Benjamin Weber and Clint Smith are joining us on the Busboys stage to discuss American Purgatory’s groundbreaking look at how America exported mass incarceration around the globe. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and the author will be signing following the program. This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of AMERICAN PURGATORY will be available for purchase before and after the event.

Benjamin Weber is an assistant professor of African American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis. He has worked at the Vera Institute of Justice, Alternate ROOTS, the Marcus Garvey and UNIA Papers Project, and as a public high school teacher in East Los Angeles. The author of American Purgatory (The New Press), he lives in Davis, California.

Clint Smith is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America as well as the New York Times bestselling poetry collection Above Ground and the award-winning poetry collection Counting Descent. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.