GwinnettForum | Number 20.08 | April 24, 2020
POSTER WINNER: The Suwanee Summer Porch Jam poster is the winner of the Best Layout category in the annual poster competition from Sunshine Artist magazine. The overall design of the poster was inspired by the lighthearted feel of a warm summer day in the south. Summer Porch Jam is the City of Suwanee throwback summer block party complete with food trucks, beverages, and musicians playing al fresco throughout Old Town Suwanee. The brainstorm and art direction for the poster was handled in-house. Veugeler Design Group, a design partner of the city, executed the design. Porch Jam is usually in June, but may not take place in 2020.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Let Us Not Forget the Consequences of the Swine Flu Vaccine
EEB PERSPECTIVE: What Was The Governor Thinking in Re-Opening Some Services?
ANOTHER VIEW: President Needs To Take Responsibility for Actions during Pandemic
SPOTLIGHT: Imagine Advertising and Global Signs
FEEDBACK: Remembering Those Serving Honorably in Vietnam
UPCOMING: Duluth Seeking Talent Competition Videos from Its Residents
NOTABLE: Peach State FCU Makes Donations To Local Food Bank
RECOMMENDED: The System by Robert B. Reich
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Fitzgerald’s Frances Mayes Becomes Famous Writing About Italy
MYSTERY PHOTO: Modern Building on Lonely Street is Today’s Mystery Photo
CALENDAR: Gwinnett Library Offers Three Author Program with the Week
Let us not forget the consequences of the swine flu vaccine
By Debra Houston, contributing columnist
LILBURN, Ga. | This is a story about a dangerous virus and the re-election of a president. It isn’t about our virus, COVID-19, or President Trump’s re-election. However, history has an uncanny way of tendering solutions to current day problems. The story starts with Watergate.
On Aug. 9, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from office to avoid impeachment and possibly forced removal from office. Two years earlier, five burglars had broken into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. When reporters learned the men were connected to Nixon’s re-election campaign, the scandal blew up. Feeling the heat, the president began an extensive coverup of the crime. After two years of judicial testimonies and congressional hearings, he couldn’t ignore the possible outcome. The grand jury charged him with obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.
Prior to Nixon’s resignation, Vice President Gerald Ford repeatedly assured the public he wouldn’t pardon Nixon of his crimes should he leave office. The former president would sorely need a pardon for lingering criminal charges.
On September 4, 1974, not yet a month in office, President Ford granted Nixon a full and unconditional pardon of all crimes. Americans felt Ford had lied to them. In fact, many thought a secret deal had been struck.
What does this have to do with a deadly virus? Everything. The swine flu (H1N1) was sweeping the nation in 1976, an election year. Ford hoped Americans had cooled down about his 1974 Nixon pardon. What if a swine flu vaccine was deployed before November? Voters might forgive him then.
Nurses showed up at my workplace and my husband and I were both immunized. Little did we know that 450 inoculated Americans would contract Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that could lead to paralysis, respiratory problems, and death. Because of this complication, the government pulled the vaccine —- but not before 25 percent of Americans had been inoculated. As for us, we suffered no complications.
If Ford believed Americans had forgotten about the Nixon pardon, the election results proved otherwise. Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia, won the 1976 election promising to put an end to government corruption.
Now I’m wondering: Would President Trump play politics with COVID-19? It’s an election year. Some say he has already. Nevertheless, the public must not demand a vaccine that hasn’t been adequately vetted. During a press conference several weeks ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said we shouldn’t expect a vaccine to be deployed for at least a year to a year-and-a-half.
ABC News reports that dozens of labs around the world are scrambling to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Let’s hope they create a safe one through clinical trials and tests for efficacy and deploy it when the time is right, election year or not.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
What was the governor thinking in reopening services?
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 24, 2020 | “What was Governor Kemp thinking?”
Brack, dressed for Covid-19
That’s what we are hearing from normal, everyday citizens, about Governor Brian Kemps’ surprise and sudden decision to open up some sectors of the economy. Many feel that the governor acted prematurely in making this move, especially when there is little evidence that Georgia has reached its peak in COVID-19 infections. The governor showed little evidence that the state has peaked in more virus cases.
