Welcome Letter

Welcome!

We are thrilled to have you join Maryland Humanities for the eighteenth year of One Maryland One Book, Maryland’s largest reading and discussion program. Since 2008, OMOB has brought together thousands of readers across the state to explore a specific work of literature through discussions at book clubs, libraries, colleges, museums, and more.

Literature has the power to delight, inform, and connect us. The OMOB is selected by a committee of distinguished members of Maryland’s literary community. We hope this connects you to parts of your community in a new way.

Kin: Rooted in Hope is a novel that aptly captures this year’s theme of What We Collect, What We Tell. A work of verse and illustration about the Weatherfords’ ancestors who were among the founders of Maryland, Kin: Rooted in Hope gives them a voice from enslavement through the Civil War and Reconstruction, ending in the 1920s.

We at Maryland Humanities hope this book continues to affect readers. With each poem and its accompanying illustration, Carole and Jeffery tell their family story through each of their kin and the world they lived in: the Chesapeake Bay, the plantation house, Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, and more. The selection committee was enthralled by how Kin uses art and poetry to illuminate what can’t be said by historical records (when they are available) in a vital story that is about Maryland’s past and present.

We encourage you to pick up your copy of Kin: Rooted in Hope and join the conversation at one of our many public events across the state. This guide features discussion questions and a guide to further reading and learning.

As a program of the Maryland Center for the Book at Maryland Humanities, One Maryland One Book is made possible each year through the generosity of our sponsors and community partners. We greatly thank them for their support. However, this year we need everyone’s support to survive. The termination of our grant agreement from the National Endowment for the Humanities puts this program at risk. We believe that in order to be community-based we must be community-backed, and now more than ever do we need our community’s support, so we’d like to invite you to join this community: get involved with events and see ways to make your donation.

Please join us!