Join Evenings with an Author and Black History Month to discuss
We Are Bridges
with novelist Cassandra Lane and artist Malika Harding
Click here to RSVP
In 1904, Cassandra Lane’s great-grandfather was lynched by white men in a small town in Mississippi. Over one hundred years later, Lane, pregnant with her first child, begins to reflect on what it means to inherit and transmit a family history. We Are Bridges, Lane’s debut novel, is the product of such reflection: a work which intertwines past and present, pain and love, as well as documented and imagined histories. Piecing together her ancestors’ lives before, during, and in the aftermath of her great-grandfather’s murder, Lane uses moving language and evocative questions to guide the reader through a personal epic of intergenerational trauma, collective memory, creation stories, speech, silence, and the enduring marks of racial violence.
Thinking about how this family story arrived distorted and incomplete by way of spotty records, reticence tales from traumatized family members, and the fallibility of memory, Lane also creates space to discuss and critique the teaching of American history. To know one’s personal history, Lane claims, is also to know one’s national history. It is the particular experience of the Black American that the two are inextricably connected.
About the speakers:
Cassandra Lane is an author, journalist, and high school educator. Born in Louisiana, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University in 2003, and has worked and lived in Los Angeles ever since. She is the Editor-In-Chief of L.A. Parent Magazine. Her debut novel, We Are Bridges: A Memoir, was the 2020 winner of Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and was published by Feminist Press in April 2021.
Malika Ali Harding (she/her) creates at the intersection where the sacred meets the profane. An American artist with an interdisciplinary background that includes writing, curating, photography, filmmaking, and sound work, she tells visual stories by any medium necessary. Malika earned her BFA from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and her MFA in screenwriting from the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. She currently lives in Amsterdam where she designs global retreats for writers through her company Story Rebels.
Click here to RSVP
*The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (Lane and Harding will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions. The conversation is organized and co-sponsored by Little Africa Paris.
On-site information regarding COVID-19: In compliance with French regulations, a pass sanitaire is required for all visitors ages 12+. Visitors ages 6+, staff, and volunteers are required to wear masks on the premises.
