Get Lit February Book Club: Angela Flournoy with Musical Guest Immanuel Wilkins

Join WNYC's Alison Stewart and Angela Flournoy for a live conversation about her newest book, The Wilderness, followed by a special musical performance from Immanuel Wilkins.

The New York Public Library and WNYC—two indispensable New York institutions—are partnering to host a book club that brings New Yorkers together and fosters community.

The February title is Angela Flournoy's The Wildnerness, an era-defining novel about five Black women over the course of their twenty-year friendship, as they move through the dizzying and sometimes precarious period between young adulthood and midlife.

Desiree, January, Monique, and Nakia are in their early twenties and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood—overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences—swoops in and stays.

Desiree is estranged from her sister Danielle, and the two nurse bitter family wounds in different ways. January’s got a relationship with a “good” man she feels ambivalent about, even after her surprise pregnancy. Monique, a librarian and aspiring blogger, finds unexpected online fame after calling out the university where she works for its plans to whitewash fraught history. And Nakia is trying to get her restaurant off the ground, without relying on the largesse of her upper middle-class family who wonder aloud if she should be doing something better with her life.

As these friends move from the late 2000’s into the late 2020’s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another—amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life.

Throughout the month, All of It host Alison Stewart and the Library will accompany readers, providing touchpoints on-air and on social media at @allofitwnyc and @nypl. Borrow the book (and more than 300,000 others) for free through the Library on your preferred device. Learn more: nypl.org/ebookhelp

Join Stewart, the author, and readers everywhere for a live conversation, in-person or online, on Monday, February 23 at 6 PM. The conversation will be followed by a special musical performance from Immanuel Wilkins.

To join in person | Please be sure to register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open 30 minutes before the program. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

To join the livestream | A livestream of this event will be available on the NYPL event page. To receive an email reminder shortly in advance of the event, please be sure to register!

ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. ASL interpretation and real-time captioning (CART) are available upon request. Please submit your request via this form or contact the hosting library at least two weeks in advance.

Livestream | Captions and a transcript will be provided. Please submit your request via this form or contact the hosting library at least two weeks in advance to equest a free ASL (American Sign Language).

GET THE BOOK

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• E-Books: Check out this title—and even more NYPL e-books—on your favorite device. Learn more: nypl.org/ebookhelp

Don't have a New York Public Library card? Get one here!

To see all of our previous WNYC Get Lit titles check out our book club page here!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, an Indie Next pick, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Flournoy has taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, and UCLA. She lives in New York.

ABOUT THE PERFORMER

Grammy nominated alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins burst onto the musical scene in 2020 with the release of his critically acclaimed Blue Note recording debut, Omega, which was named the best new jazz release by The New York Times, the best debut jazz album by NPR, and was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best Jazz recording. Two years later, Wilkins released his sophomore album on Blue Note, The 7th Hand, which topped numerous year-end lists including Jazzwise, NPR, The New York Times, The Financial Times, and JazzTimes. In 2023, Wilkins was awarded with three DownBeat Critics Poll Awards: Best Alto Saxophonist, Best Rising Star Composer, and Best Rising Star Group. In 2024, his quartet won the prize for best international live act of the year by the German Deutscher Jazz Preis and in 2025 his recording Blues Blood was nominated for a Grammy for Best Alternative Jazz Album. Wilkins has toured extensively and graced some of the most esteemed stages in the world including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz, North Sea Jazz, Pori Jazz, and the Newport Jazz Festival, plus the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, SFJAZZ, and Elbphilharmonie.

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For all other questions and inquiries, please email adultprogramming@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

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