Left Bank Books presents author and VerySmartBrothas co-founder Damon Young, who will sign and discuss his new memoir-in-essays, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker (Ecco, March 2019), with St. Louis American Young Leader Alona Sistrunk on Friday, March 29, 7pm at The Studio at Kranzberg Arts Center (501 N. Grand Blvd.).
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Michael Eric Dyson, author of What Truth Sounds Like, says, “Damon Young is one of the most fearless and important young writers today. A devastatingly funny critique of racism, What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker is a humorous and deep dive into the culture and a life lived in that precarious state we call blackness.” Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy, says, “Damon somehow, someway, made the page bend around my head and heart in a manner I honestly didn’t think the essay or memoir forms were capable of bending.”
Damon Young is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of VerySmartBrothas, a senior editor at The Root, and a columnist for GQ. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera, Slate, Salon, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Complex, EBONY, Essence, USA Today, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Damon Young will discuss What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker with Alona Sistrunk, answer questions, and sign books.
The book signing and discussion for What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 29 at the Kranzberg Arts Center. This event is free and open to the public, but proof of purchase of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker from Left Bank Books will be required to enter the signing line. Books for signing are available from Left Bank Books in advance or at the event. For more information, call 314.367.6731 or visit left-bank.com.
