In the spirit of American cultural prophecy from Malcolm Harris to Rebecca Solnit, acclaimed writer Casey Gerald (There Will Be No Miracles Here) joins us to offer a groundbreaking work of joyous dissent and stunning vision, a survival guide to a society in crisis.
About the Book
“A captivating and sharply insightful blend: deeply imaginative and unerringly practical, intimate and political, hopeful and loving yet unflinchingly honest. Casey Gerald asks us to choose us, which is―in fact―to choose freedom.”―Imani Perry
Most afternoons for the past three years, Casey Gerald took a walk in his Texas neighborhood. He would pass the compound that Elon Musk was building; the burned-down Freedman’s church; the little house where he and his lover Jack had seen a shooting star. He knew the world was crumbling, but he didn’t fret. He had been promised: When it breaks, you’ll be ready.
“There is a great unfolding going on,” Gerald writes, “and all the clues for what’s to come are planted in the people.” In this quietly redemptive and lyrical book, Gerald shares his map for finding those clues, finding each other, and finding our way out of this dark and wearied time. On the other side of No, Gerald insists, there is a Yes: an embrace of what we really want, what we might finally claim once we refuse.
Calling forth a kaleidoscopic cast, from Odysseus to D’Angelo, Sun Tzu to Simone Biles, Black literati and desert mystics, Gerald implores us to take our power back and to remake the world together, on our terms. Written with Didion’s cool eye and Baldwin’s unflinching urgency, and with the dark humor of a man who’s seen too much but still wants to see what’s next, The Great Refusal is a lifeline from the other side of ruin.
About the Speaker
Casey Gerald is the author of There Will Be No Miracles Here, a memoir that was named a Best Book of 2018 by NPR and The New York Times, a finalist for the LAMBDA Literary Award, a longlist selection for the Carnegie Medal for excellence in Nonfiction among others. Gerald’s essays include “The Black Art of Escape,” published in New York Magazine and selected by Longform as one of the best essays of 2019; and “Leon Bridges After Dark,” a Texas Monthly cover profile that won the 2022 National City & Regional Magazine Award. Prior to his writing career, Gerald co-founded and served as CEO of MBAs Across America (MBAx). His TED Talks have been viewed over 4 million times, and he opened for President Barack Obama at SXSW in 2016. A native of Oak Cliff, Texas, Gerald attended Dallas Public Schools before college at Yale, where he played varsity football and co-founded the Yale Black Men’s Union. He later received an MBA from Harvard Business School. Casey is a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action, a Presidential Leadership Scholars Fellow, and a former Aspen Words Writer-in-Residence. He serves on the board of Kickstarter, PBC. He is a New America fellow and resides in Waxahachie, Texas.
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