Pen to Palette Book Discussion with Toledo Museum of Art

Black Folk by Blair Kelley

Interested in the intersections of art and prose? Read a book, then meet in-person for a personalized tour featuring objects, arts and cultures from our chosen book.

Black Folk by Blair Kelley

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There have been countless books, articles, and televised reports in recent years about the almost mythic "white working class," a tide of commentary that has obscured the labor, and even the very existence, of entire groups of working people, including everyday Black workers. In this brilliant corrective, Black Folk, acclaimed historian Blair LM Kelley restores the Black working class to the center of the American story. Spanning two hundred years--from one of Kelley's earliest known ancestors, an enslaved blacksmith, to the essential workers of the COVID-19 pandemic-- this book highlights the lives of the laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, and postal workers who established the Black working class as a force in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This book club meeting will occur at the Toledo Museum of Art, located at 2445 Monroe St, Toledo, OH 43620.

Please meet in the Herrick Lobby on the lower level of the museum. Admission to the Museum is free. However, parking and exhibition ticket rates may apply.