Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
โ๐๐ช๐ผ๐พ๐ช๐ต ๐ก๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ธ๐ด ๐๐ต๐พ๐ซ our second July book club pick is Chain Gang All-Stars
โabout the book:
โTwo top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.
โLoretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
โIn CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.
โMoving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.
โโ
โWe'll be meeting on Thursday 25th July from 6:30 pm in Shoreditch.
โ๐๏ธThe ticket price includes ~ access to the discussion, a chance to ask the author your questions and light refreshments on the night.
โ๐You can order your copy of the book from a retailer of your choice, bonus points if you get it from an independent bookshop.
โ๐๐ฝRespectfully, tickets are non-refundable and go towards organisational and facilitation costs. Please bear this in mind before purchasing.
โ๐๐ฝIf youโre no longer able to make it, we will ask someone in the wider network, if they'd like to take it. Please give us as much notice as possible to avoid disappointment!