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The Ottawa Public Library hosts its Freedom to Read Week. This annual event allows Canadians to discuss book challenges, censorship, representation in literature, intellectual freedom, access to information, and the literary community’s and library’s role.
This year’s event features renowned author Lawrence Hill discussing his lifelong literary passion for dramatizing neglected corners of Black history in Canada. He will explore
The challenges of censorship that he and other writers have faced,
Share thoughts about the title change of The Book of Negroes in the United States as well as the burning of images of The Book of Negroes in the Netherlands.
How increasing opposition to the use of the N-word in literature affects Black writers and all readers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LAWRENCE HILL is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the internationally bestselling The Book of Negroes and The Illegal. His latest novel is Beatrice and Croc Harry. He has received the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Canada Reads (twice), a Canadian Screen Award, ten honorary doctorates, and is a member of the Order of Canada.
Hill has volunteered with Crossroads International, The Black Loyalist Heritage Society, The Ontario Black History Society, and in federal prisons. Hill is writing a novel about the African-American soldiers who built the Alaska Highway in British Columbia and Yukon during World War Two.
Event’s Website/Socials
Where
Chamber- Ben Franklin Place 101 Centrepointe Drive, 101 Centrepointe Drive Ottawa, ON K2G 5K7
When
February 23rd, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Admission
Free. Reserve your spot here
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