Let’s Read and Discuss "The Reformatory" by Tananarive Due + Book Swap!!

Join us to discuss "The Reformatory" by Tananarive Due! We are also having a BOOK SWAP starting around 10 AM (see description below for more info).

Gracetown, Florida.

June 1950.

Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens Jr. is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.

Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules, but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.

The Reformatory is a “hallucinatory, haunting, terrifying, and moving” (S.A. Cosby, bestselling author of All the Sinners Bleed) work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel (simonandschuster.com).

Trigger warnings: racism and hate crimes, child abuse, child murder, sexual violence, violence towards animals, institutionalization

In honor of Black History Month, we are highlighting Black author and educator Tananarive Due. Due is an author and professor at UCLA where she teaches a course called "The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival and the Black Horror Aesthetic" which focuses on Jordan Peele's movie "Get Out". She is also known as a film historian with expertise in Black Horror and Afrofuturism. 'The Reformatory' won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, and the World Fantasy Award.

This book is based on real-life events that took place in the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, making this historical horror book have an even greater impact. The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was a state-run reform school in Mariana, Florida from 1900-2011. For a time, it was the largest juvenile reform institution in the US and was known for its "harsh conditions and brutal treatment" (npr.org). Currently, we know of around 81 deaths at the hands of the institution being buried in unmarked graves, with around 50 of those graves being discovered by using "ground-penetrating radar" (guides.lib.usf.edu). The University of South Florida has been working since 2011 to create a multi-disciplinary project to identify the deaths and circumstances surrounding the deaths in a permanent USF Digital Library Collection available to the public.

Further reading:
https://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162941770/floridas-dozier-school-for-boys-a-true-horror-story
https://guides.lib.usf.edu/dozier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_School_for_Boys

We are capping RSVPs at 20 to make sure everyone gets to engage meaningfully. Please update your RSVP accordingly so everyone who wants to is able to attend.

🗓️: Saturday, February 28th
⏰: 11 AM - 1 PM
📍: Qahwah House, 2869 Broadway

BOOK SWAP INFO:
Starting around 10 AM at Qahwah House, we are hosting a book swap. If you have any books collecting dust on your shelves or books you just don't need in your library, bring them and swap with a fellow member! Any genre welcome.