Clay Cane is a work of historical fiction about enslaved people who fought back against unimaginable cruelty. Ibram X. Kendi calls it “a resistance story for the ages.” A powerful tale, “Yes, this book will make you uncomfortable, but discomfort is the extravagant price of truth,” says Cane, whose work challenges the way history has been written, falsified, or erased, and how collective opposition is possible. “With shades of Kindred, James, and The Prophets, this story belongs to a long tradition of resistance that traces back to 1526,” writes Keith Boykin, “when enslaved Africans burned down their captors’ settlement in what is now South Carolina.”  What one reader shared about this fascinating debut work: “A MUST READ …I can’t emphasize enough. It’s four short stories inspired by real-life enslaved people who dared to fight back … the characters are incredible. I’m going to think about this the rest of my life.”

Why do we avoid topics that could bring us closer together with a wider understanding? We sidestep the hard, uncomfortable issues out of politeness, awkwardness, or fear—but they’re the very subjects that build connections, heal deep wounds, and move the needle in important ways. We open this session with The Moth-like storytelling that includes author Phill Branch’s tale, the shame of failing at boyhood, and what it means “to feel ruined from the start.” Three storytellers will share testimonies of heartbreak, the courage in navigating difficult conversations, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Branch knows well the power of humor in broaching heavy subjects. In praise of Branch’s book The Double Dutch Fuss, Roy Wood, Jr. (The Man of Many Fathers) notes: “When wielded responsibly, humor can heal and also educate. Phill exhibits this ability with great profundity as he shows us how fathers shape us even when they don’t know how to love us well.” Diana Veiga—whose one-woman show I’m Just Doing My Job premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival in 2022—reveals how working at the public library is already a tough job – now add a tougher customer, mix in a difficult conversation, and stir. Heather Moyer joins us representing Mortified, a multi-modal storytelling show produced by Alexandra Hewett, where brave adults share embarrassing things they created as kids (old diaries, letters, lyrics & more) in front of total strangers. Moyer is a communications professional and one of the founding members of the Baltimore Improv Group. Jess Solomon serves as moderator in conversation with Branch to discuss difficult conversations with equal parts insight, depth, and humor. She is a Baltimore-based organization development practitioner and comedian who spends her days in boardrooms and her nights on stage.

https://www.themoth.org/stories/if-the-suit-fits

Three acclaimed women authors talk about their latest books, the craft of humor, and the role of comic fiction in the current social and political landscape. What makes something funny? Why is humor important? How does absurdity function both as entertainment and as a form of commentary on serious matters? The books under discussion range widely in focus, from the world of literary event planning to the interior lives of the social media generation to the surreal landscape of the afterlife. This meeting of great comic minds promises to be inspiring, profound, and laugh-out-loud funny. Novelist Susan Coll, whose newly published novel, Word Salad, “is a moving, thoughtful exploration of the complicated nature of grief and the power that books have to help us find ourselves when we’re lost,” writes national bestseller Grant Grinder. Coll is the events advisor at Politics and Prose Bookstore. Amy Fusselman‘s latest book, Cloud Six, which Literary Hub named A Most Anticipated Book of the Year, is a comic novel about an unfortunate couple navigating the lowest tier of heaven. Baltimore’s Sydney Rende’s short story collection has been called “an invaluable tip-sheet to the way we live now, I Could Be Famous captures perfectly the hazards of young womanhood in a world where everyone is desperate to be looked at, but wary of being seen.” (Jonathan Dee, author of Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Privileges). Betsy Boyd, director of Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore, joins us as moderator. Her fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, Five Points, and StoryQuarterly.