My new Novel on Jonestown: White Nights, Black Paradise

White Nights front

In 1978, Peoples Temple, a predominantly Black multiracial church once at the forefront of progressive San Francisco politics, self-destructed in a Guyana jungle settlement named after its leader, the Reverend Jim Jones. Fatally bonded by fear of racist annihilation, the community s greatest symbol of crisis was the White Night; a rehearsal of revolutionary mass suicide that eventually led to the deaths of over 900 church members of all ages, genders and sexual orientations. White Nights, Black Paradise focuses on three fictional black women characters who were part of the Peoples Temple movement but took radically different paths to Jonestown: Hy, a drifter and a spiritual seeker, her sister Taryn, an atheist with an inside line on the church’s money trail and Ida Lassiter, an activist whose watchdog journalism exposes the rot of corruption, sexual abuse, racism and violence in the church, fueling its exodus to Guyana.

What Black Women readers are saying:

“A remarkable novel about a fascinating history…The book does justice to the survivors and victims of Jonestown by forcing the reader to recognize what mainstream discourse has gotten terribly wrong about the tragedy. I encourage anyone who cares about history and the truth to read this book as it goes beyond what existing scholarship would have you believe!” Anita Little, Religion Dispatches

 

White Nights, Black Paradise” renders visibility to everyday black women’s struggle with race, gender, religion, morality and poverty. The stories of Taryn and the other black members of the Peoples Temple that Hutchinson vividly brings to life makes it clear that while many blacks submitted to the ideal salvation of the racial utopia Jim Jones pushed, this submission of sorts represented black peoples’ epic struggle and fight with finding a voice and life in a racially hostile homeland. This is an important and beautifully written story that restores the humanity of the followers of Peoples Temple.” Kamela Heyward-Rotimi
“Brilliantly woven.” African Americans on the Move Book Club

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My new Novel on Jonestown: White Nights, Black Paradise
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2 thoughts on “My new Novel on Jonestown: White Nights, Black Paradise

  1. 1

    Cool — I’m tardy to your party, but I was just discussing Jonestown with my wife the other night, and she’s an East-Coaster and not that informed about it, but an avid reader, so maybe this will fit the bill. Congrats on publication.
    — Oaklander

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