Griot African-American Book Discussion

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

We read books by African-American authors and meet in person & virtually via Zoom on the third Tuesday of the month for discussion. July's selection: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Meeting location change beginning in July 2025! Due to Eola Road Branch renovations, the Griot Book Discussion will meet in person at the Santori Library, 3rd floor Quiet Reading Room until further notice.

Attend in person at Santori Library or virtually via Zoom. Print copies of the book are available for checkout at the Eola Road Branch Adult Reference Desk on the 2nd floor and at the Santori Library, 3rd floor. Email group facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org for more information.

Join us virtually here.

Book description:

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated?neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town’s white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us. (publisher description)

I acknowledge my participation (or my child’s participation) in this virtual program includes the recording of this program which may include my name as listed on my account, images and/or video footage. I grant the Aurora Public Library District my permission to use the photographs and/or video footage for any legal use, including but not limited to: publicity, copyright purposes, illustration, advertising, and web content.   
  
Furthermore, I understand that no royalty, fee or other compensation shall become payable to me by reason of such use. 

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