One Book Baltimore will host tomorrow at 10 a.m. virtual community conversations between 300 middle schoolers and award-winning authors, including locals D. Watkins and Wes Moore, around the topics of social unrest, crime, inequality, and racial violence.
One Book Baltimore assigns one book each year to 7th and 8th graders (this year D. Watkins’ We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America), and offers opportunities for the students, their families, and community members to connect through literature and shared experiences by reading the book.
2020 marked the third year of the One Book Baltimore book selection and tomorrow all the authors will participate in the panel discussion. The authors of the One Book selections include New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone (2018, Dear Martin); National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Jason Reynolds (2019, Long Way Down); and Baltimore’s own D. Watkins. Wes Moore, CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation and a best-selling writer, will also join the conversation.
The books so far have focused on issues of gun violence and the challenges that many city students face in Baltimore. Since its inception in 2018, approximately 30,000 Baltimore City students have read One Book Baltimore selections and taken part in a variety of events and discussions related to the books and their themes.
