The UT Humanities Center and Union Ave Books will host a free Public Books Circle meeting today beginning at 7 pm. The topic of discussion is The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.
Public Books Circle meets online twice a month and is free and open to the public. Each session is led by a UT professor, and everyone is welcome to add their voice to the discussion. Register for the book discussion meeting by clicking on this registration link.
Here’s what UT says about the book: In 1773, a young, African American woman named Phillis Wheatley published a book of poetry that challenged Western prejudices about African and female persons. Based on fifteen years of archival research, The Age of Phillis imagines the life and times of Wheatley: her childhood in the Gambia, West Africa, her life with her white American owners, her friendship with Obour Tanner, and her marriage to the enigmatic John Peters. Woven throughout are poems about Wheatley’s “age”—the era that encompassed political, philosophical, and religious upheaval, as well as the transatlantic slave trade. In verse, we see Wheatley as not simply a racial or literary symbol, but a human being who lived and loved while making her indelible mark on history.