Celebrating the depth and diversity of BC publishing
On Wednesday, April 19th at 7pm, join Massy Arts Society, Massy Books and the Beaumont Studios for Speaking the Unspeakable: Black Migration, Living Transformations, an evening of conversation in celebration of Suzette Mayr’s new award-winning book The Sleeping Car Porter.
A thrilling, visceral novel that explores labour, desire and memory, The Sleeping Car Porter highlights an often overlooked part of the past through the perspective of a queer Black man. In conversation with Wayde Compton, author of The Blue Road, the two will speak on the topic of unspeakable histories – unspeakable in how racism in the razing of Hogan’s Alley is guised under “urban renewal” and in the ways Black queerness is untold and hidden from our past. This illuminating evening, moderated by poet and spoken word artist, Brandon Wint with a musical opening by Khari Wendell McClelland, invites us to consider invisibility/visibility and to re-examine what has been forgotten.
This project has been made possible by the Government of Canada. Ce projet a été rendu possible grâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Header Image Credit: Library and Archives Canada (PA-212572). From left to right: Shirley Jackson, Pete Stevens, Harry Gairey and Jimmy Downes.
Tickets
Tickets for this event are $15. There are also tickets at $10 available for Indigenous, Black, queer, disabled and community members with intersections that typically exclude them from accessing literary events.