And, of all areas to open, why open up places where people come into close association with one another, even touching either each other or items touched by others? Those businesses the governor opened up include: gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, and massage therapists.
“OK, everyone,” the governor seems to be saying, “It’s OK now to go out and get yourself a tattoo!” In COVID-19 times?
Kemp
One candidate said of the governor’s action: “Brian Kemp is once again putting lives at risk here in Georgia.”
If you are going to try to jump-start the economy and seek more people working, why not open businesses that produce products, and do not have so many ways for people to be in intimate human-to-human contact?
Consider, too: open up larger firms first. Bringing back into the working pool the larger companies and their bigger work forces would be a stronger and more major boost to the overall economy than the smaller types of service firms the governor approved re-opening. These firms do not have a large number of people working with them.
Another question that people are asking is why the governor made a singular decision with little input from others at all. The governor had even created a group of people to advise him on pandemic matters. He did not even take the time to communicate with these people he had selected for a special advisory panel concerning the virus. His order to re-open certain small businesses were a surprise to those who were serving on his panel.
Earlier Governor Kemp was slow in closing down businesses; now he appears to move too quickly in re-opening some. Even the president of the United States questions his actions.
Governor Kemp had come under fire from mayors of Georgia cities in not moving fast enough to close down businesses. This time around the governor steps forward and opens up firms across the state without sending even a simple notice to these mayors. You can just see them also scratching their heads, asking “What is the governor doing?”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms put it this way: “There’s nothing essential about going to a bowling alley.”
Another omission: standing side-by-side with the governor when announcing which businesses could reopen were Lt. Gov. Jeff Duncan and Speaker of the House David Ralston. The announcement was done in a partisan manner. Not included in the announcement was a single Georgia Democrat. In a time of crisis for the state, and at a time when our state needs non-partisan government because of the hard times brought on by the pandemic, here the governor ignores the minority party….to his avail.
We are in uncertain and unusual times. Our state government seems lost in its focus on the problem, first moving too slowly, and now apparently moving too quickly. What was the governor thinking?
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
President needs to take responsibility for actions
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | States appear to be President Trump’s latest scapegoat as to why the United States has more COVID-19 cases and deaths than anywhere else in the world. And, it’s telling that strong, independent Republican Governors like Larry Hogan (Maryland) and Mark Gordon (Wyoming) are pushing back. However, it’s just as telling that Southern Governors tied to Trump’s coattails are frightened by his tweets and moving prematurely to remove “shelter in place” orders.
I’m a health systems planner by training. I was the first director of Health Planning (including facility planning) for the State of Georgia. I was also in planning with Humana’s hospital division and vice president over planning for American Healthcare Systems for 10 years.
As a professional planner, it’s incomprehensible to me why in 2018 the Trump Administration abolished the National Security Agency arm devoted to pandemic planning. Obviously, that move is one of the main reasons that the nation has had no idea how to move forward.
I’ve been on two Georgia county Boards of Health since I retired. The fact that we would eventually be faced with a severe pandemic along the lines of the Spanish Flu of 1918 has been a topic of discussion at both prior to Covid-19. Did President Trump and his staff fail to ask any health care experts before they made that momentous decision?
Unfortunately, we all know the answer to that particular question. Per President Trump, he knows more about pandemic preparations and so on than anyone, including medical experts. At the CDC, he made the ridiculous assertion that COVID-19 “tests are all perfect” (March 7, 2020), adding that “anyone that wants can get a test” …despite the fact that there was (and still is) a major testing problem in the US.
He also indicated that as president he has “total” authority. So, why did he also say: “I don’t take responsibility at all” for how the virus response has been handled?
The answer is that President Trump has laid blame at everyone else’s feet for his entire career. His name was on Atlantic City casinos, but he took no responsibility when they failed. The same for Trump University and his other bankrupt ventures.
