Oct
5
11:00pm
Wendy Sanford with Brian Corr, These Walls Between Us
By Porter Square Books
Join Porter Square Books for a virtual event to celebrate the release of Wendy Sanford's These Walls Between Us! Wendy will be joined in conversation by Brian Corr. This event is free and open to all, hosted virtually via Crowdcast. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase!
In the mid-1950s, an African Americanteenager named Mary White (now Mary Norman) traveled north from Virginia towork for Wendy’s family as a live-in domestic for their summer vacation by aremote New England beach. Mary was 15, Wendy was 12. As the Black “help”and the privileged white daughter, they were not slated for friendship. Wendy'sfamily came to depend on Mary’s skilled service. Summer after summer, Mary enduredthe extreme loneliness of the elite white beachside location in order tosupplement her income. Years later—each divorced, each a single-parent, Mary arising officer in corrections and Wendy a feminist health activist—they beganto walk the beach together after dark, talking about their children, theirwork. A friendship began to grow.
Wendy writes that, "based on decades ofvisits, phone calls, letters, and texts between Mary Norman and myself, TheseWalls Between Us chronicles our friendship, focusing on my oft-stumblingefforts, as a white woman, to see Mary more fully and to become a moredependable friend." The book examines obstacles created by Wendy'supbringing in a narrow, white, upper-class world, reveals realities of domesticservice rarely acknowledged by white employers, and draws on classic works bythe African American writers whose work informed and challenged Wendy along theway. Wendy lifts up Mary Norman’s enlightened work in corrections in the 1970sand 1980s. Mary has read and commented on every draft. The two friends hope this story will inciteand support white readers to become more informed and accountable friendsacross the racial divides created by white supremacy and to become active in themovement for racial justice.
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Porter Square Books
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