Winter Speaker Series 2021: Books!

The United States is caught in a partisan hyper-conflict, a polarization so intense that societal tensions have metastasized into a dangerous tribalism that seriously threatens U.S. democracy. Unless people can bridge these divisions and forge a new path forward, it will be impossible to work together, maintain a functioning democracy, and solve the country’s pressing policy problems.

$27.00  autographed bookplate, tax and shipping included, 2019, hardcover, 234 pages, Brookings Institution Press

This exhibition catalogue is a generously illustrated and exciting new study of the Victorian era features rarely seen works, provocative essays, and a striking, period-inspired design. The full spectrum of the Victorian avant-garde is in magnificent display in this book that features nearly 150 works drawn from the city of Birmingham’s unparalleled collection.

$48.00  autographed bookplate, tax and shipping included, 2018, hardcover, 280 pages, American Federation of Arts and DelMonico Books•Prestel

In November 1977, The New Yorker published a feature-length biography of artist Romare Bearden by Calvin Tomkins as part of its “Profiles” series. The essay, titled “Profile: Putting Something Over Something Else” (using Bearden’s words to describe the creative process), brought national focus to Bearden, whose rise had seemed meteoric since the late 1960s. The experience of the interview prompted Bearden to launch an autobiographical collection he called Profiles. This landmark volume reassembles and reconsiders Bearden’s Profile series. Beyond providing the opportunity to explore an understudied body of work, the project investigates the roles of narrative and self-presentation for an artist who made a career of creating works based on memory and experience.

$40.00   tax and shipping included, 2020, hardcover, 152 pages, High Museum of Art Atlanta and University of Washington Press

This collection brings together new essays and canonical writings by novelists, poets, historians, critics, and playwrights such as Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, August Wilson, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Kobena Mercer. They contextualize Bearden’s life and career within the history of modern art, examine the influence of jazz and literature on his work, trace his impact on twentieth-century African American culture, and outline his art’s political dimensions. The Reader also includes Bearden’s most important writings, which grant readers insight into his aesthetic values and practices and share his desire to tell what it means to be black in America.

$30.00   tax and shipping included, 2019, soft cover, 424 pages, Duke University Press

Join journalist Libby Copeland as she investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. Copeland explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story.

$25.00  autographed bookplate, tax and shipping included, 2020, hardcover, 304 pages, Abrams Press