Politics and Prose
@politicsprose·255K subscribers·4K videos
Shane McCrae — Pulling the Chariot of the Sun: A Memoir of a Kidnapping - with Kyle Dargan
Posted
August 5, 2023
Views
2,016
Likes
42
Engagement
2.08%
August 5, 2023
2,016
42
2.08%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
46:49Now PlayingWatch author Shane McCrae's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose book store in Washington, D.C.
PURCHASE BOOK HERE
When Shane McCrae was three years old, his grandparents kidnapped him and took him to suburban Texas. His mom was white and his dad was Black, and to hide his Blackness from him, his maternal grandparents stole him from his father. In the years that followed, they manipulated and controlled him, refusing to acknowledge his heritage--all the while believing they were doing what was best for him.
For their own safety and to ensure the kidnapping remained a success, Shane's grandparents had to make sure that he never knew the full story, so he was raised to participate in his own disappearance. But despite elaborate fabrications and unreliable memories, Shane begins to reconstruct his own story and to forge his own identity. Gradually, the truth unveils itself, and with the truth, comes a path to reuniting with his father and finding his own place in the world.
A revelatory account of a singularly American childhood that hauntingly echoes the larger story of race in our country, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun is written with the virtuosity and heart of one of the finest poets writing today. And it is also a powerful reflection on what is broken in America--but also what might heal and make it whole again.
Shane McCrae is the author of several books of poetry, including In the Language of My Captor, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award; Sometimes I Never Suffered, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; and his most recent collection, Cain Named the Animal. McCrae is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.
McCrae will be in conversation with Kyle Dargan. Dargan is the author of Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and he was a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Dargan is currently an associate professor of literature and assistant director of creative writing at American University. He also works as the books editor for Janelle Monáe’s creative company, Wondaland.
Be Sure To Click SUBSCRIBE
@politicsprose
Visit us online at
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on instagram
Like us on Facebook
Follow Us On TikTok
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter:
Become a store member and save
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
