“CULT” A Lunchtime Reading
With New York Times bestseller author Michael Datcher
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Join us at queer women-led community space Toasted (map) for an intimate reading session with author and NYU scholar Dr. Michael Datcher. Michael will be reading from his forthcoming novel, CULT, with contributions from local poets and writers.
Important note: spaces are extremely limited for this informal reading and meet-and-greet session (max 20). RSVP is essential.
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CULT - about the novel
Jameela Easter wants to start a cult. CULT is the compelling origin story that chronicles the early stage of her creation—and answers the intriguing question: How do cults get started? As a charismatic and brilliant Black theology graduate student at Berkeley who’s researching People’s Temple cult leader Jim Jones, Jameela wonders why so few Black women have been cult leaders—and wonders how she could benefit her South Berkeley Black community by using cultish power. She tells herself that cult of personality-power can be used for good. Jameela makes a decision to drop out of graduate school to start the House of Magdalene, a “positive womanist cult” disguised as a radical womanist church, where the Black Divine Feminine will be worshipped, Black women will be centered and Jameela Easter will be the powerfully charismatic center of the center. But first she has to deeply disappoint the two people who’ve been heavily invested in her graduate school success by telling them that she’s quitting: her Dissertation Advisor and her father.
As a trade-off for continuing her graduate school program, Jameela’s Advisor and father both agree to help her develop the House of Magdalene’s womanist social services, which will include a women’s clinic, a girl’s mentoring program and a microloan bank. However, good intentions can’t stop a cult from doing what cults do: bad things. And Jameela Easter is at the center of the center of these bad things.
In intersecting narratives, CULT also tells the origin story of the real-life Berkeley Church of Christ cult that emerges on Berkeley’s campus in 1986 as Jameela is starting the House of Magdalene. These narratives intersect with Jim Jones’ audio recorded messages (via Jameela’s cult research), making Jim Jones a character who engages fellow characters from the grave.
Jameela is CULT’s primary messenger in this novel about the early stages of cults of personality: their seductions, dangers and complicated benefits. Also, the cult of personality around former President Donald Trump haunts this story. Subtly spliced, interspersed and interwoven into the narrative fabric, President Trump’s own words blend with the words of the novel’s cult leaders so seamlessly that their difficult-to-differentiate melding creates a powerful undercurrent that is deeply fascinating and deeply disturbing.
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Michael Datcher is the author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times Bestseller RAISING FENCES—a TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB Book of the Month pick. The film rights were optioned by actor Will Smith’s Overbrook Productions. Datcher is also the author the Ferguson-area historical novel AMERICUS and the Pulitzer Prize-nominated ANIMATING BLACK AND BROWN LIBERATION. He has made many media appearances including OPRAH and TODAY SHOW. Datcher is co-host of the weekly public affairs radio news magazine BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE on 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles.