Old House and Red Neckties: A Memoir of Race, Resilience, and Selfhood

"A modern-day Jamaican DeTocqueville, Grace critiques political and civil society and helps us see them in revealing new ways." -Matthew Creelman, Journalist, Guatemala

"A timely work that addresses the ways the construction of race goes beyond the Black-White dichotomies, particularly in the United States." -Curdella Forbes, PhD, Author, Professor of Caribbean Literature, Howard University

In Old House and Red Neckties, Grace Virtue weaves a powerful narrative, juxtaposing ideas of home and belonging against stark intergenerational poverty and systemic inequities-legacies of slavery and colonialism in her homeland, Jamaica. Migration to the United States, a coveted option for many, presents transformative opportunities, intertwined with displacement, disjuncture, and oppression-symbolized by a red necktie.

Armed with the finest values of her village, Old House, Grace takes the reader on a journey through deeply complex spaces as she engages the world in unexpected ways.

Thought-provoking and inspirational, Old House and Red Neckties is about authenticity, resilience, and the unyielding spirit of one individual determined to live in dignity and freedom. It is also a clarion call to rethink our perceptions of poverty and oppression and work toward a more just world.