Brendan Kiely Presents The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege

Brendan Kiely is the New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys (with Jason Reynolds), Tradition, The Last True Love Story, and The Gospel of Winter. His work has been published in more than a dozen languages. A former high school teacher, he is now on the faculty of the Solstice MFA program. His most recent book is The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books). In it, Kiely starts a conversation with white kids about race, white privilege, and why allyship – supporting and advocating with others who don’t belong to the same group – is vital. Most kids of color grow up talking about racism. They have “The Talk” with their families, the honest discussion about survival in a racist world. But white kids don’t. They’re barely spoken to about race at all, and that needs to change, argues Kiely. The Other Talk aims at starting this conversation. Not talking about racism doesn’t make it go away, and not talking about white privilege doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Brian Knowles has been an educator for more than 13 years. He currently serves as the manager of the Office of African, African American, Latino, Holocaust, and Gender Studies within the School District of Palm Beach County, the 10th–largest public school district in the United States.

Lisa Seymour is an instructional specialist in the department of library media services for the School District of Palm Beach County. Her work focuses on creating and running professional development for the media specialists and supporting library media programs in the county. She is currently enrolled in a library and information science master’s program at the University of South Florida, and expects to graduate with her MLIS in December 2022. Seymour lives in Palm Beach Gardens with her husband, Brian, and her two sons, David and Jacob.