Wine & Words with Michelle Gipson Welcomes Tina McElroy Ansa 3/23

HHM Digital presents Wine & Words with Michelle Gipson on Tuesday, March 23 at 7 PM (EST). Michelle’s special guest will be Tina McElroy Ansa and they’ll discuss Ms. Ansa’s career and her new book MEETING AT THE TABLE: African American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community. This virtual event via Zoom is free for Hammonds House Museum members and $5 for non-members. Please register at hammondshouse.org. Join us and invite your book club, too!

Tina McElroy Ansa is an award-winning novelist, publisher, filmmaker, teacher, and journalist. But above all, she is a storyteller and cultural icon. She calls herself part of a writing tradition, one of those little Southern girls who always knew she wanted to tell stories. Ms. Ansa grew up in Middle Georgia in the 1950’s hearing her grandfather’s stories on the porch of her family home and strangers’ stories downtown in her father’s juke joint, which have inspired Mulberry, Georgia, the mythical world that is the setting of her first five novels BABY OF THE FAMILY, UGLY WAYS, THE HAND I FAN WITH, YOU KNOW BETTER and TAKING AFTER MUDEAR. She is at work on her sixth novel, FROM NOW ON, also set in Mulberry, and her first work of nonfiction, Secrets of a Bogart Queen, both to be published by DownSouth Press, the independent publishing company Ms. Ansa founded in 2007.

In 2004, Ms. Ansa established the Sea Island Writers Retreats on Sapelo Island, Georgia. The annual retreats seek to assist emerging and established writers in honing their work and skills in fiction, non-fiction, memoir and editing in sessions with professional writers and editors. In 2006, she extended the writers retreats throughout the country with the annual Sea Island Writers Retreats…On the Road. The retreats have been held at colleges and universities including her alma mater, Spelman College. She has been a writer-in-residence, teacher, and workshop leader numerous times at Spelman. And in 2011 the college presented her with an honorary Doctor of Arts. For more info: www.tinamcelroyansa.com.

MEETING AT THE TABLE: African American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community. In the aftermath of the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many other African Americans, plus the worldwide protests that followed, editors Tina McElroy Ansa and Wanda S. Lloyd created a project to bring voices of African American women together to honestly share how race and culture have affected them in ways related to their families, their careers, and their communities. The essays in the book will not only enlighten reader but offer paths into the vital conversations across racial and cultural divides. Contributors to the collection include Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, hip-hop scholar Regina Bradley, and businesswoman Sheila Brooks.

Michelle R. Gipson is the Publisher and Founder of Written magazine. She holds a B.A. and a M.A. from Hampton University, attended Stanford University's Executive Publishing Course, and Harvard University's Maynard Institute. A freelance writer, radio personality, and marketing and advertising executive, Ms. Gipson has been in publishing and media for more than 15 years. She has contributed to Essence, Chicken Soup for the African American Soul, Chicken Soup for the Recovering Soul, and Where Did Our Love Go: Love and relationship in the African American community.

Hammonds House Museum is generously supported by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Fulton County Arts and Culture, the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The National Performance Network, AT&T and WarnerMedia.

Hammonds House Museum’s mission is to celebrate and share the cultural diversity and important legacy of artists of African descent. The museum is the former residence of the late Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds, a prominent Atlanta physician and a passionate arts patron. A 501(c)3 organization which opened in 1988, Hammonds House Museum boasts a permanent collection of more than 450 works including art by Romare Bearden, Robert S. Duncanson, Benny Andrews, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Hale Woodruff, Amalia Amaki, Radcliffe Bailey and Kojo Griffin. In addition to featuring art from their collection, the museum offers new exhibitions, artist talks, workshops, concerts, poetry readings, arts education programs, and other cultural events throughout the year.

Located in a beautiful Victorian home in Atlanta’s historic West End, Hammonds House Museum is a cultural treasure and a unique venue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they continue to observe CDC guidelines, but look forward to welcoming in-person visitors soon! For more information about upcoming virtual events, and to see how you can support their mission and programming, visit their website: hammondshouse.org.

MEDIA Contact: Karen Hatchett, karen@hatchettpr.com