David Wright Falade Discusses Black Cloud Rising with Deonna Kelli Sayed

David Wright Falade photo credit Cristobal Vivar

Join author David Wright Falade as he discusses his new book Black Cloud Rising with Deonna Kelli Sayed at an in-person event on Wednesday, June 13, 2023, at 7 pm.

We want to celebrate David Wright Falade and his new book, Black Cloud Rising, with an in-person event at 7 pm on Wednesday, June 13, 2023. You will be able to purchase the book and have it signed by the author.

Synopsis:

By the fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild—a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist—set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. 

From this little-known historical episode comes BLACK CLOUD RISING, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers—men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners. At the heart of the narrative is Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, raised with some privileges but constantly reminded of his place. Deeply conflicted about his past, Richard is eager to show himself to be a credit to his race. As the African Brigade conducts raids through the areas occupied by the Confederate Partisan Rangers, he and his comrades recognize that they are fighting for more than territory. Wild’s mission is to prove that his troops can be trusted as soldiers in combat. And because many of the men have fled from the very plantations in their path, each raid is also an opportunity to free loved ones left behind. For Richard, this means the possibility of reuniting with Fanny, the woman he hopes to marry one day. 

With powerful depictions of the bonds formed between fighting men and heartrending scenes of sacrifice and courage, BLACK CLOUD RISING offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of enslaved men and women crossing the threshold to freedom. 

Author Bio:

David Wright Faladé is a professor of English at the University of Illinois and was a 2021-2022 Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. He is the co-author of the young adult novel Away Running and the nonfiction book Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers, which was a New Yorker notable selection and a St. Louis-Dispatch Best Book of 2001. The recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award, he has written for the New Yorker, Village Voice, Southern Review, Newsday, and more. 

Moderator Bio: 

Deonna Kelli Sayed is an author, TEDx speaker, and performer based in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is the author of Paranormal Obsession: America’s Fascination with Ghosts & Hauntings, Spooks & Spirits.  Her work is featured in Love, Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women; Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction From a Small Planet, Volume III, and New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims. Deonna is currently writing a novel based in the Florida Panhandle and also preparing her first solo show, American Body, for production in October with Creative Greensboro.  She is the PEN America North Carolina Piedmont Representative and works for the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Learn more at deonnaiswriting.com 

Can’t make the event? Want your own personalized copy?

Contact the store 48 hours before the event to request one.

704-525-9239 or orders@parkroadbooks.com