What if the 19th-century secret network that made up the Underground Railroad had been an actual railroad car system, complete with human conductors and a sundry collection of trains that aided the escape of African American slaves to the free states in the North? And what if the passengers aboard were able to choose their destination, selecting from ostensibly modern Southern cities like Charleston or the uneasy racial peace of Tennessee?
These are a few of the clever storylines that comprise the award-winning novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Despite the many slave narratives that circulate in popular American culture, The Underground Railroad is an enlightening adventure tale centered around 14-year-old Cora, a smart and scrappy orphan whose unplanned escape from a Georgia plantation leads her on a dangerous and terrifying journey toward freedom.
This ingenious pre-Civil War portrayal is filled with dynamic, original characters who will pull at the heartstrings, and despite its dark topic, the book manages to remain both uplifting and prophetic as the author weaves together beautiful and terrifying reinterpretations of America’s shameful past.
Whitehead’s 2016 novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, along with receiving other accolades. UW-Milwaukee and Boswell Book Company welcome Whitehead to the UWM Union Ballroom at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31. Admission to this ticketed event is $19 and includes a hardcover copy of The Underground Railroad.
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Book Happening
Poetry Marathon
Since 1994, Milwaukee’s Woodland Pattern Book Center (720 E. Locust St.) has been hosting an annual daylong poetry extravaganza, and this Saturday, Jan. 27, performers and patrons of the arts will join together for their annual “Poetry Marathon and Benefit.” Among the dozens of poets and writers who will be performing live at Woodland Pattern (from 11a.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday), the bookstore will feature a reading by current Milwaukee poet laureate Roberto Harrison at 6 p.m., and the 2015-2016 Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Kimberly Blaeser, will read during the 7 p.m. hour. Sign up to pledge your support or view the full line-up of artists at woodlandpattern.org.
