January 2019
Save the Date!
 
Saturday, February 9
at 11:30 a.m.
Cozbi A. Cabrera
My Hair Is a Garden
Kids' Story time

Sunday, February 10
at 7 p.m.
One Book One Northwestern:
The Handmaid's Tale  
Fan Fiction Reading

Thursday, February 14
 at 7 p.m.
Anne Elizabeth Moore
Author Reading

Thursday, February 21
 at 7 p.m.
Dave Cullen 
in conversation with
Heidi Stevens
Author Reading
 & Book Signing
Please note: this event will be held at the Swedish American Museum
(5211 N. Clark St.)

Friday, February 22
at 7 p.m.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
Author Reading 

Sunday, February 24 
at 4 p.m.
Lucy Knisley
Book Launch Party

Weds., February 27
at 7 p.m.
Anissa Gray
Author Reading

Friday, March 1
at 7 p.m.
Jacinda Bulle, 
Jaquanda Villegas, 
Monica Trinida, 
Rain Wilson, 
and Claudia de la Cruz
Fillinz: 
Put Some Respect on It
A Prose Coloring Book Presentation
 
 
 
 

 
  
Family of Women
Book Group 
Sunday, Jan. 6 at 2 p.m.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena 
by Anthony Marra
 
  
Feminist Book Group  
Sunday, Jan. 13 
at 4 p.m.
This Bridge Called My Back edited by Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldua 

 
Teens First
Book Group
Sunday, Jan. 13
at 5 p.m.
Renegades 
by Marissa Meyer 

 
Women's Book Group
Tuesday, Jan. 15 
at 7:30 p.m.
The Song of Achilles 
by Madeline Miller

 
Sunday, Jan. 20 
at 2:30 p.m. 
White Fragility
by Robin Diangelo

 
Monday, Jan. 21 
at 7:15 p.m.
Bastard Out of Carolina
by Dorothy Allison


Sunday, Jan. 27
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Suggested Reading: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Dear Friends of Women & Children First,

Thank you for making 2018 such an incredible year for Women & Children First! Watch this heartwarming Year in Review created for us by Beth Golay to see what we were up to last year. It was also an outstanding year of reading, as reflected in our 2018 Bestseller List. How many books on the list have you read? 

Next year, 2019, marks the
40th Anniversary of Women & Children First! We will be celebrating all year long with special programming, social media posts, and announcements that will honor our history and continue to build our future.

Thank you for making us 40 years strong!

With love & thanks,  

W&CF
W&CF ❤️ Chicago Books to Women in Prison
Donation Drive
January 2 through Friday, February 14   
 
We're kicking off the new year by partnering with one of our favorite non-profits, Chicago Books to Women in Prison. This all-volunteer 501(c)(3) sends paperback books free of charge to incarcerated women nationwide. Women mail in their requests for books, then CBWP volunteers match each request from their stock of donated books. The group is dedicated to offering women who otherwise would have little or no access to books the opportunities for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides. Now through Valentine's Day, stop by Women & Children First and buy a gift card of any denomination that will go to CBWP so that they can provide women in prison the books they actually want to read and request the most.   
TransWorks Poetry Reading
Friday, January 11 at 7 p.m. 
  
Please join us for a poetry reading with Chicago House's TransWorks Mentorship Program, in partnership with Literature for All of Us. This evening of poetry is hosted by Mara Williamson & Niki and features readings by Cassie, Keegan, Casper Hanney, Angel Nordstrom, and Mara Williamson READ MORE

Karina Longworth
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes's Hollywood  
presents Outrage
Screening, Author Talk & Book Signing  
at Chicago Filmmakers,  
5720 N. Ridge
Monday, January 14 at 7 p.m.  
 
Buy Tickets HERE.
 
In the film Outrage, a young woman's life is shattered when she is raped on her way home from work. This black-and-white B movie is notable for being only the second post-Code Hollywood film to deal with the issue of rape. Seduction explores the riveting history of Hollywood's glamorous Golden Age through the stories of actresses pursued by Howard Hughes. Karina Longworth is the creator, producer, and host of You Must Remember This, a podcast on the secret and forgotten history of 20th-century Hollywood.  READ MORE
 
Amy Gentry
in conversation
with Layne Fargo
Last Woman Standing
Author Reading  
Thursday, January 17 at 7 p.m. 
 
