Andrea Hairston Book Celebration
Thursday, October 9, 2025 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Andrea Hairston ’74, Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies, will read from her novel, Archangels of Funk on Thursday, October 9, 4:30-6 in the Klingenstein Browsing Room, Neilson Library, with a book signing and reception to follow at the Kahn Institute, 21 Henshaw. Archangels of Funk has been shortlisted for the Ursula K. LeGuin Prize. Books will be available to purchase.
Praise for Archangels of Funk
“A celebration of radiant creativity as a bulwark against despair.”
—Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries
“A tour de force of Afrofunkilicious Black Girl Magic.”
—Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory
Book Details
Run from your past. Hide from your future. Protect your present.
The Water Wars have scrambled the world. Flood refugees are on the run. Disrupters and the nostalgia militia roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet Lords troll the internet, solidifying their power, while Cinnamon, her three Circus-Bots, and two dogs work with a community of farmers, Motor Fairies, and Wheel-Wizards to provide housing, health care and education for flood refugees.
As Cinnamon confronts threats from the Darknet Lords and the nostalgia militia, she must determine how best to honor her elders and her history while building a future for herself and her charges.
It’s not going to be easy.
About the Author
Andrea Hairston is a novelist, essayist, playwright, and the artistic director of Chrysalis Theatre. She is the author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Otherwise Award and the Carl Brandon Kindred Award, and Mindscape, short-listed for the Philip K. Dick and Otherwise Awards and winner of the Carl Brandon Parallax Award. In her spare time, she is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Hairston has received the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for outstanding contributions to the criticism of the fantastic. She bikes at night year-round, meeting bears and the occasional shooting star.