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Griot African-American Book Discussion (In-person or Zoom)

All That She Carried by Tiya Miles

The Griot Book Discussion features books by African-American authors. Meets in-person or via Zoom on the third Tuesday of the month. February's selection: All That She Carried by Tiya Miles.

Monthly book discussion featuring works by African-American authors. You now have the option to attend in-person or on Zoom! Please register and choose your attendance option. Print copies of the book are available for checkout at the Eola Road Branch Adult Reference Desk on the 2nd floor. Email group facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org for more information.

Book description: All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language.  Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women’s faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today. 

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