Community members invited to join in series of discussions, panel presentations on three popular books covering the topic of race and racism.

Jan 21, discuss Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, at Somerville’s Central Library.

The Somerville Public Library and the Office of Somerville Commissions invite your participation in newly-created book discussion series on race and racism.

The Somerville Library Book Series on Race and Racism is a program that features three separate books and discussions, plus a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Office of Somerville Commissions from January to April on every third Thursday evening at the Main Branch Library (79 Highland Ave.) from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

The books are nationally acclaimed and include a lawyer’s analysis of the United States’ mass incarceration system, a first person’s perspective of growing up and living, as a black woman in South Carolina and New York, and the advice about race and racism from a black father to his teenage son. Each month one of the three books will be discussed by the evening’s participants, with a final event in April consisting of a panel presentation along with question/answer portion for the audience.

Book discussions and book titles are as follows:

• January 21: Between the World and Me by Te-Nahisi Coates (National Book Award winner for Nonfiction, 2015)
• February 18: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
• March 17: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (winner of multiple awards, including an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Nonfiction, 2011)
• April 21: panel discussion

The panelists for the final discussion are:

• Joyce Angela Jellison, J.D., Urban College of Boston
• Guerlince (“Lince”) Semerzier, Executive Director, Haitian Coalition of Somerville
• Sassiane Estany, Program Coordinator, Center for Teen Empowerment Somerville
• Victor Nascimento, Massachusetts Municipal Association

For a full description of each of the three books, visit www.somervillepubliclibrary.org.