Books Sandwiched In series returns to USCB Center For The Arts

From staff reports

The 2024 Books Sandwiched In Series, presented by Friends of the Beaufort Library, returns Monday, Jan. 22 from noon to 1 p.m. at the at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts. The series runs through Wednesday, March 13.

Each week a community leader will discuss a book that has had an impact on them, followed by a rich discussion and a question-and-answer session about the book.

Here is the complete schedule:

January 22 – Namjah Thomas, Ph.D., tenured Associate Professor of Human Services and African American Studies at USCB and a daughter of the Gullah Geechee community of St. Helena, presents Island Queen by Vanessa Riley. This novel is a sweeping epic of an adventurer and a survivor who answered to no one but herself as she rose to power and autonomy against all odds, defying rigid 18th-century morality and the oppression of women as well as people of color.
January 29 – Jane Frederick, a principal at Frederick + Frederick Architects, a Fellow at the American Institute of Architects and the first woman to receive The Medal of Distinction from AIA SC, presents Eyes on The Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel. The first major biography of the irrepressible woman who changed the way we view and live in cities, and whose influence is felt to this day.
February 5 – Grace Cordial, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Beaufort District Collection, the special collections library and archives unit of the Beaufort County Library presents Hurricane Jim Crow by Dr. Caroline Grego. This narrative history of the deadly natural disaster of 1893 uncovers how Black workers and politicians, white landowners and former enslavers, northern interlocutors and humanitarians all met on the flooded ground of the coast and fought to realize very different visions for the region’s future.
February 12 – Kristin Williams, Executive Director at the Open Land Trust and previously Executive Director of Friends of the Environment, a conservation organization situated in Abaco, Bahamas where she is from, presents Wind From The Carolinas by Robert Wilder. This is a novel of an aristocratic Tory clan who fled the South in the wake of the American Revolution to rebuild their baronial plantations and recapture their lost fortune in the turbulent, windswept Bahamas Islands.
February 19 – Barney Forsythe, Ph.D., Brig. Gen., U.S. Army (retired), with extensive experience in leadership development and education, presents Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule. In a unique blend of history and reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the Confederacy and challenges the myths and lies of the Confederate legacy.
February 26 – Marie Gibbs, Ph.D., a retired educator who has spent more than 34 years teaching the children of St. Helena Island and Beaufort County and manager of the Penn Center Museum, presents Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. A first for Books Sandwiched In, this children’s book is a real-life, classic story of a dyslexic girl and the teacher who would not let her fail.
March 4 – Brian Canada, Ph.D., Professor of Computational Science and Chair of the Department of Computer Science & Mathematics at USCB, presents 88 Names by Matt Ruff. This novel is a thrilling and immersive virtual reality epic – part cyberthriller, part twisted romantic comedy – that transports you to a world where identity is fluid and nothing can be taken at face value.
March 13 – Bill Love, Executive Director of Beaufort County Department of Disabilities and Special Needs (DSN) and previous Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections presents Until We Reckon by Danielle Sered. Critically, Sered argues that the reckoning owed is not only on the part of those who have committed violence, but also by our nation’s over-reliance on incarceration to produce safety – at great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy.