Events › Radical Reads: Kingdom of No Tomorrow

Radical Reads is an online book club focusing on literature that critiques and challenges current feminist topics. 

Join us for a vibrant discussion of Fabienne Josaphat's Kingdom of No Tomorrow, in which a young Haitian woman in California becomes involved with the Black Panthers and discovers that being part of the revolution may not always mean equal justice for women.

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About the Book:

It's that pivotal year, 1968, and Nettie Boileau, a young Haitian student in Oakland, gets caught up in the ongoing revolutionary fever. With her friend Clia Brown, she uses her public health skills to help operate the free health clinics created by the people she believes are "true revolutionaries," the Black Panthers. When she falls in love with Black Panther Party Defense Captain Melvin Mosley, their passionate love affair soon eclipses all else—her friendship with Clia and even her own sense of self. Pregnant, Nettie follows Melvin to Chicago to help with a newly-launched Illinois chapter of the Panthers, but once there, she finds Chicago segregated, police surveillance brutal, and her faith in love eroding as Melvin becomes unfaithful. 

After a violent tussle with the police and the loss of their unborn child, both Nettie and Melvin are caught in the viciousness of J. Edgar Hoover’s covert campaigns, and Nettie is soon on the run, desperate to find power in her roots and ultimately, to save herself. With richly imagined, relatable characters, Kingdom of No Tomorrow tells a story of Black love, self-determination, and the importance of revolution in the midst of injustice.

"With a poet’s lyrical flair, Josaphat delivers a novel for our times, exploring how individuals in an unjust society can manage both political upheaval and meaningful personal connection, both oppression and intimacy.." - Laura Warrell, The New York Times

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