Joesph Patri Brown Wants to Remember the People that Mississippi Has Executed and Exonerated

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit rooted.substack.comOur April Bottom Reader Book Club was truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Instead of our usual livestream, we needed to accommodate the tech needs of our featured writer Joesph Patri Brown, who is incarcerated on Parchman’s death row. Through a highly technical set-up of propped cardboard boxes in my co-facilitator Dr. Alison Turner’s office, we were able to bring Joesph in for a Zoom session to discuss his powerful and structure-defying memoir The Image They Had Painted.This was a deeply impactful discussion for all involved, not least of all for Joesph, who grew up in Natchez and has expressed his desire for his story to reach fellow Mississippians directly. We kicked off the conversation by hearing how Joesph and Alison, Joesph’s editor, created the book’s dual dedications. The book can be read in either direction—on one side, it is dedicated to those exonerated, on the other, those executed. Throughout his thirty-four years on death row, Joesph has maintained his innocence, and worked to overturn his conviction. During those decades he has known many men who have been executed and a much smaller number who have been exonerated.While this discussion had heavy moments, there was also plenty of lightness and laughter. As Joesph reminded Alison and me multiple times while preparing for the book club: Just have fun. We had a great time celebrating Joesph and The Image They Had Painted. I hope you, too, enjoy the recording of this conversation.You can listen to these book club recordings in the Substack app, in your web browser, or on Spotify Subscribe to Rooted on Spotify to get notifications when new episodes are released. Recorded book club conversations are only available to paid subscribers, but the live book club sessions will continue to be free and open to all readers.Read along with the Bottom Readers!May 27 - When We Were Murderous, Time-Traveling Women with Ellen Morris PrewittJune 30 - The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams with guest host Exodus BrownlowJuly 15 - The Irish Goodbye by Beth Ann Fennelly with guest host Catherine Simone GrayAugust 25 - America, U.S.A. by Eddie Glaude with guest host Talamieka Brice