Members of the campus community have spent the past months talking about the issues explored in this year’s Queen’s Reads selection, Other Side of the Game. Now they will have the opportunity to hear from the play’s author about her development of the characters, the themes of resistance throughout the play, and the nuances of the ride-or-die philosophy.

The Queen’s Reads annual Author Talk event is being held online on March 10 with Toronto writer and broadcaster Amanda Parris as she discusses her Governor General Literary Award-winning work. Parris will have a discussion about her work with co-hosts Kemi King and Mofi Badmos and will take questions from the audience. 

Other Side of the Game follows two storylines – set 40 years apart – that centre on the experiences of Black women in Toronto as they organize communities, support their incarcerated loved ones, and battle institutions, living each day by a ride-or-die philosophy, strengthening their voices and demanding to be heard.

“Other Side of the Game has brought very important conversations to the Queen’s community this year,” says Queen’s Reads Coordinator, Clarissa de Leon. “Through the themes in Parris’s play, we have had programming and events that unpack the experiences of Black students, erasure of Blackness at Queen’s, and how to work for change in the present and future.”

Event co-host Kemi King is a Queen’s drama student, and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Theatre Company YIKES; Mofi Badmos is an Adjunct Lecturer and the Diversity & Inclusivity Coordinator in the Commerce Program at Smith School of Business.

Both King and Badmos were involved in the development of this year's Queen's Reads programming, which also includes the Young, Gifted, and Black video project, The Ride-or-Die Film Festival (at home edition), and a Teach-In entitled Remembering Blackness and anti-Blackness at Queen’s. Visit the Queen’s Reads events and programming page for more information and recordings.

An Evening with Amanda Parris will take place on Wednesday March 10 from 5-6 pm EST on Zoom. Register here.