Janelle Monáe for THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN *In-Person!*

Loyalty Bookstores is so honored to partner with Sixth & I for a celebration of The Memory Librarian with Janelle Monáe and collaborating writer Alaya Dawn Johnson, in conversation with Kimberly Drew! This live, in-person event (with a virtual attendance option) will take place at Sixth & I, located at 600 I St NW, Washington DC 20001. CLICK HERE to get your ticket for the event. *Please note, you MUST buy a ticket from Sixth & I to attend—purchasing the book from Loyalty DOES NOT grant you access to the event.*

Tickets go on sale Wednesday, March 16th at 10 AM ET. Each ticket includes a copy of The Memory Librarian, and additional copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. A limited number of autographed books will be distributed at random to ticketholders upon checking in at will-call. For in-person attendance, masks and proof of vaccination are required, including a photo ID that matches the name on the vaccination card. You can review Sixth & I's health and safety protocols here.

ABOUT THE BOOK

From groundbreaking musician, actor, fashion icon and futurist JANELLE MONÁE and an outstanding group of collaborators comes THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN, a collection of short fiction, bringing to the written page the rebellious and Afrofuturistic world of Monáe’s critically acclaimed album Dirty Computer.

• “In this moving, triumphant collection, singer Monáe returns to the dystopian world of her Dirty Computer concept album and short film. . Though a special treat for Dirty Computer fans, readers won’t need to be familiar with the album to marvel at the big ideas, riveting action, and hopeful message here. This is a knockout.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred review
• “Blistering, hopeful, and richly written. . . All readers will finish the book craving more of these extremely queer, bold stories that battle gatekeeping and erasure, digging into both the worst potential of a surveillance state and the gritty glimmer of the rebellion that can defeat it.” —Booklist, *starred review 

Janelle Monáe, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Eve L. Ewing, Yohanca Delgado, and Sheree Renée Thomas have delivered a sexy, soulful, and dissident collection of tales that expands the bold vision of Dirty Computer—in which Monáe introduced us to a world where people’s memories—a key to self-expression and self-understanding—could be controlled or erased by an increasingly powerful few. And whether human, A.I., or something in-between, citizen's lives and sentience were dictated by those of the New Dawn, who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide fate—that was, until Jane 57821 remembered and broke free. Grown from the soil of that mythos, the stories in THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN explore the lives of those living in the heart and at the edges of a growing surveillance-hungry, totalitarian order—striving to see and hold on to their “dirtiness” without being tracked down and cleaned. Perfect for fans of Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor, THE MEMORY LIBRARIAN is a story collection filled with the artistic innovation and brave themes that have made Janelle Monáe a global influence; an anthology that sees our battles about gender identity, political violence, and sexuality as matters of space, time, love, and, of course, the power of memory.

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during virtual or in-person events.