Join us for a celebration of Dr. Kimberly Barrett’s first book, Rethinking Race: A Memoir, at Lake Literary Center on Saturday, November 8 from 11 AM to 1 PM. Enjoy complimentary brunch grazing boards. Mimosas available for purchase.

Rethinking Race: A Memoir was written as an act of compassionate antiracism. The book invites people to better understand their role in fighting racism by calling them into the struggle rather than calling them out. It is the true story of everyday challenges and triumphs that an African-American mother and her husband, who is identified by most as white but is a citizen of an Indigenous tribal nation, encounter as they try to help their son develop a positive multiethnic identity. Rethinking Race illustrates how one person’s thinking evolved from taking race for granted, as an immutable part of our identity, to seeing it as a very impactful illusion. It is a story of how we can move beyond the false dichotomies of black and white, shaming and blaming to better articulate our rich individual uniqueness while acknowledging our common humanity. The book raises the possibility of becoming aracial, not through colorblindness, but rather by examining racism more closely and coming to understand how each of us creates race every day.

Dr. Kimberly Barrett is a writer, consultant and retired, award winning academic. She held administrative positions at universities in the U.S. and Canada, taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels, advised businesses and nonprofit organizations on issues of inclusion and belonging, and served as a columnist and commentator for newspapers and radio. Dr. Barrett has also been active on a variety of boards and community organizations working to promote social justice and the arts.

She enjoys meditation, yoga, knitting, crocheting, long walks, hosting family and friends and simply appreciating the value of a quiet life.