Khary Lazarre-White in a pairing with Reif Larsen for an event at NYS Museum.
Presentation/Q&A – 7:30 p.m., Huxley Theatre, NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center, Downtown Albany
Khary Lazarre-White, author, activist and attorney, is the cofounder of The Brotherhood /Sister Sol (Bro/Sis), a nationally renowned, Harlem-based youth services organization. His first novel is Passage (2018), the story of Warrior, a young man navigating the snowy winter streets of Harlem and Brooklyn in 1993. Susan Taylor, editor-in-chief of Essence, called it, “a gripping, relentless dive into the inner life of a young, African American male.” Oprah Winfrey said, “Khary is using his passion to uplift and inspire a next generation...,” and presented him with the Oprah Winfrey Angels’ Network “Use Your Life” Award.
Reif Larsen’s first novel was The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet (2009), a New York Times bestseller that has been translated into 27 languages. The story of a 12-year-old boy genius and his train trip across America, the book was a finalist for the IndieBound Award, and was shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award and James Tait Black Memorial Prize. French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) adapted it as a prize-winning film in 2013. Larsen’s second novel, I Am Radar (2016), tells the tale of a black-skinned boy with magical powers born to stunned white parents in New Jersey in the 1970s. The L. A. Times called it, “Big, beautiful, ambitious… addictive and enchanting.”
Cosponsored by the State Education Department’s Office of Cultural Education and Friends of the New York State Library.