Date: April 15, 2023
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Where: Topeka & Shawnee County Library
Diversity is crucial in assuring that we can understand each other in deeper ways that help keep us humble and open to the fact that the world does not only revolve around our beliefs. It can help develop us into better people, as it increases our understanding of human nature. The importance of diversity itself benefits us in all aspects of our lives. The Topeka (KS) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated are keenly aware that we as African/Americans are often seen as a monolith. That we are all the same. To model Black Diversity for ourselves and others, we have the opportunity to work with Afro-futurist Hurston/Wright award winning author Dr. Rita Woods and many other incredible people.
In The Last Dreamwalker we get to follow a family of incredible Black Women through centuries and across generations. Hurston/Wright Legacy Award-winning author Rita Woods is back with a gripping, contemporary read about power and agency; and the ways trauma and secrets take shape across generations. The Last Dreamwalker tells the story of two women, separated by nearly two centuries yet inextricably linked by the Gullah-Geechee Islands off the coast of South Carolina—and their connection to a mysterious and extraordinary gift passed from generation to generation. In the wake of her mother's passing, Layla Hurley unexpectedly reconnects with her mother's sisters, women she hasn't been allowed to speak to, or of, in years. Her aunts reveal to Layla that a Gullah-Geechee island off the shore of South Carolina now belongs to her. As Layla digs deeper into her mother’s past and the mysterious island’s history, she discovers that the terrifying nightmares that have plagued her throughout her life and tainted her relationship with her mother and all of her family, is actually a power passed down through generations of her Gullah ancestors. She is a Dreamwalker, able to inhabit the dreams of others—and to manipulate them. As Layla uncovers increasingly dark secrets about her family's past, she finds herself thrust into the center of a potentially deadly, decades-old feud fought in the dark corridor of dreams.
More Details to Come!