Mira Jacob discusses Good Talk

“Is it bad to be brown?” Mira Jacob’s six-year-old half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, could already sense the tension building in his family after the 2016 election. In her graphic memoir, Good Talk, Jacob recalls some of her most formative discussions about race, sexuality, family, and love, in order to honestly answer Z’s many questions about growing up brown in America. Presented in a mixed media style with monochrome illustrations and colorful photographs, Good Talk illustrates captivating scenes of these vulnerable, earnest, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny conversations. The DC Public Library will be hosting Jacob for a virtual discussion about the book through its DC Reads program; print and ebook editions are available through the library, and its featured bookseller, Loyalty Books, also has the book for sale. Loyalty owner Hannah Oliver Depp will join Jacob in a discussion about the book’s artistic style and what its themes teach us today. The library has also offered a free guide to create your own “Good Talk” with writing prompts for teens and adults, examples from Good Talk and other graphic novels, and blank panels to illustrate your own conversation. The talk begins at 2 p.m on Nov. 15. Registration and the guide are available at www.dclibrary.org/DCReads. Free.