Participate in One Maryland One Book

“What if everyone read one book at the same time? When we read a great book, we can’t wait to share the experience and talk about it with others. That’s one of the joys of reading,”—Maryland Humanities. Read along with thousands of your fellow Marylanders this fall with One Maryland One Book, a statewide reading program with a book chosen by MD Humanities to encourage all of Maryland to read together. This year’s memorable read is "Kin: Rooted in Hope” by Carole Boston Weatherford and art by Jeffery Boston Weatherford.

About the Book 

I call their names:
Abram Alice Amey Arianna Antiqua 
I call their names: 
Isaac Jake James Jenny Jim 
Every last one, property of the Lloyds, 
the state’s preeminent enslavers. 
Every last one, with a mind of their own 
and a story that ain’t yet been told. 
Till now.

Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than 300 years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.  

Carole’s poems capture voices ranging from her ancestors to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to the plantation house and land itself that connects them all; Jeffery’s evocative illustrations help carry the story from the first mention of a forebear listed as property in a 1781 ledger to he and his mother’s homegoing trip to Africa in 2016. Shaped by loss, erasure and ultimate reclamation, this is the story of not only Carole and Jeffery’s family, but of countless other Black families in America.  

(Provided by publisher.) 

Join in the conversation 

Discuss Kin: Rooted in Hope with other Marylanders at these events sponsored by Baltimore County Public Library:  

September 

• September 18—Lansdowne Branch hosts Books & Brews at Heavy Seas Taproom, 6:30 p.m.
• September 30—Towson Book Club, 6:30 p.m., Towson Branch 

October 

• October 6—Monday Night Book Club, 6:30 p.m., Pikesville Branch
• October 7—North Point Book Club, 6:30 p.m., North Point Branch
• October 15—Rosedale Book Discussion, 6 p.m., Rosedale Branch  
• October 28—Owings Mills Book Club, 6:30 p.m., Owings Mills Branch 

November 

• November 6—Hereford Book Club, 10 a.m., Hereford Branch
• November 6—Cockeysville Book Club, 6:30 p.m., Cockeysville Branch 

Learn More 

One Maryland One Book is a program of Maryland Humanities and the Maryland Center for the Book, sponsored by The Institute of Museum and Library Services via the Maryland State Library Agency. 

To learn more about One Maryland One Book, visit Maryland Humanities.