Claudia Rankine: Triage

The award-winning author of Citizen: An American Lyric returns with a new genre-defying work blending essay, memoir, and visual art Sponsored by Alta Journal Poet Claudia Rankine’s work is unfailingly expansive—broadening readers’ understanding of race, social conscience, and the limits of genre. Triage, Rankine’s first book since the groundbreaking “American” trilogy (whose centerpiece, Citizen, was a 2023 Alta California Book Club selection), is another boundary-defying work. Here Rankine traces a decades-long friendship between two women—the narrator and the theorist—following their evolving relationship against the background of ever-more-turbulent times. In an uncategorizable mix of essay, criticism, memoir, and photography, Rankine creates a politically urgent book that Booklist calls “Startlingly original ... A remarkable, soul-stirring work.” Joining Rankine in conversation is Cathy Park Hong, whose award-winning nonfiction book Minor Feelings engages intimately with Rankine’s ideas. The Alta Journal team will be on hand to introduce you to upcoming California Book Club selections, and we’ll kick things off with performances by 2026 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate Isaiah Kahn and Vice OYPL Isabel Shen. Doors at 6:30pm.