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Date: 13.02.2021

Time: 19:45 - 20:30

Location: Youtube

Racism’s heart (digital)

The stricter infection control measures adopted by the Norwegian authorities for the Bergen region from 7-14 February mean that LitFestBergen must cancel all physical events. All ticket purchases for physical events will be refunded. This event will be streamed to YouTube.

Many in the USA regard slavery and the Jim Crow laws – 250 years of brutal discrimination – as primarily African-American rather than white history. Does the rise of Black Lives Matter (BLM) reflect the failure to treat this story as a national trauma? Can BLM change the USA? And how do the issues it raises find expression in literature today?

One anti-racism activist who defends BLM is US young adult author Jason Reynolds.  His million-selling books deal with the daily lives of young black Americans and depict police violence and killings. Reynolds writes rap-inspired books and wants to get boys to read and to provide black Americans with literary role models. Can literature change the USA? Reynolds talks with Nazneen Khan-Østrem about the toxicity of racism and why he believes BLM matters.

 

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