BALTIMORE — White House Correspondent April Ryan Featured Author for Women’s History Month Event
Baltimore— In recognition of National Women’s History Month, Leah’s Book Club will hold the Irene B. Reid Memorial Tea on Sunday, March 18, 2018 at 3 p.m. at the Forum Caterers located at 4210 Primrose Avenue in Baltimore.
The annual event honors women who have made significant contributions to their communities and to the personal lives of others. White House Correspondent April Ryan will be discussing her book At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White.
This year marks the 20th Anniversary for Leah’s Book Club. The group was organized in February 1998 by Dr. Leah Goldsborough Hasty for the purpose of having a club of persons reading for leisure and meeting to discuss books with others. Members would meet regularly to focus on books written by or about African Americans.
Literary events presented by Leah’s Book Club includes book talks and lectures sponsored by the Enoch Pratt Free Library and local universities and inviting authors to club meetings and sponsoring activities where the public could share in our discussions with authors.
Event Co-Chairs Dr. Brenda Egerton Conley and Claudette Egerton-Swain talked about the event’s late namesake, Irene B. Reid.
“We have such fond memories of Irene Reid and many stories about her that we have carried in our hearts over the years, said Dr. Egerton Conley. “Irene, with her many accomplishments, was a humble woman. “She was a woman of faith, a gentle spirit, and quite an avid reader. We have been trying hard, as book club members, to model her reading behavior because she never started a book that she did not finish.”
Egerton-Swain added, “Irene was truly a special person, and we think that she would be proud of us and all the women we have celebrated over the past eight years. We have quite a list of remarkable women who, just like Irene, give freely of their gifts and talents to make this world a better place.”
For the past eight years, the book club has celebrated Women’s History Month by honoring women who currently and continually make contributions to their professions and for the betterment of their communities. The women honored represent many different careers and professionals, locally, nationally and internationally, including education, law, medicine, religion, volunteerism, broadcasting, the arts and entertainment.
To date, 85 women have been recognized. The 2018 honorees are: Ursula V. Battle (Baltimore Times Staff Writer); Marye Linda Rawlings Brown; Vernetta B. Daniel; Vera Dorsey; Lori M. Hasty; Denise Dennis Jenkins; Ellen C. Johns; Jaime McAlily; Patricia Payne; Dr. Patricia Schmoke; Racquel Dotson Smith; Courtney Ross; Amy Taylor; Sybil D. Thomas; Thelma Kirby Wharton; Yolanda Winkler; and Dr. Edmonia T. Yates.
Ryan joins a long list of noted author to speak at the event. Past authors include: Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters; Larry Gibson, Thurgood Marshall: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice; F. Michael Higginbotham, Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America; Gregory Kane, Raising Kane; Kweisi Mfume, No Free Ride; George Derek Musgrove, Ph.D., Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: and Blair Walker, Up Jumped the Devil.
Ryan is an American journalist and author. Since 1997, she has served as a White House correspondent and is the Washington, D.C., bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks.
In 2017, she joined CNN as a political analyst. In her first book, At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White, she examines race in America through her experience as a White House reporter. In this book, she shifts the conversation from the White House to every home in America. At Mama’s Knee looks at race and race relations through the lessons that mothers transmit to their children.
For more information, call Claudette Egerton-Swain at 410-466-6244.