The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself by David Mura | Nonfiction
Wednesday, February 15 | 7:00 p.m.
Hamline Midway Library | 1558 West Minnehaha Avenue, Saint Paul
OR
Zoom | REGISTER HERE

About the Book

The police murders of two Black men, Philando Castile and George Floyd, frame this searing exploration of the historical and fictional narratives that white America tells itself to justify and maintain white supremacy. From the country’s founding through the summer of Black Lives Matter in 2020, David Mura unmasks how white stories about race attempt to erase the brutality of the past and underpin systemic racism in the present.

Intertwining history, literature, ethics, and the deeply personal, Mura looks back to foundational narratives of white supremacy to show how white identity is based on shared belief in the pernicious myths, false histories, and racially segregated fictions that allow whites to deny their culpability in past atrocities and current inequities.

About the Author

David Mura is a poet, writer of creative nonfiction and fiction, critic, and playwright. He is author of A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing and the memoirs Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality, and Identity. He is coeditor, with Carolyn Holbrook, of We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (Minnesota, 2021). He lives in Minneapolis.

About the Fireside Reading Series

Great authors by the fireside.

Wednesdays | January 18 – February 22, 2023 | 7:00 p.m.
Free
Hamline Midway Library or via Zoom
thefriends.org/fireside

Six weeks of readings with great writers. Fireside Reading Series, ongoing in partnership with Hamline Midway Library for 29 years, highlights the work of some of Minnesota’s finest writers who have published new work.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund and the generous support of Minnesota United.

Captioning will be provided for all six events. ASL interpretation available upon request.

All Fireside Events

Wednesday, January 18
Maren Cooper, Finding Grace
Fiction

Wednesday, January 25
Antonia Angress, Sirens & Muses
Fiction

Wednesday, February 1
Danny Klecko, The Dead Fitzgeralds
Poetry

Wednesday, February 8
Diane Glancy, Home is the Road
Memoir

Wednesday, February 15
David Mura, The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself
Nonfiction

Wednesday, February 22
Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney and John Coy, Where We Come From
Children’s Picture Book