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An Evening with Alex Kotlowitz, Author of "An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago"

Wednesday, March 13, 2019
7:00 pm9:00 pm
Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee

The numbers are staggering: over the past 20 years in Chicago, 14,033 people have been killed and another roughly 60,000 wounded by gunfire. What does that do to the spirit of individuals and community?

Drawing on his decades of experience, Alex Kotlowitz, author of "There Are No Children Here," set out to chronicle one summer in the city, writing about individuals who have emerged from the violence and whose stories capture the capacity -- and the breaking point -- of the human heart and soul. The result, "An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago," is a spellbinding collection of deeply intimate profiles that upend what we think we know about gun violence in America.

Among others, we meet a man who as a teenager killed a rival gang member and twenty years later is still trying to come to terms with what he's done; a devoted school social worker struggling with her favorite student, who refuses to give evidence in the shooting death of his best friend; the witness to a wrongful police shooting who can't shake what he has seen; and an aging former gang leader who builds a place of refuge for himself and his friends.

Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and the City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention are cosponsoring this evening at Boswell Book Co., during which Kotlowitz will discuss and sign "An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago."

Registration is strongly encouraged for this free community event to help us plan for and accommodate all of our guests.