This event will be streamed online as part of our P&P Live! Series.
Rebecca Carroll discusses her memoir, SURVIVING THE WHITE GAZE, with author Nicole Chung in partnership with The Meteor - a collective.
In Surviving the White Gaze, Rebecca Carroll grew up the only black person in her rural New Hampshire town. Adopted at birth by artistic parents who believed in peace, love, and zero population growth, her early childhood was loving and idyllic—and yet she couldn’t articulate the deep sense of isolation she increasingly felt as she grew older.
Everything changed when she met her birth mother, a young white woman, who consistently undermined Carroll’s sense of her blackness and self-esteem. Carroll’s childhood became harrowing, and her memoir explores the tension between the aching desire for her birth mother’s acceptance, the loyalty she feels toward her adoptive parents, and the search for her racial identity. As an adult, Carroll forged a path from city to city, struggling along the way with difficult boyfriends, depression, eating disorders, and excessive drinking. Ultimately, through the support of her chosen black family, she was able to heal.
Rebecca Carroll is host of the podcast Come Through with Rebecca Carroll, and a cultural critic at WNYC. She is the author of several interview-based books about race and blackness in America, including the award-winning Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls in America.
She'll be in conversation with Nicole Chung, the author of the nationally bestselling memoir All You Can Ever Know. All You Can Ever Know which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, a semifinalist for the PEN Open Book Award, an Indies Choice Honor Book, and an official Junior Library Guild Selection.
The Meteor is guided (and inspired) by our collective: an advisory group of filmmakers, writers, organizers and artists doing great work across the media and arts universe. They are storytellers and solution-seekers, and they work in everything from documentary film to TikTok, but they share a commitment to moving the world forward against injustice. Get to know the initial group of founding members below.
Instead of a set ticket price, we ask that you contribute what you can to support Politics and Prose Bookstore and our virtual event series. We know that everyone has been affected in these trying times, and we will continue to make our programming accessible to all. That said, a suggested contribution of $5, $10, whatever you can afford, will go a long way to keep our programming—and our bookstore—afloat as we are forced to adapt to new ways of business.
The other way you can support us is always by purchasing a book from our website.
We are so grateful to be surrounded by such a loyal and engaged community and we thank you for your support, now and always.
CLICK HERE to join the Live! event.
