NORFOLK, Va. – The Slover Library will feature a three-part lecture series in honor of a former Norfolk librarian who was dedicated to educating the citizens of Norfolk through the library’s many services and programs.
Catherine “Kate” Lee Brinkley was a professional librarian at the City of Norfolk’s Kirn Memorial Library. The lecture series, named in her honor, brings authors to Norfolk and is sponsored by Jane Batten to keep the spirit of community discourse about current events alive and to celebrate recently-published books of national note.
Culinary historian and food writer Michael Twitty, author of “The Cooking Gene,” will kick off the first lecture October 18 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. He blogs at Afroculinaria.com, and has appeared on “Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern” and “Many Rivers to Cross with Dr. Henry Louis Gates.”
He has served as a judge for the James Beard Awards, is a fellow with the Southern Foodways Alliance and TED and served as the first Revolutionary in Residence at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Southern Living named Twitty one of “Fifty People Changing the South” and Root.com added him to their 100 most influential African-Americans under 45 (Beyonce beat him out as number one).
HarperCollins released Twitty’s “The Cooking Gene” in 2017, tracing his ancestry from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom. It was a finalist for The Kirkus Prize and The Art of Eating Prize and a third-place winner of Barnes&Noble’s Discover New Writer’s Awards in Nonfiction. “The Cooking Gene” won the 2018 James Beard Award for best writing as well as book of the year.
On January 27, 2019, from 4 to 6 p.m., Catherine Kerrison will present “Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America.”
On April 4, 2019, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Robert D. Putnam will present “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis.”
All three events will be free and open to the public. Book signings will be available.
