All Pikes Peak Reads Presents: Author Jewell Parker Rhodes (CANCELLED)
September 12, 2026 11:00 AM –12:00 PM
1175 Chapel Hills Drive
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80920
Admission: Free but registration is required for this event.
Map
Event Summary
Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is an award-winning and bestselling author and educator for both youth and adults. She is the author of eleven books for children including the New York Times bestsellers Will’s Race for Home, Black Brother, Black Brother and Ghost Boys which has won over 50 honors and awards. Her other books include Soul Step, Treasure Island: Runaway Gold, Paradise on Fire, Towers Falling, the celebrated Louisiana Girls Trilogy: Ninth Ward, Sugar, and Bayou Magic.
Rhodes is the author of six adult novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass’ Women, Season, Moon, and Hurricane, as well as the memoir Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness, and two writing guides, Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King Book Award and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, as well as the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, the Jane Addams Peace Association Book Award, an NAACP Image Award Nomination, the Green Earth Book Award, and the Octavia E. Butler Award for Speculative Fiction and Fantasy.
Rhodes has visited hundreds of schools across the country and is a regular speaker at colleges and conferences. The driving force behind all of her work is to inspire social justice, equity, and environmental stewardship.
Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carnegie-Mellon University. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Seattle.
Jewell Parker Rhodes goes West in this thrilling adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush—if they can survive the journey.
It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.
So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
And then there’s the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention—and more trouble—than any of them need.
All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home—but is a strong will enough to get them there?
Rhodes is the author of six adult novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass’ Women, Season, Moon, and Hurricane, as well as the memoir Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness, and two writing guides, Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors and The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Coretta Scott King Book Award and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, as well as the American Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, the Jane Addams Peace Association Book Award, an NAACP Image Award Nomination, the Green Earth Book Award, and the Octavia E. Butler Award for Speculative Fiction and Fantasy.
Rhodes has visited hundreds of schools across the country and is a regular speaker at colleges and conferences. The driving force behind all of her work is to inspire social justice, equity, and environmental stewardship.
Rhodes is the Founding Artistic Director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Narrative Studies Professor and Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carnegie-Mellon University. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she currently lives in Seattle.
About the book:
Jewell Parker Rhodes goes West in this thrilling adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush—if they can survive the journey.
It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.
So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free—if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy—the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.
And then there’s the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention—and more trouble—than any of them need.
All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home—but is a strong will enough to get them there?
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Also Occurs On
- Saturday, September 12
Overview
1175 Chapel Hills Drive
| Colorado Springs, CO | 80920
