Feb. 5 ~ Horace Mungin (Notes from 1619: A Poetic 400-Year Reflection) at Hot Fish Club
A writer and poet, born in South Carolina and raised in New York City, Horace Mungin has published two collections of poetry and several other books. He was a paratrooper with the 82nd airborne division and attended college at Fordham University in NYC. Mungin’s brave attempt to fight against the multiple manifestations of injustice imposed by the conscious erasure of African American history is in keeping with the best of contemporary African American literature. Like Daniel Black in his poetic and powerful novel, which deftly imagines the horrors of the Middle Passage, Mungin takes us back to the Cape Coast of Africa and tells the story of Khadija, “born to a time of trouble,” who was captured, imprisoned and carried on the last known slave ship, Clotilda “to look upon the world/That dark day of the/Darkest days in America.” And so it begins, the narrative journey that sweeps through these poems describing the African experience in America, “in this vacuum where there is no God.” In the pivotal poem “America,” Mungin lays it all out for us, echoing Langston Hughes’s famous poem: “Let’s start at the beginning – America/ Has never been America…..It was a mirage from the very/ Beginning – maybe even a deception, a hoax/A Myth and an elegantly grand dishonesty.” From the “hocus pocus” of the ways in which the Constitution did not apply to black people, to the failures of Reconstruction and all that follows, Mungin weaves our history together until the present day. This is a narrative we’ve never heard told in quite this way, and it provides a context and an understanding long missing from our national conversation.
Feb. 12 ~ Kathryn Smith and Kelly Durham (FDR’s Convention Conspiracy, A Missy LeHand Mystery) at Ocean One, Litchfield
When Presidential Secretary Missy LeHand receives a bombshell photo and attached note in the mail revealing the full nature of FDR’s disability, she knows trouble is brewing. And then another picture with the same message arrives, and another. With the Democratic National Convention just days away, President Roosevelt calls in FBI Special Agent Corey Wainwright to help with the investigation. Meanwhile, Hollywood reporter Joan Roswell has a new boss, a charismatic media mogul who sends her to Washington to procure an interview with the President about the exact nature of his disability. Are the two related? And what’s the end game here? Kathryn Smith and Kelly Durham deliver again – with a little help from Bette Davis – in this history-spiced mystery, their fourth in the Miss LeHand mystery series. You’ll remember Kathryn from prior Moveable Feasts featuring her biographies of Marguerite LeHand and Gertrude Legendre. *Feb. 19 ~ Susan Meissner (The Nature of Fragile Things) at Kimbel’s, Wachesaw ($58 incl. book) A mail-order bride desperate to get out of New York marries a mysterious San Francisco widower whose 5-year-old child does not speak, but her hastily cobbled-together happiness is forever changed by a massive earthquake that shakes up everything… 1905 – Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so anxious to get out of a Lower Manhattan tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right. Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything she once loved. The fates of these three women intertwine on the eve of the devastating earthquake, thrusting them onto a perilous journey that will test their resiliency and resolve and, ultimately, their belief that love can overcome fear. Here is a novel about the bonds of friendship and mother love, and the power of female solidarity…
Feb. 26 ~ Carl DiLorenzo (How to Keep Your Faith) at Caffe Piccolo
Written for his children and grandchildren to prevent them from experiencing the confusion he felt about his own father’s religious beliefs, DiLorenzo’s memoir How to Keep Your Faith, When all Around You are Losing Theirs, is an honest recollection of his childhood growing up as an Italian and Catholic kid in a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. Documenting the hilarious and tragic events that made him believe in God one minute and doubt His existence the next, he examines the people and events that helped shape his faith and the valuable lessons learned from those on his block who were of different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
For 3 years, the Moveable Feast has been held at area restaurants throughout the year on Fridays (and some Tuesdays), 11 AM-1 PM. During the Covid-19 re-opening, we will be observing several precautions: half-capacity at the restaurants, social distancing, as well as masks required on entrance and through the author’s presentation and book signing. The presentation precedes the meal. For each feast, the chef prepares an exquisite menu, typically unavailable during the restaurant’s public hours. (Food allergies are accommodated with advance notice. Also, if you observe Lent, we need to know in advance.) Individuals, couples, friends, book clubs and other small groups are assigned table seating in fours and sixes. Most Feasts are $30, with books available for purchase and signing at the event. *Exceptions are noted when the book is included in the ticket. For reservations, 843.235.9600 or visit ClassAtPawleys.com.