Books & Books and Miami Book Fair present…

Please note this is a free event! However, if you would like to make a contribution to support Books & Books' virtual events, we are grateful for any and all donations. Donations can be made in the upper righthand corner, above the "Save My Spot!" registration button. Thank you!

The first time Ravi Shankar was arrested, he spoke out against racist policing on National Public Radio and successfully sued the city of New York. The second time, he was incarcerated when his promotion to full professor was finalized. During his ninety-day pretrial confinement at the Hartford Correctional Center—a level 4, high-security urban jail in Connecticut—he met men who shared harrowing and heart-felt stories. The experience taught him about the persistence of structural racism, the limitations of mass media, and the pervasive traumas of twenty-first-century daily life.

Shankar’s bold and complex self-portrait—and portrait of America—challenges us to rethink our complicity in the criminal justice system and mental health policies that perpetuate inequity and harm. Correctional dives into the inner workings of his mind and heart, framing his unexpected encounters with law and order through the lenses of race, class, privilege, and his bicultural upbringing as the first and only son of South Indian immigrants. Vignettes from his early life set the scene for his spectacular fall and subsequent struggle to come to terms with his own demons. Many of them, it turns out, are also our own.

RAVI SHANKAR is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet and editor of more than fifteen books and chapbooks of poetry. The founder of Drunken Boat, one of the world’s oldest electronic journals of the arts, he has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, BBC, and PBS NewsHour. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

JASWINDER BOLINA is an American poet and essayist. His debut collection of essays Of Color is now available from McSweeney’s. His most recent collection of poems The 44th of July was published by Omnidawn Publishing in April 2019, and his previous books include Phantom Camera (winner of the 2012 Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues Press), and Carrier Wave (winner of the 2006 Colorado Prize for Poetry from the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University). His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and been included in The Best American Poetry series.

Registrants will be added to the Books & Books' email list following the event and will begin to receive news about upcoming events and book recommendations. You may update your preferences or unsubscribe. We hope you will join us!

Correctional: An Evening with Ravi Shankar & Jaswinder Bolina