Join SAL and Marguerite Casey Foundation for a free event celebrating the publication of Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy, an intimate and electrifying collection of essays from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights. In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, Gay explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we expand it.
This event is free and open to the public; however, registration is required to attend. Please RSVP in advance.
Q&A with Dr. Carmen Rojas.
The format for this evening will be a keynote and reading by Ross Gay, followed by a conversation with Dr. Carmen Rojas.
Ross Gay is interested in joy.
Ross Gay wants to understand joy.
Ross Gay is curious about joy.
Ross Gay studies joy.
Something like that.
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His new collection of essays, Inciting Joy, was released by Algonquin in October of 2022.
Dr. Carmen Rojas, our Q&A moderator for the evening, is the president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. Prior to joining Marguerite Casey Foundation, Dr. Carmen Rojas was the co-founder and former CEO of The Workers Lab, an innovation lab focused on making real the promises of safety, dignity, and mobility to all working people. For more than 20 years, Carmen has worked with foundations, financial institutions, and nonprofits to improve the lives of working people across the United States. Carmen currently sits on the boards of Beyond12, Blue Ridge Labs, Children’s Defense Fund, as well as the San Francisco Federal Reserve’s Community Advisory Council, and Confluence’s Racial Equity Initiative Advisory Committee. Carmen holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2007.
About Marguerite Casey Foundation: Marguerite Casey Foundation supports leaders, scholars and initiatives focused on shifting the balance of power in society — building power for communities that continue to be excluded from shaping how society works and from sharing in its rewards and freedoms.
