Sunset Signature Series: Mark Mathabane & How Books Saved My Life

Internationally acclaimed author Mark Mathabane will inaugurate the 2025 Friends of the Library Sunset Signature Series at the historic Sunset Theatre in downtown Asheboro. Mathabane will talk about “How Books Saved My Life” His appearance is free and the public is invited. Mathabane touched the hearts of millions with his sensational memoir, Kaffir Boy, about his coming of age during the apartheid era in South Africa, and how he escaped to freedom in America by winning a college tennis scholarship. The book won the prestigious Christopher Award for inspiring hope, was a finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, rose to no. 3 on The New York Times bestsellers list and to no. 1 on the Washington Post bestsellers list. In his talk, Mathabane will reflect on how reading influenced him as he grew up under apartheid, weaving in the theme of humanity. His grandmother’s white employer, who gave him his first tennis racket, also supplied him with books banned by the South African regime about African American heroes including Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, whose lives were liberated and horizons broadened by learning to read and a love of books. The series is sponsored by the Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau, the City of Asheboro and the Friends of the Randolph County Public Libraries. Its goal is to bring culturally significant speakers and performers to Asheboro.