in conversation with Mokhtar Alkhanshali • oun • Dave Eggers in conversation

with Mokhtar Alkhanshali

Launch of The Monk of Mokha Co-presented by BAM and Greenlight Bookstore Sun , Feb 11 at 7:30pm BAM Fishman Space

Dave Eggers (The Circle, ) and Mokhtar Alkhanshali come together for an evening of conversation about entrepreneu rship, community development, civil war, and coffee. Alkhanshali is the subject of Eggers' heart-pounding new work of literary non-fiction, The Monk of Mokha, which weaves together the history of coffee, the ongoing Yemeni civil war, and the courageous journey of a young man following the most American of dreams.

The Bay Area-raised, Yemeni-American Alkhanshali finds himself working as a doorman and unable to pay for college when he becomes fascinated with his family's roots in coffee farming. He travels to Yemen and visits countless farms, eager to bring improved cultivation methods to the countryside. Just as he is on the verge of success, civil war engulfs the country; the US Embassy closes, Saudi bombs rain down, and he is trapped in Sana'a, desperate to escape. Eggers traces Mokhtar's journey as a social entrepreneur and his harrowing escape from war-torn Yemen with his first coffee samples.

A book signing with Eggers and Alkhanshali will follow the event.

Copies of The Monk of Mokha are available at the Greenlight Bookstore kiosk in the lobby at 15% off. Discount only available on the day of the event. DAVE EGGERS is the author of 11 books, MOKHTAR ALKHANSHALI , historian, including: The Circle; Heroes of the Frontier, community organizer, and coffee innovator, longlisted for the Dublin International Literary envisions a world where industry empowers Award; , a finalist for rather than exploits, uplifts rather than the National Book Award; What Is the What, represses. Following his studies, Alkhanshali a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle worked with some of the most respected civil Award, and winner of France's Prix Medicis rights and community organizations including Etranger and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; the ACLU and Asian Law Caucus. On several and the recently released The Monk of Mokha. occasions he's been requested to partner with His nonfiction and journalism has appeared the city of San Francisco to work on initiatives in The Guardian, The New Yorker, Best regarding civil liberties. In 2013 he shifted American Travel Writing, and Best American his focus towards his family's roots as coffee Essays. He is the founder of McSweeney's, farmers in Yemen. Seeking to reverse Yemen's the publishing company that distributes the nearly lost art of coffee cultivation, he founded Voice of Witness series of books, which use Port of Mokha. Combining his knowledge oral history to illuminate human rights crises of specialty coffee production, progressive around the world. He is the cofounder of infrastructure strategy, and community 826 National, a network of youth writing organizing, Alkhanshali has helped to reverse and tutoring centers with locations around the declining quality of Yemeni coffee and the country, and of ScholarMatch, which re-establish it as the one of the industry's connects donors with students to make college most treasured sources. Best-selling author accessible. He is a member of the American Dave Eggers' new title The Monk of Mokha Academy of Arts and Letters and his work has traces Alkhanshali's journey as a social been translated into 42 languages. He lives in entrepreneur and his harrowing escape from Northern California with his family. war-torn Yemen with his first coffee samples. Alkhanshali can be found among his coffee farmers in remote villages or speaking around the world on topics of social entrepreneurship, community development, and of course coffee. llnr.nmino FvP n t~

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