Rereading Exodus along the Anacostia explores intergroup dialogue and its role in understanding and addressing oppression and our roles in it. The book invites readers to:

• take a fresh look at the two peoples we meet at the beginning of Exodus;

• journey along and across “the River” — sometimes the Anacostia, sometimes the river of Pharaoh and Moses, sometimes both at once; and

• envision new ways to get ourselves -- all of us -- out from under the millstone of racism and inequality and militarism.

Author Virginia Avniel Spatz, a Chicago native, has lived and worked in DC for close to 35 years, a near neighbor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church and a member of Hill Havurah. Her journalism and Jewish writing appears in local and national publications, and she contributes to programming at We Act Radio, on the "radical side of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue" in Historic Anacostia. The book draws on her experiences in DC's Cross River Dialogue, a group of white Jews living west of the Anacostia and Black non-Jews living and working east of the River, as well as years of interfaith, inter-denominational, and cross-community work.

In addition to a reading and introduction to the book, the event will offer opportunities for participant dialogue. This book talk is co-hosted by Mount Moriah Baptist Church and Hill Havurah at Mt. Moriah (1636 East Capitol St., NE). It is free and open to all. 

Rereading Exodus along the Anacostia is published by Charnice Milton Community Bookstore at We Act Radio and proceeds support literacy efforts in the city, especially Ward 8. Visit WeLuvBooks.org for details. Books will be available for purchase.