AAM-Shore Lit Summer Book Club
This summer, Shore Lit and the Academy Art Museum in Easton invite you to participate in an intimate discussion connecting art and literature facilitated by AAM Director Sarah Jesse and Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan. By pairing exhibitions with books that engage similar themes, together we’ll discover the links between the disciplines and examine how artists and writers use their respective languages to communicate ideas. Conversations will take place in the galleries and are capped at twenty participants. Participation is free; registration is required. Books are available in the AAM gift shop.
Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha
Thursday June 22, 7 pm
A collection of the artist’s portraits of Black women, LaToya Hobbs: Woodcuts is on view at AAM through July 23 and explores themes of family, beauty, cultural identity, and sisterhood. Maud Martha, the only novel by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about a young Black girl set in 1940s Chicago. Though separated by decades and media, both artists investigate Black female spaces to explore a rich interiority.
Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha
Thursday June 22, 7 pm
A collection of the artist’s portraits of Black women, LaToya Hobbs: Woodcuts is on view at AAM through July 23 and explores themes of family, beauty, cultural identity, and sisterhood. Maud Martha, the only novel by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about a young Black girl set in 1940s Chicago. Though separated by decades and media, both artists investigate Black female spaces to explore a rich interiority.
Sherman Alexie’s You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Thursday July 13, 7 pm
Artist Will Wilson’s Talking Tintype series, part of the In Praise of Shadows exhibition on view at AAM through July 16, employs a vintage photographic method to depict contemporary Native American people. Spokane writer Sherman Alexie explores his grief for his complicated mother in an experimental memoir composed of numbered segments, poetry, and fractured prose. Both artists reject Native stereotypes by subverting traditional narrative devices.
Thursday July 13, 7 pm
Artist Will Wilson’s Talking Tintype series, part of the In Praise of Shadows exhibition on view at AAM through July 16, employs a vintage photographic method to depict contemporary Native American people. Spokane writer Sherman Alexie explores his grief for his complicated mother in an experimental memoir composed of numbered segments, poetry, and fractured prose. Both artists reject Native stereotypes by subverting traditional narrative devices.
Javier Zamora’s Solito
Thursday August 10, 7 pm
Multidisciplinary artist Hoesy Corona’s Terrestrial Caravan installation, on view at AAM through August 31, focuses on our changing climate and its impact on habitation and migration. Poet Javier Zamora’s memoir captures his own harrowing solo journey from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine. Though Corona’s images are highly fantastic and Zamora’s account is grounded in fact and memory, both artists use lyric imagery to conjure the migrant experience.
Thursday August 10, 7 pm
Multidisciplinary artist Hoesy Corona’s Terrestrial Caravan installation, on view at AAM through August 31, focuses on our changing climate and its impact on habitation and migration. Poet Javier Zamora’s memoir captures his own harrowing solo journey from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine. Though Corona’s images are highly fantastic and Zamora’s account is grounded in fact and memory, both artists use lyric imagery to conjure the migrant experience.
Book Talk: Tania James in Conversation with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan
Friday September 15, 6 pm
Academy Art Museum, Easton
Abbas is just 17 when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of the Sultan and he is commanded to build a life-sized mechanical tiger. But when the tiger is stolen by British forces looting the palace, his fate becomes entwined with the wooden tiger he helped create, mirroring the vicissitudes of colonialism across countries, people, and decades. James will discuss her novel, an NPR “Most Anticipated Book of Summer,” with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan.
Friday September 15, 6 pm
Academy Art Museum, Easton
Abbas is just 17 when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of the Sultan and he is commanded to build a life-sized mechanical tiger. But when the tiger is stolen by British forces looting the palace, his fate becomes entwined with the wooden tiger he helped create, mirroring the vicissitudes of colonialism across countries, people, and decades. James will discuss her novel, an NPR “Most Anticipated Book of Summer,” with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan.
Book Talk: CJ Hauser in Conversation with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan
Friday October 13, 6 pm
Academy Art Museum, Easton
Hauser’s memoir-in-essays brilliantly deconstructs the myths that shape our understanding of desire. Frank and funny, it’s about love, and also, as NY Times columnist Jennifer Senior writes, “about the power of stories: The ones we are told versus the ones we tell ourselves; how they shape and misshape our expectations; how those stories can both affirm our instincts and estrange us from our deepest yearnings, sometimes at the same time.” Hauser will discuss their memoir, a Guardian “Best Book of the Year” and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan.
Friday October 13, 6 pm
Academy Art Museum, Easton
Hauser’s memoir-in-essays brilliantly deconstructs the myths that shape our understanding of desire. Frank and funny, it’s about love, and also, as NY Times columnist Jennifer Senior writes, “about the power of stories: The ones we are told versus the ones we tell ourselves; how they shape and misshape our expectations; how those stories can both affirm our instincts and estrange us from our deepest yearnings, sometimes at the same time.” Hauser will discuss their memoir, a Guardian “Best Book of the Year” and a Lambda Literary Award finalist, with Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan.