Charis welcomes authors Peace Adzo Medie and Gabriel Bump (Everywhere You Don't Belong) for the launch celebration of Medie's His Only Wife.

HIS ONLY WIFE “is a commentary on the value that is placed on marriage in Ghanaian and most African societies (and in many other places in the world),” Medie says. “This emphasis on marriage and its association with womanhood, places a great deal of pressure on young women and causes many to settle for relationships that are often unfulfilling and unhappy.” At its heart, the novel is a story of a young woman coming into her own and finding her voice. It also offers a unique glimpse into a very unconventional marriage, and into life in Ghana. HIS ONLY WIFE “is also a feminist novel,” Medie adds, “but not in a way that might be familiar to many readers. This is because Afi’s path to finding her voice is circuitous and not always empowering.”

In EVERYWHERE YOU DON’T BELONG, Gabriel Bump portrays the life of young Chicago everyman. Claude McKay Love isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s just an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Raised with principles by his civil rights-era grandmother, he tries to escape issues of race when riots consume his neighborhood. But leaving Chicago for college, he discovers he can’t escape his own skin. There is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America.

Peace Adzo Medie is a Ghanaian writer and Senior Lecturer in Gender and International Politics at the University of Bristol in England. Prior to that she was a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana. She has published several short stories, and her book, Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. She holds a PhD in Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in Geography from the University of Ghana. She was born in Liberia.

Gabriel Bump grew up in South Shore, Chicago. His nonfiction and fiction have appeared in Slam magazine, the Huffington Post, Springhouse Journal, and other publications. He was awarded the 2016 Deborah Slosberg Memorial Award for Fiction. He received his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lives in Buffalo, New York. Everywhere You Don’t Belong is his first novel.

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

We will be archiving this event and adding closed captioning as soon as possible after airing so that it will be accessible to deaf and HOH people. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

Celebrating HIS ONLY WIFE--An Evening of Fiction with Peace Adzo Medie And Gabriel Bump