No Wrong Answers: Elias Rodriques and Robin D. G. Kelley

Bookforum is pleased to present the second event in its series "No Wrong Answers" with a conversation between novelist Elias Rodriques and scholar-author Robin D. G. Kelley. As with every "No Wrong Answers" event, there is no moderator, no agenda, and no preconceived notions. Just the opportunity to watch what happens when two great minds come together. The evening is introduced by Bookforum editor Michael Miller, who will also field audience questions.

Elias Rodriques’s highly acclaimed debut novel, All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running (W. W. Norton), is a story of homecoming, friendship, tragedy, and nature set in a history-haunted American South. He is an assistant professor of African American Literature at Sarah Lawrence College. His work has been published in The Guardian, The Nation, Bookforum, n+1 and other venues.

Robin D. G. Kelley is the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at UCLA. His books include Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America; and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. He is currently completing two books, Black Bodies Swinging: An American Postmortem, and The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century (both forthcoming from Metropolitan Books). His essays have appeared in several anthologies and publications, including The Nation, Monthly Review, the New York Times, and Boston Review, for which he also serves as contributing editor.