What President Trump clearly is not is an inspirational leader, bringing the nation together in times of crisis. President “W” had many problems, but he didn’t pin 9/11 on President Clinton…as President Trump has falsely blamed President Obama for our lack of preparedness. Instead, President “W” gave speeches designed to unite the various segments of America. And, America united behind him.
Mr. President, those of us in high risk groups are tired of your whining, excuses and ridiculously self-serving tweets about “liberating” (opening) states prematurely. Time to finally man-up and take responsibility if you have any hope of being reelected.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Imagine Advertising and Global Signs
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today we shine a spotlight on Imagine Advertising and Global Signs, two separate companies that are jointly owned and co-located right here in Peachtree Corners. Imagine Advertising is a full-service advertising agency that specializes in creative design, print, and digital services – including their subsidiary, Imagine Retailer, which hosts and manages some 400 web sites for retailers across the country. Global Signs is a full-service sign company that has been in business since 1952. Acquired three years ago, Global designs and fabricates all types of indoor and outdoor signage, and currently works with seven of the top ten home-builders in the country.
- Relevant websites, to learn more, are: www.imagineadv.com; www.globalsignsusa.com; and www.imagineretailer.com.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Remembering those serving honorably in Vietnam
Editor, the Forum:
It was interesting to read Robert Hanson’s response regarding military service. I too felt there was an implied “negative “ slant to the article, although I admit there was some truth to what was said. I served in Vietnam in 1969, being drafted into service after both a college deferment and an occupational deferment. I was at Fort Benning Georgia for 2.5 months, then Fort Polk for 2.5 months, and then stepped off the plane in Cam Ranh Bay South Vietnam. It was hot !
In our basic training platoon we had a conscientious objector who became a Chaplain’s Assistant, but stayed in for his total commitment.
We flew over from California and while in California, I recognized the names of at least a dozen men who were AWOL; men I had trained with, but never deployed to Vietnam. These are the men who responded dishonorably to their military commitment.
Most of us would have rather been elsewhere; many of us sought to defer, hoping it would all be over before our time came; but the overwhelming majority of us when our time came or our number was called we went.
Unfortunately for the Vietnam veterans upon their return to the USA, there was very little regard and recognition. You can go online and see “The Wall” website and the names of the 58,000+ soldiers that died over there. You can search by name, by state and by town or municipality: those soldiers are the real heroes. For each day of the year, there is a listing of the soldiers who died on that day during various years. For most of the names listed you can also see a photograph and where they died . Often there are comments from loved ones or friends.
These are the ones (the soldiers) who should be the focus of our writings and musings.
— John Moore, Duluth,
U.S. Army Veteran
Sgt/Squad Leader/Mortar Platoon/5th Infantry
CIB, Bronze Star, various Campaign ribbons
Vietnam Service: July 1969- Sept. 1970
Con Tien, Charlie Two, Quang Tri Province
During this social isolation, find time to tell your story
Editor, the Forum:
Since 2012 I have been an amateur genealogist researching my family history. My efforts have been enriched by family stories and diaries which added details to the basic story. I learned that I had at least four ancestors who served the American cause in the Revolutionary War.
After being inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, I became more interested in that period and began to give talks on Revolutionary era figures. Most of my presentations have been given to groups of seniors. I am convinced that every genealogist, whether amateur or professional, has regretted at some point not talking to their elders about the family history. At the end of every presentation I urge my audience to “tell your story.”
My wife, Molly, often accompanies me to these talks and gives me a gentle nudge saying, “When are you going to tell your story?” Now in this time of only essential travel, social distancing and enforced isolation I found I had no excuse for my procrastination. So, I have begun.
My story is a bit unusual in that I became an orphan at 14, was thereafter raised by my maternal grandmother, and influenced by many others along the way. At this point I have only recorded my life up to when my grandmother came to raise me, but I know now that I will continue.
If you are getting bored with all this social isolation, take some time to tell your story – talk to younger members of your family, write it down or make a video. Someone in the future will be glad you did.
