The World According to Fannie Davis
to
The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home 2 Plunkett St, Lenox, Massachusetts 01240
The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers , by Bridgett M. Davis. In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her tattered apartment on Delaware Street, in one of Detroit’s worst sections. That woman was Fannie Davis, author Bridgett M. Davis’ mother. A daughter’s moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to “make a way out of no way” to provide a prosperous life for her family — and how those sacrifices resonate over time.
The lecture, which will be held in the historic Stable, will be followed by a tea and book signing. The doors will open at 3:15 p.m.
Bridgett Davis is a novelist, essayist, teacher, filmmaker and curator. Her memoir The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In The Detroit Numbers is her first nonfiction book. She is also the author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow (2014) and Shifting Through Neutral (2005), shortlisted for the Zora Neale Hurston/Wright Award. She is writer/director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts, which screened at a host of festivals in the US, Europe, and Africa before having its theatrical and DVD release in 1998. Indiana University’s Black Film Center recently honored Davis on the 20th anniversary of the film’s production. The film is now part of the Black Film Archive’s permanent collection. Davis is a Professor of Journalism and the Writing Professions at Baruch College, CUNY, where she teaches Creative Writing, Film and Narrative Writing, and is Director of the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence Program . She also facilitates writing workshops for junior faculty of color and women seeking to complete and publish their creative works. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Millions, Salon, Real Simple, TheRoot.com, and O, The Oprah Magazine.
Refund requests will only be honored if made more than one week prior to lecture date.
Lecture Series books can be purchased in advance from The Mount’s Bookstore! Mount members receive a 10% discount. Everyone receives a 15% discount if all 9 books are purchased together. If you would like to order your book(s) ahead of the lecture, e-mail our Bookstore Manager Patricia at ppin@edithwharton.org .
We would like to thank Blantyre , a Relais & Chateau property, for their generous donation and support of this season’s Summer Lecture Series at The Mount.
The Mount is a Massachusetts Cultural Council UP designated organization welcoming participants of all disabilities. Please contact The Mount at 413-551-5100 or by email, info@edithwharton.org , to discuss accommodations needed to participate fully in this event. Caregivers are admitted free-of-charge.