Dieulita Datus, Ubuntu-Mobilizing Central Alberta co-founder, next to a cover of The Skin We're In. (rdnewsNOW/Jordan Davidson)

By Jordan Davidson (Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow)

red deer public library

‘The Skin We’re In’ wins Red Deer Reads 2021

Sep 9, 2021 | 11:01 AM

The winner of the 2021 Red Deer Reads contest was announced Wednesday night at the Timberlands Branch of the Red Deer Public Library (RDPL).

Red Deer Reads is an initiative of the RDPL and is held every two years. Customers are asked to read three staff-chosen titles over the summer and vote for their favourite. The only parameters are the authors must be Canadian, with their books published within the last five years.

Due to the pandemic, the library was unable to host any in-person events this year, so they decided to pick three prominent community members to champion a book and have the rest of the community vote on their favourite.

Facebook live interviews with the authors were also conducted by the champions throughout the summer.

This year’s winner was The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole, which was championed by Dieulita Datus, Ubuntu-Mobilizing Central Alberta co-founder. Cole himself is also from Red Deer.

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Datus says The Skin We’re In is a book every Canadian can relate to.

“We all understand what it’s like to be who we are, our personalities, but also how our histories make us who we are,” she says.

The Skin We’re In takes place throughout the year 2017 and chronicles what it means to be a Black person in Canada. It also touches on the stories of immigrants, Indigenous people, homelessness, and people suffering from mental health issues.

“He followed a lot of events and issues that happened throughout Canada that mainly had to do with police brutality, racial profiling, and carding, especially in the Toronto area, and what city councils did or did not do in regards to understanding what people were saying about police brutality,” says Datus.

The book was released before the George Floyd incident in 2020, which makes this book timelier than ever, she says.

The other books nominated this year were Why Birds Sing, which was being championed by Suzanne Hermary, Red Deer Arts Council coordinator, with Mayor Tara Veer championing By Chance Alone, by Max Eisen.

Tatiana Tilly, Program and Community Engagement Manager, Red Deer Public Library, described the books which made it to the final round.

“While only Why Birds Sing by Nina Berkhout is a fiction title that poetically talks about life, love and death in a way that anyone can relate to,” she says. “The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole and By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz by Max Eisen, strike very close to two issues we’ve all experienced in Red Deer firsthand this year: systematic racism and a significant increase in reported hate crimes.”

The RDPL will host author Desmond Cole in October for an author event where he will speak about his book and his experiences.

Registration will be required and the exact date will be announced shortly.

More information is available at rdpl.org/events.