July Book & Film Discussion: The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
In the July SDARJ Book & Film Discussion we’ll be featuring the book & mini-series:
The Women of Brewster Place
by Gloria Naylor
About the book
A 1982 National Book Award-winning novel by Gloria Naylor that follows the lives of seven Black women living in a deteriorating housing project.
About the mini-series
The two-part series, based on Gloria Naylor’s novel, is a drama focusing on seven women who live in a tenement building on a walled-off street named Brewster Place. Each in her own way struggles to overcome the hardships of poverty and the disappointments of shattered dreams.
It was a television miniseries broadcast on March 19 and 20, 1989 on ABC. The miniseries is based upon the critically acclaimed 1982 novel of the same name by Gloria Naylor. It was produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions with a teleplay by Karen Hall. The show’s theme song was performed by American R&B singer Vesta Williams, who performed both the opening and closing credits.
The miniseries stars an ensemble cast of African-American actors and actresses such as Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Jackée Harry, Robin Givens, Lynn Whitfield, Paula Kelly, Lonette McKee, Paul Winfield, Mary Alice, Olivia Cole, Moses Gunn, William Allen Young, and Larenz Tate.
In 1990, it was adapted into a weekly series entitled Brewster Place.
Read more on Wikipedia
Watch it on Prime
Watch it on Apple TV+
Founder, Dr. Aimee Wiest.
Hosted by Lewes Public Library
Please register to attend *either* In-Person or Online. You will receive a confirmation email within minutes of registering. If you do not receive an email from LibCal, check your spam filter. Or you call the library (302-645-2733) during business hours (M – Th from 10 AM to 2 PM, F from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sat from 10 AM to 2 PM) and ask a staff person to check on your registration. DO NOT register again.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The National Book Award-winning novel—and contemporary classic—that launched the brilliant career of Gloria Naylor, now with a foreword by Tayari Jones
“[A] shrewd and lyrical portrayal of many of the realities of black life . . . Naylor bravely risks sentimentality and melodrama to write her compassion and outrage large, and she pulls it off triumphantly.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Brims with inventiveness—and relevance.” —NPR’s Fresh Air
In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak-inner city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and openhearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Naylor renders both loving and painful human experiences with simple eloquence and uncommon intuition in this touching and unforgettable read.
Source: Browseabout Books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gloria Naylor (1950-2016) grew up in New York City. She received her BA in English from Brooklyn College and her MA in Afro-American Studies from Yale University. Her first novel, The Women of Brewster Place, won the National Book Award for first fiction in 1983. She is also the author of Linden Hills (available from Penguin), Mama Day, Bailey’s Cafe, and The Men of Brewster Place.
Tayari Jones (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of An American Marriage, which was an Oprah’s Book Club Selection and a favorite of Barack Obama, as well as Silver Sparrow, The Untelling, and Leaving Atlanta. She is a professor-at-large at Cornell University and a professor of creative writing at Emory University.
Source: Browseabout Books
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