IN-PERSON: An Evening with Christopher Rivas | BROWN ENOUGH

Schedule

Tue Oct 04 2022 at 06:00 pm to 09:30 pm

Location

Books & Books | Coral Gables, FL

Christopher Rivas joins us in-person at Books & Books to discuss BROWN ENOUGH, a celebration of Brownness in America!
About this Event

Books & Books is excited to present an evening with Christopher Rivas as he discusses his book Brown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, the Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making It in America (Row House Publishing, $24.99)!
***Please note: This event will take place at the Books & Books in Coral Gables at 265 Aragon Ave. Tickets are free. Can't make it in-person? .About the Book:

At a time when disinformation, hate crimes, inequality, racial injustice, and white supremacy are on the rise, Brown Enough, part memoir and part social commentary, emerges, asking readers to proudly put their bodies, their identities, into the conversations of race. Brown Enough is a roller coaster of finding one's true self while simultaneously having a racial awakening amidst the struggle to be "perfectly" Latinx, woke, and as Brown as possible to make it in today's America.

From world-renowned actor John Leguizamo: "Brown Enough is a celebration of Brownness and a manifesto about the magic, beauty, and heartbreak that comes with being Brown in America. Brownness is more than our skin color or language or where we grew up; it’s also about the common threads that connect us all. I’m excited to see Christopher’s impact continue to grow as one of the key voices of his generation.”

Its pages are full of honest explorations of love, sex, fake-it-till-you-make-it ambition, bad Spanish, color, code-switching, white-washing, scandal, Hollywood, and more. This memoir navigates these necessary and often revealing topics through fourteen chapters, each a distinct moment where Rivas explores his Brownness and how to own it.

Brown Enough opens with a moment that forever changed Christopher Rivas's life, the night Ta-Nehisi Coates shared, in an intimate gathering in downtown L.A., the Brown man's role in the race conversation.

"All I hear is black and white. As a Brown man, a Latin man, where does that leave me?" Coates took a short breath and responded, "Not in it."

Like a reprimanded child, Rivas took his seat and remained silent for much of the event. But the effects didn't end there. This conversation pushed Rivas to contemplate and rethink how whiteness and Blackness had impacted his sense of self and worth.

"Why is Brown not in it?" became the unspoken question for the rest of his life and a thread moving through this collection. Eventually, in every conversation, during every date, at every job, Rivas began to ask, "What are the consequences of not being in the conversation?" "What does it take to be in it?"

Brown Enough is the quest to find an answer.

"Brown Enough is a must-read for anyone who wants a more expansive and inclusive view of race in America. Rivas fiercely asks us to consider tough questions and offers candid and provocative answers. He lays bare his soul on the pages." — Julissa Arce, author of You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

About the Author:

Christopher Rivas is an actor, author, podcaster, and storyteller best known for his on-screen work on the Fox series, CALL ME KAT. In addition, he hosts two podcasts on SiriusXM's Stitcher: Rubirosa, a limited series about the life of Porfirio Rubirosa, and a weekly show, Brown Enough (premieres September 28, 2022). Rivas is simultaneously authoring a book, BROWN ENOUGH that Row House Publishing is slated to release on October 11, 2022. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Expressive Arts for Global Health & Peace Building from The European Graduate School and a Rothschild Social Impact fellow. Rivas resides in Los Angeles, CA.

Visit his website www.christopherrivas.com

Instagram: @christopher__rivas


Event Photos
Ticket Guidelines:
  • GENERAL ADMISSION ( Free, no book): Registration for this ticket option admits (1) one person into the event but does NOT include a copy of the book. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Please note space is limited.

Where is it happening?

Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, United States
Tickets

USD 0.00

Books & Books

Host or Publisher Books & Books

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