Left Bank Books presents St. Louis' star & one of the original Kings of Comedy Cedric the Entertainer, who will discuss his first novel, an engaging and entertaining crime caper, Flipping Boxcars. Cedric will pre-sign books that will be available for pick up at check-in. Each ticket includes 1 signed book.

Cedric will be in conversation with G'Ra Asim!
About the Author:

Over the course of a career spanning more than thirty years, actor/comedian CEDRIC KYLES (a.k.a. Cedric The Entertainer) has solidified his status as one of the world's premier performers on the stage, in film, and on television. Cedric is the star and executive producer of the CBS Television hit comedy The Neighborhood, for which he won a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series. Cedric's other noteworthy television credits include the comedy series The Soul Man and The Steve Harvey Show, for which he won four NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy. He lives in Los Angeles.

About the Moderator:

G'Ra Asim is a writer, a musician, and an assistant professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. He has served as writing director at the African American Policy Forum and as graduate teaching fellow in Columbia's Undergraduate Writing Program. His work has appeared in Slate, Salon, Guernica, The Baffler, and The New Republic. When not writing prose or teaching, he sings, plays bass and writes lyrics for NYC DIY pop punk band babygotbacktalk, who were named one of AfroPunk's "Top 8 Punkest Bands on the Planet Right Now."

About the Book:

The first novel from one of the original Kings of Comedy, Cedric "The Entertainer," an engaging and entertaining crime caper that is a valentine to close-knit black families and tightly woven communities struggling to get by during the Depression and World War II.

Babe is a charismatic and widely loved man, a gambler with a gift for gab that often gets him out of tricky situations. He's also a dreamer, something he shares with his patient and loving wife, Rosie. They both yearn for financial stability and see the land they own as insurance for future generations. But when Babe and a few comrades enlist in a scheme that improbably falls apart, he endangers the little security the family has.

On the verge of losing everything, what's a family man to do?

If you're a gambler like Babe, you double down and risk it all for one big score--this time, a plan involving railroad boxcars.

Will Babe succeed? Will Rosie continue to support her husband? Are the Feds on to his make-or-break scheme?

Flipping Boxcars is Cedric "The Entertainer" at his most engaging best--a charming, fast-paced novel that pays homage to his beloved grandfather and a generation past, anchored by rich, multi-dimensional characters and oozing with irresistible charm.