The Garden District Book Shop is pleased to announce that author Nick Tabor will be at the shop to celebrate the recent release of his book, Africatown: America's Last Slave Ship and the Community it Created. An evocative and epic story, Tabor's Africatown charts the fraught history of America from those who were brought here as slaves but nevertheless established a home for themselves and their descendants, a community which often thrived despite persistent racism and environmental pollution.

The event will begin at 6:00 PM with Tabor in-conversation with American novelist and essayist, Nathanial Rich. The two will walk guests through Africatown and answer any questions guests may have. Afterward, Tabor will be available to chat with guests and personalize copies of his book. The event is open to the public and copies of Africatown are available for purchase at The Garden District Book Shop.

In 1860, the Clotilda, an illegal slave ship, was smuggled through the Alabama Gulf Coast, carrying the last group of enslaved people ever brought to the U.S. from West Africa. Five years later, the shipmates were emancipated, but they had no way of getting back home. Instead they created their own community outside the city of Mobile, where they spoke Yoruba and appointed their own leaders, a story chronicled in Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon.

That community, Africatown, has endured to the present day, and many of the community residents are direct descendants of the original enslaved passengers. After many decades of neglect and a Jim Crow legal system that targeted the area for industrialization, the community struggles to survive. Many community members believe the pollution from the industry surrounding their homes has caused a cancer epidemic among residents, and companies are eyeing even more land for development. At the same time, after the discovery of the remains of the Clotilda in the riverbed nearby, a renewed effort is underway to create a living memorial to the community and the lives of the enslaved who founded it.