— John Titus, Peachtree Corners
Pleased to help others mail in their absentee ballots
Editor, the Forum:
I think 55 cents is a small price to pay to be sure my vote gets counted. I, like you, believe the American Civil Liberties Association does a wonderful job to make sure we all have a fair shake in this country regardless of political leanings. But on this one item, I don’t trust the government to count my vote if there isn’t a stamp on the outside of that envelope. If the Post Office is picky about the spelling of someone’s name or street address, well, I’m placing a 55 cents stamp on my return ballot. I’ll even give a few stamps away for someone who doesn’t have the money to send in their absentee/mail-in ballot.
I look at the 55 cents not only as an investment in our future but also helping save the Post Office since President Trump wants to do away with this valuable service. If the Post Offices are no longer around, who will I get to send my Navy grandson his box of goodies?
— Sara Rawlins, Lawrenceville
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net
Duluth seeking talent competition videos from its residents
To help bring spark joy and creativity during this time, the City of Duluth is announcing its first Duluth Shines five minute video talent competition for those over 18.
This competition is open to amateur participants of all ages. There will be two rounds of competition, with the first round being judged by Mayor Nancy Harris, Eddie Owen and Jordan Sasser of American Idol. After eliminating some in the first round, the audience in the second round will choose the winner. Winner(s) will receive a $50 gift card to a local business. Only amateurs may participate; no professional entries are allowed.
All applications must be submitted by the end day on May 1. The contestants who make it to the final round will be notified by May 8, and the winner will be chosen via Facebook Live on May 13.
- For rules in the contest, go here
Portions of Jimmy Carter Blvd. to be closed through Aug. 2
Portions of Jimmy Carter Boulevard will be closed through August 2 from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. for pavement improvements. The lane closures on Georgia Highway 140/Jimmy Carter Boulevard NW begin about a mile from the Fulton/Gwinnett county line and extend south to Interstate 85. These enhancements will repair several deficiencies along the road such as potholes and pavement cracks.
Exact dates may change due to weather or other factors. Motorists are cautioned to reduce their speed while traveling through work zones, stay alert, and watch for workers. Before heading out, get real-time information on work status and traffic conditions by calling 511, visiting 511ga.org, or downloading the Georgia 511 app.
Group urges residents to “Paint the Town Blue”
To honor Gwinnett’s frontline workers and to recognize COVID-19 survivors and families who have lost loved ones to the novel coronavirus, Gwinnett leaders have launched the “Paint the Town Blue” campaign. Paige Havens, spokesperson for GwinnettCares.org., says: “We want them to know we support them every step of the way.
The campaign calls for Gwinnett residents to tie a blue ribbon around a tree, a mailbox post or a front porch banister, and change front porch light bulbs to blue. “Let them shine all night long,” encouraged Havens.
Havens feels that the “Paint the Town Blue” campaign is an ideal way for Gwinnett’s homeowners associations, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, townhomes, office parks and businesses to create a visible reminder that we are all in this together, according to Havens.
Peach State FCU makes donations to local food banks
Peach State Federal Credit Union has donated $25,000 to local food banks to assist with the increased need brought on due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The credit union has been making quarterly donations to food banks in their service area (north Georgia and southwestern South Carolina) since 2014. Peach State’s President/CEO, Marshall Boutwell says: “We understand that hunger doesn’t just happen during the holidays, and that’s why we began this initiative.” Non-perishable food items are collected in all branch locations including the corporate office year-round and donated quarterly.
The credit union serves more than 60,000 members in Georgia and South Carolina and contributions have been made regionally to benefit as many members as possible. Each of the following organizations received $2,500 to provide food and essential supplies to those in need.
Among the groups being assisted are Lawrenceville Cooperative Ministries and Lilburn Cooperative Ministries. The credit union also made a contribution to Nothing But the Truth in Lawrenceville. This organization supports students and their families through their ministry center and their weekend food bags for children who participate in the free/reduced lunch program at their schools.
