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Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz with guest Ed Cunicelli
Past event
Featured Book
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker
"This is a story about abolition-about how a radical idea goes mainstream. It's a story that comes to a head in September 1851, in a charming little Quaker farming community at the end of the Underground Railroad, the site of what will soon be called the first shots of the Civil War. A Maryland enslaver has journeyed up in pursuit of four men who fled his plantation years before. In a few hours, he'll be dead... and twenty-seven men from the village of Christiana will be rounded up and put on trial. Not for his murder, but for committing treason-for waging war against the United States-for in those days it was a crime against the American government to obstruct an enslaver from reclaiming his property. The Uprising is the story of what happened in Christiana that September morning and in the ensuing trial of the century, in which the president himself would advise the prosecution on strategy and a sitting congressman would serve as lead attorney for the defense. But it's also a much larger story, spanning decades, about how a whole community of abolitionists-all ordinary men and women-struggled and eventually succeed in convincing Americans of the subversive idea that now found itself on trial: that slavery was wrong enough that we should do something about it. Whisking readers from Philadelphia's tony Society Hill, where Black socialite Harriet Forten Purvis has the mayor's ear (and a secret cellar filled with fugitives), to the bucolic farmlands of Lancaster Country, where William Parker (a self-emancipated man whom legend has it bullets cannot kill) has rallied dozens of his neighbors to ride out each night to fight the slavecatchers who now stalk the countryside, The Uprising is a stylish, propulsive, intimately human story of how a shockingly diverse coalition of ordinary people can come together to change a nation's mind"--
About This Event
Main Points is thrilled to welcome Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, author of "Dr. Mutter's Marvels," with her book "The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America." It's a rousing, true adventure that roams from Christiana, DE to Lancaster County to Philadelphia's Society Hill. She'll be joined by guest host and award-winning photographer Ed Cunicelli, who has worked with descendents of the Christiana Rebellion.This event has several ticket options:Bring Your Curiosity (free, cause we KNOW you'll buy the book after you hear this)Curiosity With a Book - buy the book when you registerAttend with the Friend You Share Books With - two seats with one copy includedThe event takes place in our lower level event space.About the BookThe year, 1851. The place, a Quaker farming community turned Underground Railroad stronghold, where a Maryland enslaver had journeyed in pursuit of four men who’d fled his plantation years before. In a few hours, he’d be dead…and twenty-seven men from the village of Christiana would be rounded up and put on trial. Not for his murder, but for treason—for waging war against the United States, at a time when it was a crime against the government to obstruct an enslaver looking to reclaim his “property.”It’s a story that whisks readers from the quiet farmlands of Lancaster County—where a self-emancipated man named William Parker, whom legend had it bullets could not kill, rallied his neighbors to ride out each night to battle the slavecatchers who stalked their countryside—to Philadelphia’s genteel Society Hill, where socialite Harriet Forten Purvis had the ear of the mayor (and a cellar filled with fugitives). It’s stylish, propulsive, intimately human tale of bravery, ingenuity, and hope—and of ordinary people with little in common who came together to stand against injustice…and won.
Featured Author
Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is a New York Times best selling poet and historian. She is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Against Vanishing (2025), How to Love the Empty Air (2018), and The Year of No Mistakes (2013), which was named the Book of the Year for Poetry by the Writers’ League of Texas. Her first nonfiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam, was named one of five Notable Books on Exploring Poetry by The Washington Post and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins wrote that it “leaves no doubt that the slam poetry scene has achieved legitimacy and taken its rightful place on the map of contemporary literature.” Her second nonfiction book, Dr Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine (2014) spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list and was included on several “Best Books of the Year” lists, including those by Amazon, NPR’s Science Friday, Library Journal, School Library Journal, The Guardian, and The Onion’s AV Club, which called it “a nearly perfect piece of non-fiction.” She has been awarded fellowships and residencies by the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, the Amy Clampitt House, and Hedgebrook, among others. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, the novelist Ernest Cline, and their two children.
About the Venue
Main Point Books
Every town deserves its own indie bookstore, and since 2013, Main Point Books has filled the gap for Main Line Philadelphia. We nourish a love of reading by helping you find the book you were looking for and the book that you didn't know you needed. We are a place where you might meet an author, a neighbor, or an employee who will lead you in a new direction, encouraging exploration and discovery. Our goal is simple: to provide a haven to discuss, discover, and advocate for great books. We strive to provide the extras that make for a wonderful shopping experience—a resolutely curated selection of titles to appeal to all ages and interests as well as customer service that makes shopping a joy. We want you to relish spending time at Main Point Books, to have it be a place where you feel comfortable sharing life's best and worst moments. And, yes, we always believe there is a book for that.
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