On March 23, 2017, the Law School’s 2040 Initiative and the Werner Institute will host a public talk on campus by Mat Johnson, author of the novel Loving Day. Loving Day is a funny, poignant, compelling, and pointed story about race in America. The narrator of the novel, like Mat Johnson himself, is biracial with a Black mother and a White father. Baz Dreisinger of the New York Times called the narrator “a man divided against himself” and the novel “an extended literary metaphor about race and mixed-race in America.”
“Loving Day” also refers to June 12, a day on which there is an annual commemoration of the United States Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia. In Loving, the Court held that people from different races have a constitutional right to marry.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Loving decision, and the Mat Johnson talk headlines a symposium organized by the 2040 Initiative and the Werner Institute: “50 Years of Loving: Seeking Justice Through Love and Relationships.” We are excited to extend the campus conversation on race initiated this fall by Creighton students and continued in the President’s Panel on Race Relations.
Leading up to Mat Johnson’s public talk and book-signing on campus, we invite members of the Creighton community to participate in reading groups for people who want to read and discuss the book in advance. We are looking for participants, discussion leaders, and organizers.
If you would like to participate in the Loving Day Read-In – please email Palma Strand at [email protected]. If you know of other members of the Creighton community who you think would like to be included, spread the word!
Note: The Loving Day book is available for purchase through Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Loving-Day-Novel-Mat-Johnson/dp/0812983661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481320111&sr=8-1&keywords=Loving+Day
