Let's discuss "ROMANCE IN MARSEILLE" by CLAUDE MCKAY + dinner & drinks at WILDE

Featured on "Best Books of 2020" lists from publications like The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Vulture, Romance in Marseille is a novel by Claude McKay published posthumously in 2020, 87 years after it was written, as the original editors deemed it too transgressive for its time.

Following the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, sex workers, and political organizers--collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American, step into the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age.

Lafala is a black sailor (partly based on the real-life experiences of Nelson Simeon Dede, a Nigerian sailor McKay had met in Marseille) who becomes wealthy after winning a lawsuit against a shipping line for the mistreatment he experiences as a stowaway. With its scenes of black bodies fighting for pleasure and liberty even when stolen, McKay's novel explores the heritage of slavery amid an unforgiving modern economy.

As usual, after the discussion we'll go to Wilde Bar for dinner, drinks, and conversation. We hope to see you then!