Snellville picks names for new streets around The Grove
Names have been approved for new streets in Snellville, centering around The Grove at Towne Center. This $85 million first phase will commence construction in 2020 and begin to deliver in 2021.
Mayor Barbara Bender says: “Honoring Snellville’s history and bridging the gap between our city’s past and future is important to us. We want everyone to feel welcome and know that they have played a part in this exciting growth!” The city consulted with the Snellville Historical Society on the new names.
Extending through the heart of the development, Grove Walk will connect Phase I of the project to City Hall. The name honors the historical meeting place that the entire center was named after and holds great meaning, especially to those with a close connection to the City’s history.
The second and third streets, Thomas Snell Way and James Sawyer Way, were the city’s co-founders. As young adults, these two men traveled from England to America and, eventually, established Snellville as a city in the late 1800s.
- For more information and updates on the Grove at Towne Center project, visit www.snellville.org/the-towne-center-snellville.
The System by Robert B. Reich
From Robert Hanson, Loganville: Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He has served in four presidential administrations – Ford, Carter, Clinton, and Obama. In this book, he outlines the system of government as it currently exists – government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich – and how we got here. Essentially, over the last 40 or so years, this form of government came about through tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of big business, an erosion of the social safety net, and a changing of – or failure to enforce – the labor laws that protect the working public.He points out that this shifting of wealth – and the power that goes with it – took place in both Democratic and Republican administrations. Reich says that correcting this imbalance will take almost as long as it took to create. The full title is The System: Who Rigged it; How We Fix It.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Fitzgerald’s Mayes becomes famous writing about Italy
Frances Mayes has achieved wide recognition for two best-selling books about her life and her second home in Italy: Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy and Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy.
Mayes was born in Fitzgerald to Garbert and Frankye Davis Mayes. Her exact birth date is unknown. She attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia and obtained her B.A. from the University of Florida and her M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1975. She taught creative writing at San Francisco State University until 2001. She married her second husband, poet Ed Kleinschmidt in 1998.
Mayes published six books of poetry from 1977 to 1995: Climbing Aconcagua (1977), Sunday in Another Country (1977), After Such Pleasures (1979), The Arts of Fire (1982), Hours (1984), and Ex Voto(1995). Many of her poems explore the rich, complex landscape of her childhood home in south Georgia, a hierarchical world where class, race, and gender determine roles in small-town life. In other works Mayes writes about landscapes far removed from the South, sometimes fusing the two seemingly disparate worlds. She moves easily from exterior to interior landscapes, examining issues of identity, relationships, death, and loneliness. For Mayes, memory creates another landscape that colors the present.
Mayes brings her poetic voice to her two most popular works, Under the Tuscan Sun (1996) and Bella Tuscany (1999).
The former opens with the purchase of an Italian villa outside the town of Cortona, Italy, and details its renovation and the discovery of a vibrant new culture. The work began as a blank book entitled “Italy,” where Mayes included lists of wildflowers, words, sketches, and planting advice. Under the Tuscan Sun thus became a memoir/cookbook/travel guide/renovation and gardening manual. Mayes writes in the preface that the transformation of the house and garden became a metaphor for transformations in her own life. She learned “to live another kind of life,” one far removed from the breakneck speed of her academic job and life in a modern American city. In Italy, friends and family, the beauty of a garden, and a good meal are savored. A movie version of Under the Tuscan Sun, starring Diane Lane, was released in 2003.
In Bella Tuscany, the renovation of the villa nearly complete, Mayes writes about explorations around Tuscany and growing connections to this new/old world. She also connects the process of writing to the process of living, claiming that “living in Italy, I’m especially aware of storing what I experience and see. If I ever end up rocking on the porch of a dogtrot house in the backwoods of Georgia, I aim to have plenty to visualize.”
At the heart of her work is a preoccupation with a sensual world and a need to live life moment by moment. Mayes writes in Under the Tuscan Sun: “Growing up, I absorbed the Southern obsession with place, and place can seem to me somehow an extension of the self. If I am made of red clay and black river water and white sand and moss, that seems natural to me.” She recaptures the same feelings in Italy, where she is “returned to that primal first awareness of home.”
