Mocha Girls Read - Harlem

https://luma.com/dmf63e70

About Event
​On Monday June 1, join us for a huge outdoor reading party on the iconic Bryant Park lawn!

​The Reading Room has officially opened, and to celebrate Bryant Park is hosting its first ever reading party on the lawn in partnership with Reading Rhythms. "Read on the Lawn Day" kicks off this year’s literary lineup of free weekly events that include lunchtime author panels, poetry readings, writing workshops, and quiet reading sessions. The open-air Reading Room also offers daily visitors a curated selection of free-to-read books, newspapers, and magazines.

​​Bring a picnic blanket, a friend, and whatever you're reading, then get comfy. We'll open with reading sessions on the lawn set to ambient music, and weave in lively book discussions among the readers around you. It's a celebration of everything the Reading Room stands for: a shared love of books, an open-air space in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, and an evening you'll want to come back for. Pre-registration recommended.

​​ABOUT READING RHYTHMS: Reading Rhythms is a series of welcoming reading parties designed to make it easy for people to gather and read socially. We invite you to bring any book you want. The party host will facilitate silent reading periods, as well as 1-on-1 breakouts and group discussions.

​​In a world that can often feel devoid of interest and meaningful connection, we bring readers together to reconnect with our love of learning, to experience the wonder of beautiful venues and curated music, and to gather amongst all of the people who want to be in that very same room.

​ABOUT BRYANT PARK: Bryant Park Corporation (BPC), a private not-for-profit company, was founded in 1980 to renovate, finance, and operate Bryant Park in New York City. In addition to providing security, sanitation, and horticultural services, BPC offers restaurants, food kiosks, world-class restrooms, and a wide range of free events throughout the year. The Midtown Manhattan park is visited by more than 20 million people each year and is one of the busiest public spaces in the world. The Bryant Park Reading Room was first established in 1935 by the New York Public Library as a refuge for the thousands of unemployed New Yorkers during the Great Depression. Reopened in 2003, the Reading Room hosts nearly a hundred literary events each season. Visit bryantpark.org for more information and a calendar of events.

​Our favorite conversations happen in the Reading Rhythms mobile app. Join us there → https://readingrhythms.app___________________________________________________________________
​​Disclaimer: By purchasing a ticket, you agree to have your photo/video used for social media/marketing materials, both as property of Reading Rhythms and other publications that may be present at our reading parties. Additionally, your purchase is final and no refunds will be given under any circumstances. By completing your purchase, you will also be automatically added to the Bryant Park Reading Room and Reading Rhythms newsletters to receive updates and event information.

REMEMBER:
Support a Black-owned Bookstore called RESIST BOOKSELLERS and get 15% off when you use the code MGR22.

About the Book:
White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting psychological thriller from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars in the world of literary fiction. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice from a masterfully crafted unreliable narrator, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

About the Author:
Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times bestselling and Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of Babel, the Poppy War trilogy, and the forthcoming Yellowface. She is a Marshall Scholar, translator, and has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.