May 2022: Find Out What's Happening at Your Local Feminist Bookstore!

May 2022

Dear Friends of Women & Children First,

After more than two years restricted to virtual gatherings, what a joy to have our first in-person events in April! Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate America, Goddam by Treva B. Lindsey and Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones. It meant so much to us to share space for two of our favorite books of the season. Our events calendar continues to be a combination of virtual and in-person, so be sure to note which is which when planning your month.

We can't wait to see you this THIS SATURDAY (April 30 for Independent Bookstore Day! Join the Chicagoland Indie Bookstore Crawl and check out what's happening at W&CF and the other 38 participating indie bookstores!

Be sure to follow us on Instagram @wcfbook for store updates, like our announcement about our new Subscription Service. You still have until May 15 to subscribe for our Poetry Box.

Thanks so much for supporting your local feminist bookstore!

All our love,

W&CF

W&CF Mask Policy

We continue to require masks for in-store shoppers! Thank you for supporting the immuno-compromised and those unable or too young to be vaccinated.

SUPPORT OUR TEACHERS

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up (May 2-6), and we want to show our appreciation for the Chicago Public School teachers in our community, but we need YOUR help! To show our gratitude for their ongoing hard work, we are collecting contributions HERE to fulfill teacher's classroom library wish lists. Also, stay tuned to our social media channels so you can nominate a teacher you appreciate during the first week of May.

May 2022 Events

This month, some of our events are virtual, and some are in-person. Make sure to note which is which when creating your calendar for the month. And remember you can watch past events on our YouTube Channel!

Wednesday, April 27 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Conversation: Lauren Rankin & Mikki Kendall

A powerfully empathetic and impeccably researched look at abortion clinic escorting, which Rebecca Traister (New York Times-bestselling author of Good and Mad) calls “one of the most under-covered and crucial, lifesaving, rigorous forms of activism out there."

Abortion has been legal for nearly fifty years in the United States, but with a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court and an emboldened opposition in the street, the threat to its existence has never been more pressing. Clinic escorts—everyday volunteers—are prepared to stand up and protect abortion access, as they have for decades, even in the face of terrorism and violence. They have lived, and sometimes died, to ensure that abortion remains not only accessible but also a basic human right. Clinic escorts have fought the “abortion wars” on the front lines, and it is clinic escorts who will win it, by replacing hostility with humanity.

Collecting the stories of these brave volunteers from around the country—including the author’s own—interviews with clinic staff and patients, and research and input from abortion rights experts, Bodies on the Line makes a clear case for the right to an abortion as a fundamental part of human dignity, and the stakes facing us all if it ends. Bodies on the Line is a celebration of the crucial, often unsung heroes of abortion access and an inspiring call to defend this basic health care before it’s too late.

Independent Bookstore Day and Bookstore Crawl!

Saturday, April 30

It’s back! Yet again, Chicagoland proves itself to be the dream destination for book lovers and readers of all ages! Nearly 40 independent bookstores in the greater Chicago area—from Lake Forest to Homewood, and Naperville to the Loop—are collaborating on Indie Bookstore Day to bring you this year’s #ChiLoveBooks Crawl. The Crawl encourages book lovers to indulge in bookstore tourism by visiting 10, 15, or more(!!) stores in a single day.

Wednesday, May 4 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Event: Joanne Greenberg & Esmé Weijun Wang

Join us for a virtual conversation celebrating the re-release of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg. For this event, Greenberg will be in conversation with Esmé Weijun Wang.

The multimillion-copy bestselling modern classic of autobiographical fiction about a young woman’s struggle with mental health, featuring a new foreword by Esmé Weijun Wang, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Collected Schizophrenias, and a new afterword by the author.

After making an attempt on her own life, sixteen-year-old Deborah Blau is diagnosed with schizophrenia. With the reluctant and fearful consent of her parents, she enters a psychiatric hospital many hours from her home in suburban Chicago. Here she will spend the next three years, trying, with the help of a gifted psychiatrist, to find a path back to her “normal” life, and to emerge from the imaginary Kingdom of Yr in which she has sought refuge.

Wed, May 4, 2022 7:00 PM CST

George Saunders in Conversation with Audrey Niffenegger

Tickets

We're partnering with some of our favorite Chicagoland indie bookstores to host a virtual conversation between internationally acclaimed authors George Saunders and Audrey Niffenegger about George’s newest book—just released in paperback—A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life. Awarded the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University for the past 20 years.

Thursday, May 5 at 12 PM CT

Virtual Event:

RAVE by Jessica Campbell hosted by Drawn & Quarterly

We're thrilled to co-host this virtual event celebrating the release of RAVE by Jessica Campbell. This event will be held via Zoom Webinar as part of the Drawn & Quarterly Live Series. Campbell will be in conversation with Nicole Georges.

A queer coming-of-age story, complete with secret cigarettes, gross gym teachers, and a lot of church.

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Poetry Reading: THRESH & HOLD

by Marlanda Dekine

Marlanda Dekine's debut collection is a holy, radical unlearning and reclamation of self. What does it mean to be a Gullah-Geechee descendant from a rural place where a third of the nation's founding wealth was harvested by trafficked West and Central Africans? Dekine's poems travel across age and time, signaling that both the past and future exist in the present. Through erasure and persona, Dekine reimagines and calls to task the Works Progress Administration narratives, modern-day museums, and intergenerational traumas.