Mayes finally turned her attention back to home with the novel Swan (2002), set in the fictitious town of Swan, Georgia, and ripe with allusions to her hometown of Fitzgerald.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to http://georgiaencyclopedia.org
Modern building on lonely street is Today’s Mystery Photo
Here’s a modern building on an almost deserted street. Figure out where this photograph was taken, and you will have solved today’s Mystery Photo. Send your answers to elliott@brack.net, and include your hometown.
Sara Rawlins of Lawrenceville got the recent Mystery Photo dead-on: “It’s the Post-Modern Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was started in 1999 and because of overrun of cost, it was finished and occupied in 2004 instead of the 2001 date. Because of its uniqueness of plan, it was controversial. But the designer and architect incorporated the Scottish landscape, the hardiness of the people of Scotland, their culture and the surrounding Edinburgh city into the ‘arts and crafts’ style. It won the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize in 2005 for best design. I recognized that building for its unique design from Rick Steves’ Travels on PBS.” The most recent mystery came from Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va. also spotted the photo. “Funding for the building was a very contentious issue. In 1997, in the early days of planning, a figure of £40 million of government money was set aside for the project. This amount remained static until June 1999, when the responsibility for the project was handed over to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body – and the building cost increased to £109 million. Then in April, 2000 the cost rose again – this time to £195 million – as it became important to incorporate even more space for staff and MSPs (Member of the Scottish Parliament). Inflation increased this figure marginally again to £197 million in June 2001. Towards the end of construction (final quarter of 2004) the estimated total cost of the Holyrood building project was £431 million – 11 times more than first planned.”
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. contributed: “Today’s mystery photo is of the Scottish Parliament Building. Sitting at the foot of Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile, Scotland’s Parliament Building and associated campus complex is the home of the Parliament’s 129 members and approximately 1,000 staff. Constructed from a mixture of steel, oak, granite, and crumbled stone, the complex was hailed on opening day as one of the most ‘innovative’ designs in Britain at the time. Innovative perhaps; but while Edinburgh is home to many beautiful and ancient buildings, the Scottish Parliament Building is certainly not one of them. Some of the principal features of the complex include leaf-shaped buildings, a grass-roofed branch merging into adjacent parkland and wire-framed walls filled with the broken stones of previous buildings from the area.
“In 1998, a competition drew 70 different designs and proposals. The winning design was by architect Enric Miralles, one of the world’s premier architects at the time. Miralles said that he developed a design that was a building ‘growing out of the land,’ and was intended to reflect the people’s connection with nature. My first impression of the building is confusion at best, looking (to my eyes anyway) like a tangled mess of steel barbs, unfinished concrete walls, and oblique angled reliefs. The Parliament Building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on October 9, 2004.”
Gwinnett library offers 3 author programs with the week
Even though the Gwinnett County Public Library is closed, you can still enjoy a wonderful line-up of LIVE virtual author programs! To view these events, click on the link below each author’s description and enter the password.
Here are several programs available soon:
Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd, Saturday, April 25 at 2 p.m. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Life of Bees. Her latest novel, The Book of Longings, is an inspiring unforgettable account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place, and culture devised to silence her. Sue Monk Kidd password is 143934
Kristy Woodson Harvey, Tuesday, April 28 at 3 p.m. Ms. Harvey is the bestselling author of Dear Carolina, Lies and Other Acts of Love, and The Southern Side of Paradise. She is the winner of the Lucy Bramlette Patterson Award for Excellence in Creative Writing and a finalist for the Southern Book Prize. Her work has been optioned for film and her books have received numerous accolades.Register at Kristy Woodson Harvey. No password is required.
Bettye Kearse,Tuesday, April 28 at 7 p.m. Bettye Kearse is a retired physician and geneticist whose essays have appeared in the Boston Herald, River Teeth, and Black Lives Have Always Mattered. Her book, The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family is part personal quest, part testimony, and part historical correction. Bettye Kearse password 941680
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