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Baroque + Bottle Book Club | Representation + Marginalization [SOLD OUT]

November 20, 2025 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Baroque + Bottle Book Club | Representation + Marginalization

In conjunction with In Caravaggio’s Light | Baroque Masterpieces from the Fondazione Roberto Longhi, the MFA introduces the Baroque + Bottle Book Club, a dynamic literary series that pairs contemporary fiction with the timeless themes of the Baroque.

Presented in partnership with Book + Bottle, St. Pete’s beloved independent bookstore and wine bar, each gathering invites readers to dive into contemporary novels that echo the emotional intensity, moral tension, and timeless questions embedded in the Baroque movement. With expertly paired wines, lively guided conversations, and exclusive in-gallery experiences, this series creates unexpected connections between the masterpieces on view and the pressing issues of today.

Caravaggio shocked his contemporaries by casting society’s outsiders as saints and Madonnas, blurring the line between sacred and profane and challenging who is deemed worthy of reverence. This session of Baroque + Bottle turns that lens towards contemporary literature, asking how stories can reclaim agency for voices too often silenced.

We’ll read Raven Leilani’s breakout debut Luster, a razor-sharp, darkly comic novel that follows Edie, a young Black woman stumbling through love, art, and survival in a world that rarely makes space for her. Through Leilani’s fearless prose, Luster lays bare the complexities of race, sexuality, and selfhood in the modern age, echoing the raw humanity at the heart of Caravaggio’s work.

What to Expect:

  • 6:00–6:30 pm — Arrivals: grab a glass of wine and ease in with thought-starter prompts and casual conversation.
  • 6:30–7:30 pm — Guided discussion led by Book + Bottle, exploring the book’s themes and connections to the Baroque.
  • 7:30–8:00 pm — Gallery spotlight with MFA curators and educators: a focused look at a work from In Caravaggio’s Light to bring the conversation full circle.

Baroque + Bottle Book Club | Representation + Marginalization

Thursday, November 20, 2025
6:00 PM–8:00 PM
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
255 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg FL 33701

$25 for Members; $35 for Not-Yet-Members.
Tickets include program and 1 glass of wine. Additional wine available for purchase. You can order the book and pick it up at Book + Bottle! A limited number of copies will be available at the MFA Shop.

SOLD OUT

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About Book + Bottle

Book + Bottle logoBook + Bottle is a bottle shop, an independent bookstore, a coffee café, and a wine bar all rolled into one exquisite little package. They have the most passionate, friendly, and helpful team in town to help you choose a book or a bottle or to take care of you and your friends on your night off.

They’re an independent, woman-owned, values-driven, sustainably run, local-first business that believes little kindnesses can make our community—and the world—a better place.

About Raven Leilani’s Luster

Cover of Luster by Raven LeilaniLuster (2020) is Raven Leilani’s acclaimed debut novel about a young Black woman in New York trying to make art and make rent as a messy new relationship—complicated by an open marriage—upends her routine. With razor-sharp, darkly funny prose, the book explores desire, race, class, work, and the uneasy ways intimacy and ambition collide. It’s a vivid portrait of coming-of-age in precarious times—audacious, tender, and unsettling without ever tipping into neat resolutions.

See ALL Baroque + Bottle Book Club Dates and Times:

Images:

Jusepe de Ribera, St. Thomas (detail), c. 1612, Oil on canvas, Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi, Florence, Italy

Organized by Fondazione di Studi di Storia dell’Arte Roberto Longhi and Civita Mostre e Musei.

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