Irmo Branch Library - Multimedia Book Club discussion

Happy February and Black History Month MMBC!

This month, we will be taking on a book that is a little different from our previous works. This month's book, "The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait," is a work of art featuring images taken by photojournalist, Grey Villet. This photo-essay documents the lives of a couple who changed the face of marriage and civil rights in America. Mildred Loving, a young woman of African American and Native American descent, and her husband Richard Loving, a white man, were arrested in Virginia in 1958 for interracial marriage. Villet's profound pictures, along with the text of Barbara Villet, bring an up close and personal look at the couple's day to day life as well as their fight for love in the US Supreme Court.

Along with Villet's photo-essay, the documentary film, "The Loving Story," will supplement our reading and discussion. This film will follow the experiences of the Loving family during the time of their court case.

This month's material will cover various aspects of media to convey information: photographs, text and film. Additionally, we hope that this will be a beautiful combination of Black history and February's emphasis on love (with Valentine's Day being celebrated across the nation) in America!

The ebook of "The Lovings: An Intimate Portrait," and the documentary, "The Loving Story," can be found on Hoopladigital.com. Happy viewing!

Hello all!

To add to this experience and discussion, I would like to share that if you are a LCPL cardholder or Netflix subscriber, you can find the movie, "Loving," a 2016 dramatization of this true story. The film stars Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving and Joel Edgerton as Richard Loving.

There is also a 1996 film creation of the Loving's story entitled, "Mr. and Mrs. Loving," starring Lela Rochon and Timothy Hutton.

Questions will reflect aspects of the photo-essay, documentary and the fictionalized film adaptations of the Loving's story. Let's continue to dive deeper into the lives and legacy of Richard and Mildred Loving!

Hi, Kyland and fellow MMBC readers!
This is Laura, now back from being away for the past few months. I'm so excited to talk about this true story, book, and documentary. To get started, I watched the 2016 film, "Loving," suggested above, and it was very compelling. I'm looking forward to spending some more time with the photo essay and book by the Villets and to the discussion Kyland is leading this month. This is a great choice, celebrating multiple elements of the month of February!