The Message by Ta-Naheisi Coates
We are thrilled to launch the second year of our low-commitment book club! In celebration of Black History Month, we will delve into “The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a powerful exploration of how stories shape our realities and identities.
About the book:
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, in the tradition of Orwell’s classic “Politics and the English Language,” but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories — our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking — expose and distort our realities.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates, on his first trip to Africa, finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. He then takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina. There, he reports on his own book’s banning, while also exploring the larger backlash to the nation’s recent reckoning with history and the deeply rooted American mythology so visible in that city — a capital of the Confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares. Finally, in the book’s longest section, Coates travels to Palestine, where he experiences firsthand the tensions that arise between widely held beliefs and the realities on the ground.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive narratives that shape our world — and our own souls — and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
Learn more about The Message on the Penguin Random House website.
About the author:
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist. His books include The Water Dancer and The Message. He is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and the Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in the English department at Howard University.
Ta-Nehisi also enjoyed a successful run writing Marvel’s Black Panther (2016-2021) and Captain America (2018-2021) comics series.
Learn more about Ta-Nehisi Coates on the author’s website here.
Resources and reviews on The Message:
- About the book on the Penguin Random House website
- Author website, books, and graphic novels by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Interview and book review with The New Yorker Magazine: “Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Temptations of Narrative”
- AP News | Book Review: Ta-Nehisi Coates visits Senegal, South Carolina and the Middle East for ‘The Message’
- For Young Adult Readers: The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Book Club Discussion Questions:
- How can the themes in this book inspire PR professionals to address social justice issues in their campaigns?
- Which character or story did you find most compelling and why?
- How does “The Message” influence your understanding of historical and contemporary social issues?
Books not your thing?
- Visit Google’s Arts & Culture site to explore stories and collections from museums and top cultural institutions.
- Visit the Orange County Regional History Center on Thursday, February 20, 2025 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. for Lineage + Legacy: Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha
- Support Black-Owned restaurants, shops, and businesses this month and all-year-long
