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Join us at Mechanics' Hall for the release of REMEMBER ME by New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson.
This program is presented in partnership with BACK COVE BOOK and INDIGO ARTS ALLIANCE.

About Remember Us: Inspired by Jacqueline’s own childhood in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood—dubbed “The Matchbox” by the local papers because of the arson fires that consumed it during the ’70s and ’80s—Remember Us is the transcendent story of a coming-of-age summer in young Sage’s life. It’s the summer when Sage is trying to figure out her place in the world of boys and girls, since she’s the only girl who spends her time shooting hoops with the guys. And it’s the summer of Freddy, the new kid with a philosophic outlook on life, the only person Sage feels truly “gets” her.

Together, the friends reckon with the pain of missing the things left behind as time moves on, savor what’s good in the present, and buoy each other up in the face of an uncertain future.

Jacqueline Woodson says, “Remember Us is a book that has been with me for a long time. It’s inspired by a time in my childhood when I really was afraid my whole neighborhood would burn to the ground. Thankfully, it didn’t. But the memory lives with me and is now a part of Sage and Freddy’s story, a story that delves into questions about time, memory, and what we take with us into the future.”

Nancy Paulsen says, “In her inimitable, evocative way, Jacqueline Woodson captures a transformative summer in the life of a twelve-year-old girl as she watches much of her world change, from her friendships to the nature of her beloved neighborhood. Woodson also paints a vivid picture of life in Bushwick, Brooklyn, at one particular point in time, while reminding readers of its many transformations, from the woods of the Lenape people to a home for industry tycoons, to a neighborhood on fire in the 1970s, moving towards a future that was anyone’s guess. This beautiful, lyrical novel will stick with readers who’ve had that one special summer or are on the verge of experiencing it.

Jacqueline Woodson (jacquelinewoodson.com) is the author of more than thirty books for young people and adults including Another Brooklyn, Red At The Bone and The Day You Begin. She received a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2023 E. B. White Award, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award, and was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, won the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, and the NAACP Image Award. Her books for young readers include Coretta Scott King Award and NAACP Image Award winner Before the Ever After, New York Times bestsellers The Day You Begin and Harbor Me, Newbery Honor winners Feathers, Show Way, and After Tupac and D Foster, and Each Kindness. In 2018, she founded BALDWIN FOR THE ARTS (https://baldwinforthearts.org), a residency serving writers, composers, interdisciplinary, and visual artists of the Global Majority. Her most recent novel, Remember Us, is set in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn

Presented in partnership with Back Cove Books & Indigo Arts Alliance

Remember Us: In-person Event with Jacqueline Woodson

Mechanics’ Hall

Remember Us: In-person Event with Jacqueline Woodson

Presented in partnership with Back Cove Books & Indigo Arts Alliance

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