A collaboration with columnist Myron Medcalf, the Mary Ann Key Book Club uses reading as a catalyst for conversation as we attempt to better understand past and current injustices – including systemic racism, other forms of discrimination, and bias that affects marginalized communities.
Columnist Myron Medcalf and Library Director Scott Duimstra introduce The Sun Does Shine.
by Anthony Ray Hinton
Anthony Ray Hinton survived for 30 years on Alabama's death row. His story is a decades-long journey to exoneration and freedom. In 1985, Mr. Hinton was convicted of the unsolved murders of two fast-food restaurant managers based on the testimony of ballistics experts for the State who claimed that the crime bullets came from a dusty revolver found in Mr. Hinton's mother’s closet. Without the benefit of a competent expert to challenge the State’s theory, an all-white jury convicted Mr. Hinton and he was sentenced to death. After years of petitioning to have the revolver re-analyzed, three independent experts concluded that the bullets could not have been fired from his mother’s revolver. With the assistance of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by attorney Bryan Stevenson, Mr. Hinton was freed in 2015. Since his release, Mr. Hinton has traveled the world sharing his story and discussing the changes that need to be made to prevent similar injustices from happening to other people. In 2018, Mr. Hinton published The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, which was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and is a New York Times bestseller. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University.
Thursday, April 25, 6:30 p.m.
Minneapolis Central Library – Pohlad Hall
Join the Mary Ann Key Book Club for an exclusive evening featuring Anthony Ray Hinton, author of “The Sun Does Shine.” The author will be joined in conversation by Star Tribune columnist and book club partner Myron Medcalf. The conversation will conclude with a Q&A session with participants and a book signing with the author.
Media partner: Star Tribune. Sponsor: Friends of the Hennepin County Library. This program is funded in part with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
This event will be livestreamed and recorded.
Thursday, May 16, 6:30-8 p.m.
Minneapolis Central Library - Pohlad Hall
Learn more and register.
Join columnist Myron Medcalf, moderator JaNaé Bates, and community panelists Marvin Haynes, Moseka Nhya and Kevin Reese in a discussion of Anthony Ray Hinton’s “The Sun Does Shine.”
Media partner: Star Tribune. Sponsor: Friends of the Hennepin County Library.
This event will be recorded.
Various dates and locations
Learn more and register.
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Replay past Mary Ann Key Book Club programs on Hennepin County Library's YouTube channel.
The book club was inspired by a Star Tribune column written by Myron Medcalf – the great-great-great-grandson of Mary Ann Key.
“I’m honored to partner with Hennepin County Library to launch the Mary Ann Key Book Club, named after the matriarch of my family, who was a slave in Georgia in the 1850s. Purchased for $1,000 at the age of 14, Mary Ann Key persevered. Her body was in bondage, but slavery never stole the freedom of her heart, mind and soul. This book club is about focusing on the truths of the past, our challenges in the present and the possibilities of the future…” – Myron Medcalf
This program is supported by Friends of the Hennepin County Library. Their generous financial support is helping to provide greater access to print and eBook copies of the featured books. Media partner: Star Tribune.