BOOK SIGNING: The Joy of the Disinherited by Kevin Dedner

555 13th Street Northwest,Washington DC 20004

27 October, 2021

Description

JOIN US FOR A BOOK SIGNING for founder and CEO of Hurdle, KEVIN DEDNER's new book, The Joy of the Disinherited Could being Black in America make you sick? Over the last decade, Kevin Dedner has been on a mission to explore this powerful and troubling question, shining an unconventional spotlight on the impact of racism on mental health. In his debut book, The Joy of the Disinherited, Dedner articulates his call for urgent change: We must knock down the invisible barriers that make it harder for Black people to get the mental health care they need and deserve. Building on American author and civil rights leader Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited, widely considered a manual of resistance for the oppressed, Dedner uses Thurman’s teachings to come to terms with the impact oppression has had on his own mental health and the mental health of Black Americans, digging into family stories as examples of the legacy of unresolved generational trauma of the disinherited. As a public health professional who has spent his career working on high-profile issues, Dedner uses his autobiographical essays to highlight the latest mental health research, while simultaneously interrogating the invisible barriers he has encountered along his own mental health journey. Dedner weaves together research, personal storytelling and a powerful sense of our shared history to drive the conversation about the future of mental health care for the Black community and other underserved groups ever forward. Author Bio: Kevin Dedner serves as founder and CEO of Washington-D.C.-based Hurdle, which provides culturally intentional teletherapy to eliminate barriers that make it harder for people of color to get mental health care. An award-winning public speaker, Kevin has over 20 years of public health experience. A recovering politico, he also has worked on presidential and local political campaigns. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and has a Master of Public Health from Benedictine University in Illinois. More at KevinDedner.com. Book Description: The inescapable imprint of the coronavirus pandemic and the brutal videotaped killing of African American George Floyd by a white police officer served as cataclysmic events in 2020, opening a window for social change and racial justice. In The Joy of the Disinherited, Dedner seizes this moment in time to call for urgent change to America’s mental healthcare system. He writes, “Heal the mind, and we can heal the relationship between human beings.” Through honest, captivating and humane stories of his past and eye-opening research into the effects of racism on mental health, he argues that we must knock down the invisible barriers that make it harder for Black people to get the mental health care they need and deserve. The book builds from American author and civil rights leader Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited, widely considered a manual of resistance for the oppressed. Dedner uses Thurman’s teachings to come to terms with the impact oppression has had on his mental health and the mental health of Black Americans. His essays are anchored by references to the latest research in mental health and the impact of unending trauma on Black lives. With an intelligent mix of passion, insight and humor, he takes us on a journey through the self-examination of his psyche to offer vulnerable examples of the unresolved generational trauma of the disinherited. In a narrative set against the backdrop of the Antebellum South, he weaves American history with personal stories of tragedy and triumph, telling how, against all odds, he came to believe in a sacred joy for the disinherited. Hosted by: Ivory and Marshella Toldson, Issac Fourjour , Amanda and Marc Littlejohn Jammal Lampkin, Kevin Jenkins Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D. is a professor of Counseling Psychology at Howard University, the president of Quality Education for Minorities, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Negro Education, and executive editor of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Research, published by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.