Evento

Alex Kotlowitz, author of An American Summer

Boswell is pleased to present Alex Kotlowitz, acclaimed journalist and author of There Are No Children Here, with his richly textured, heartrending portrait of the love and death that occurs during one summer across Chicagos most turbulent neighborhoods. Cosponsored by Community Advocates Public Policy Institute and City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention.

This event is free, but registration is requested. Your registration will help us make sure we have space for all. If we reach capacity, priority will be given to those who preregistered. Registration link is kotlowitzmke.bpt.me.

Over the past twenty 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 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.

Meet a man who, as a teenager, killed a rival gang member and twenty years later is trying to come to terms with what hes 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 cant shake what he has seen, and an aging former gang leader who builds a place of refuge for himself and his friends. Kotlowitz offers a piercingly honest portrait of a city in turmoil.

Alex Kotlowtiz is author of There Are No Children Here, his work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and on This American Life, and he produced the Emmy Award-winning documentary The Interrupters. His other honors include a George Polk Award, two Peabodys, the Helen B. Bernstein Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award.