When Dana Diaz, an aspiring stand-up comedian, meets tough computer programmer Amanda Dorn, the two bond over their struggles in boys' club professions. Amanda comes up with a plan to go after each other's assailants, but Dana finds that revenge draws her into a more complicated series of betrayals. Amy Gentry is the author of Good as Gone, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. Layne Fargo's forthcoming novel Temper will publish in the summer of 2019. READ MORE
 
Amelia Bonow &
Kaylen Ralph  

Shout Your Abortion
Anthology Reading
Wednesday, January 23 at 7 p.m. 

Join SYA Co-Founder Amelia Bonow and local abortion storytellers to share stories and discuss the power of personal experience as a tool for activism. Amelia Bonow is the founding director of Shout Your Abortion, a nationwide movement working to create places for people to discuss their abortions in art. Kaylen Ralph writes features about politics and policy for the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.  READ MORE
 
Rachel DeWoskin  
Someday We Will Fly

Book Launch Party
Friday, January 25 at 7 p.m.

The year is 1940, and Lillia is fifteen when her mother, Alenka, disappears and her father takes her and her younger sister, Naomi, to Shanghai, one of the few places that will accept Jews without visas. The Americans declare war, and the Japanese force the Americans in Shanghai into camps. Can they survive, caught in the crossfire? Rachel DeWoskin is the author of numerous books, including Foreign Babes in Beijing, Repeat After Me, and Big Girl Small , which received the American Library Association's Alex Award for an adult book with special appeal to teen readers.  READ MORE
 
Am I Man Enough? 
  
A Storytelling Show & Podcast 

Wednesday, January 30 at 7 p.m.

Am I Man Enough? is a storytelling show and podcast featuring folks from all backgrounds sharing personal stories that critically examine the culture of toxic masculinity and the construction of manhood. January's lineup includes Maya Haughton, LeVan D. Hawkins, Himabindu Poroori, Anne Purky, Tony Ho Tran, and Wil Whedbee READ MORE
 
E. Patrick Johnson &   
Jennifer Nash
Black. Queer. Southern. Women. 
Black Feminism Reimagined
Joint Book Launch Party
Thursday, January 31 at 7 p.m. 

E. Patrick Johnson's Black. Queer. Southern. Women. is drawn from the life narratives of more than seventy African American queer Southern women. Black Feminism Reimagined by Jennifer C. Nash outlines how women's studies has elevated intersectionality to the discipline's primary program-building initiative and casts intersectionality as a threat to feminism's coherence. E. Patrick Johnson is the chair of African American Studies at Northwestern University. Jennifer C. Nash is associate professor of African American Studies and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University.  READ MORE
 
Daisy Johnson in conversation with
Laura Adamczyk
Everything Under
Author Reading
Friday, February 1 at 7 p.m. 

Gretel grew up on a houseboat with her mother, wandering the canals of Oxford and speaking a private language of their own invention. Her mother disappeared when Gretel was a teen, but one phone call from her mother is all it takes for the past to come rushing back. Daisy Johnson is the author of the short story collection Fen. Laura Adamczyk's fiction has appeared in Hobartthe Chicago Reader, and PANK. READ MORE
 

Chloe Benjamin in conversation with
Rebecca Makkai
The Immortalists
Paperback Tour
Wednesday, February 6 at 7 p.m. 

It's 1969 in New York City's Lower East Side, and a traveling psychic claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. Four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness sneak out to hear their fortunes. The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice. Chloe Benjamin is the author of The Anatomy of Dreams, which received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award. Rebecca Makkai is the author of numerous books, including The Great Believers READ MORE
 
Ann Russo
Feminist Accountability: Disrupting Violence and Transforming Power
Book Launch Party
Friday, February 8 at 7 p.m. 

In Feminist Accountability noted feminist scholar and activist Ann Russo offers an intersectional analysis of three areas of feminism in practice: anti-racist work, community accountability, and transformative justice. Ann Russo shows us how we might contribute to the feminist work of transforming oppression and violence. Ann Russo is associate professor of Women's and Gender Studies and director of the Women's Center at DePaul University. READ MORE
 
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