Beyond gospel music, fear, and the stories of generations past, Thresh & Hold offers magic, healing, and innovative pathways to manifest intimacy. Dekine remembers, remakes, and brings forth their many selves, traveling far in order to deeply connect to a spiritual home within and all around them, calling: "I am listening to Spirit. I am not dying today."

Marlanda Dekine is a poet and author obsessed with ancestry, memory, and the process of staying within one's own body. Their work leaves spells and incantations for others to follow for themselves. Dekine is the author of the self-published collection and mixtape, i am from a punch & a kiss (2017). Their poems have been published or are forthcoming in the Poetry Out Loud Anthology, Poetry Magazine, Emergence Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Oxford American, and elsewhere. Dekine is a Tin House Own Path Scholar and the winner of the 2021 New Southern Voices Poetry Prize. They live in South Carolina with their wise dog, Malachi.

Sunday, May 15 at 5:30 p.m. CT

Virtual Book Launch: OVERBOARD by Sara Paretsky

As part of the American Writers Festival, Sara Paretsky will be launching Overboard, the latest installment in her beloved VI Warshawski series! For this event, Paretsky will be in conversation with Donna Seaman. Women & Children First will be on-site selling Sara's books. All books will be pre-signed, but Sara will personalize books during a book-signing after the reading and conversation.

On her way home from an all-night surveillance job, V.I. Warshawski is led by her dogs on a mad chase that ends when they discover a badly injured teen hiding in the rocks along Lake Michigan. The girl only regains consciousness long enough to utter one enigmatic word. V.I. helps bring her to a hospital, but not long after, she vanishes before anyone can discover her identity. As V.I. attempts to find her, the detective uncovers an ugly consortium of Chicago powerbrokers and mobsters who are prepared to kill the girl. And now V.I.’s own life is in jeopardy as well.

Sun, May 15, 2022 7:00 PM CST

Asking Bear with Special Guest Captain Awkward

Tickets

Join us for a virtual edition of Asking Bear, S. Bear Bergman's popular advice column live! For this event, Bear will be in conversation with Captain Awkward, AKA Jennifer Peepas!

Asking Bear Live! is delightful to experience, but difficult to describe: it’s a live advice show where storytelling, advising, and common sense with a queer twist. Building on Bear’s popular advice column, Asking Bear (askingbear.com) and his acclaimed new book, Special Topics in Being Human, Bear will take your questions on all matters from the sacred to the profane and give his opinion on how you should proceed. Funny, tender, and surprisingly helpful, Asking Bear Live! is a fun and novel way to place your difficult conundrums into the caring and capable hands of one of Canada’s beloved advice givers.

Thursday, May 18 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Poetry Reading: THE HURTING KIND by Ada Limón

Please join us in celebrating the release of The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón! For this poetry reading and conversation, Limón will be joined by Rebecca Lindenberg. This virtual event will take place on our Crowdcast channel. Register for the event at the link below.

Ada Limón is the author of The Hurting Kind, as well as five other collections of poems. These include, most recently, The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, and Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award.

Mon, May 23, 2022 6:00 PM CST

In-person Conversation: Dorothy Roberts & Eve L. Ewing

Women & Children First, Chicago

Tickets

Join us for an in-person reading, conversation, and book-signing in honor of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts. For this event, Roberts will be in conversation with Eve L. Ewing.

Please note, proof of vaccination and masks are required for entrance to this event.

Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities.

Tuesday, May 24 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual: ESSENTIAL LABOR by Angela Garbes

Join us for a virtual conversation celebrating the release of Essential Labor: Mothering As Social Change by Angela Garbes. For this event, Garbes will be in conversation with Dani McClain.

From the acclaimed author of Like a Mother comes a reflection on the state of caregiving in America and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change. The Covid-19 pandemic shed fresh light on a long-overlooked truth: mothering is among the only essential work humans do. In response to the increasing weight placed on mothers and caregivers—and the lack of a social safety net to support them—writer Angela Garbes found herself pondering a vital question: How, under our current circumstances that leave us lonely, exhausted, and financially strained, might we demand more from American family life?

Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Conversation: Sarai Walker & Gina Frangello

Join us for a virtual conversation celebrating the release of The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker. For this event, Walker will be in conversation with Gina Frangello.

The highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her “slyly subversive” (EW) cult-hit Dietland—a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up.

New Mexico, 2017: Sylvia Wren is one of the most important American artists of the past century. Known as a recluse, she avoids all public appearances. There’s a reason: she’s living under an assumed identity, having outrun a tragic past. But when a hungry journalist starts chasing her story, she’s confronted with whom she once was: Iris Chapel.

Connecticut, 1950: Iris Chapel is the second youngest of six sisters, all heiresses to a firearms fortune. They’ve grown up cloistered in a palatial Victorian house, mostly neglected by their distant father and troubled mother, who believes that their house is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons. The girls long to escape, and for most of them, the only way out is marriage. But not long after the first Chapel sister walks down the aisle, she dies of mysterious causes, a tragedy that repeats with the second, leaving the rest to navigate the wreckage, to heart-wrenching consequences.

Tuesday, May 31 at 7 p.m. CT

Virtual Event: THE DISORDERED COSMOS by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Join us for a virtual conversation celebrating the release of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. For this event, Prescod-Weinstein will be in conversation with Moya Bailey.

InThe Disordered Cosmos, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics, from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter—along with a perspective informed by history, politics, and the wisdom of Star Trek.

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is also one of fewer than one hundred Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly nontraditional, and grounded in Black and queer feminist lineages.