follow us 
Robin DiAngelo, author of the new book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” sits down with Community Equity Partners CEO Erin Trent Johnson and Mic Senior Writer Aaron Morrison to discuss one of the most daunting barriers to true racial equality.
In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of "white fragility". Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
Robin DiAngelo received her PhD in Multicultural Education from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2004. She earned tenure at Westfield State University, where she has taught courses in Multicultural Teaching, Inter-group Dialogue Facilitation, Cultural Diversity & Social Justice, and Anti-Racist Education. Her work on White Fragility has been featured or cited in Salon, NPR, Slate, Alternet, the Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Seattle Times. For over 20 years, DiAngelo has been a consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice, working with a wide-range of organizations including private, non-profit, and governmental. She was recently appointed to co-design the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative Anti-Racism training (with Darlene Flynn).
Erin Trent Johnson is the CEO and principal coach, facilitator, and consultant for Community Equity Partners (CEP) and serves as the Senior Advisor for The Equity Lab. Erin works with organizations in the education, non-profit, government, and tech arenas that are committed to creating equitable and inclusive practices. Erin’s approach to coaching and leadership development helps organization leaders notice, name and disrupt systemic barriers to equity and inclusion within themselves and their organizations. As a coach and facilitator, Erin provides a dynamic learning experience for leaders that fosters personal and professional growth, transforms organizational culture and leads to community impact. Erin has nearly fifteen years of experience and leadership in education, community organizing and community development which has prepared her to support leaders in solving their own problems of equity and community building. "Money is a political construct, a construct of community, a construct of a society, that must be political. And if we do not control this, by definition, political force, because money is a force—it makes the world go round, as we know—if this political force it not controlled democratically, then we do not live in a democracy."
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece at the height of Europe's debt crisis, was at the Appel Salon as part of the TPL's #OnCivilSociety series, to talk about his new book "Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: A Brief History of Capitalism",
In conversation with Ana Serrano, Chair of the Open Democracy Project. 
Writer and activist Ilyasah Shabazz, author of “Betty Before X,” and poet Mahogany L. Browne, author of “Black Girl Magic,” discuss their work with Princess Weekes of The Mary Sue. This conversation is presented in partnership with the Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and the Reading Without Walls Challenge.
About Reading Without Walls: Former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Gene Luen Yang calls us all to READ WITHOUT WALLS, exploring books about characters who look or live differently than you, topics you haven’t discovered, or formats that you haven’t tried. READING WITHOUT WALLS promotes diversity and opens readers’ eyes to new ideas and experiences. In this divided time in our nation’s history, READING WITHOUT WALLS is an inclusive way to spread appreciation and understanding for others — and to learn new and exciting things.
Reading Without Walls is happening now, and anyone can participate — teachers, librarians, book-sellers, and readers. Just find something new and different to read — and let books open up the world around you.
Join us as these writers share their work and discuss the importance of reading a diverse selection of stories. 
Author Weike Wang introduces her new novel “Chemistry” in conversation with writer and critic Maris Kreizman.
Facing a demanding academic curriculum, overbearing parental expectations, and a marriage proposal from her devoted partner, the unnamed narrator of “Chemistry” is facing pressure and scrutiny from all sides. But this overwhelming amount of pressure will launch our flawed and insightful chemist heroine into a path of self discovery and realization. Leaving the familiar plan for the future behind, she tries to find the balance of self sacrifice, true desire, and love in a two year journey that is sure to captivate modern readers.
Weike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in or is forthcoming from Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Journal, Ploughshares, Redivider, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is a 2017 “5 Under 35” honoree of the National Book Foundation.
Maris Kreizman is the creator of Slaughterhouse 90210, a blog and book (Flatiron Books, 2015) that celebrates the intersection of literature and pop culture. She's a writer and critic, as well as a former book editor and, most recently, she was the editorial director of Book of the Month. Cultural critic and New York Times best-selling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay, shares a new anthology.
Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture collects original and previously published essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers (including actors Ally Sheedy and Gabrielle Union), and critics that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, gaslit, insulted, and bullied for speaking out. Searing and heartbreakingly candid, this provocative collection both reflects the world we live in and offers a call to arms insisting that not that bad must no longer be good enough.
