August Author Talks

Dr. Marcia Chatelain | Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
August 3 at 1:00 PM CDT

Join us in conversation with Dr. Marcia Chatelain as she discusses her Pulitzer prize-winning book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.
Dr. Marcia Chatelain set out to answer the question of how fast-food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods. McDonald’s has often been blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans. In Franchise, Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast-food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who–in the troubled years after King’s assassination–believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality.

About the author: Dr. Marcia Chatelain is a Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University. She is also the author of South Side Girls: Growing up in the Great Migration. In 2021, Chatelain received the Pulitzer Prize in History, the Hagley Prize in Business History, and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) Lawrence W. Levine Award for Franchise. An active public speaker and educational consultant, Chatelain has received awards and honors from the Ford Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2016, the Chronicle of Higher Education named her a Top Influencer in academia in recognition of her social media campaign #FergusonSyllabus, which implored educators to facilitate discussions about the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.
Registration Link: https://libraryc.org/cals/19363/register

Liz Moore | Long Bright River
August 9th at 8:00 PM

Join us for an evening with New York Times Bestselling author Liz Moore as she discusses her international bestseller, Long Bright River, and her other works.
The novel takes place in Philadelphia, where Moore has lived for a decade. She traces the story of two sisters estranged from each other but bonded by their choices. Mickey is a cop, and Kacey lives on the streets in the vice of addiction. When Kacey disappears, Mickey panics over her sister’s safety—obsessed with finding the culprit and her sister before it’s too late.
Drawing on deeply personal volunteer work, Liz Moore spins a story that is both graphically honest and dignified. Long Bright River puts a very human face on the effect that addiction can have on generations of families and communities.

About the Author: Liz Moore is the author of four novels, a winner of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature, and she teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at Temple University.
Registration Link: https://libraryc.org/cals/19365/register

Michele Harper | The Beauty in Breaking
August 22nd at 8:00 PM

Michele Harper is a female African American emergency room physician in an overwhelmingly male and white profession. Brought up in Washington, D.C., in a complicated family, she went to Harvard, where she met her husband. They stayed together through medical school until two months before she was scheduled to join the staff of a hospital in central Philadelphia when he told her he couldn’t move with her. Her marriage at an end, Harper, began her new life in a new city, in a new job, as a newly single woman.
As Harper learned to become an effective ER physician in the ensuing years, bringing insight and empathy to every patient encounter, she understood that each of us is broken—physically and emotionally. How we recognize those breaks, how we try to mend them, and where we go from there are all crucial parts of the healing process.
This author talk with Michele Harper will cover many of the lessons she’s learned on her inspiring personal journey and the success of her New York Times bestselling memoir, The Beauty in Breaking.

About the author: Michele Harper has worked as an emergency room physician for more than a decade at various institutions, including chief resident at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx and in the emergency department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.
Registration Link: https://libraryc.org/cals/19364/register

Liz Wiseman | Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact
August 25th at 11:00 AM

Join us as we sit down in conversation with Liz Wiseman, New York Times Best Selling author, researcher, and executive adviser. Liz will talk about her latest book, Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger and Multiply Your Impact, and her other work.
In Impact Players, Liz asks the question, why do some people break through and make an impact while others get stuck going through the motions? In every organization, impact players are indispensable colleagues who can be counted on in critical situations and consistently receive high-profile assignments and new opportunities. Managers know who these top players are, understand their worth, and want more of them on their team, whether on center stage or behind the scenes.
Wiseman reveals the secrets of these stellar professionals who play the game at a higher level. Drawing on insights from leaders at top companies, Wiseman explains what the most influential players are doing differently, how small and seemingly insignificant differences in how we think and act can make an enormous impact, and why– with a little coaching–this mindset is available to everyone who wants to contribute at their highest level and do more meaningful work.

About the author: Liz Wiseman is a researcher and executive advisor who teaches leadership to executives worldwide. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools, Wall Street Journal bestseller Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work, and Wall Street Journal bestseller Impact Players: How to Take the Lead, Play Bigger, and Multiply Your Impact. She is the CEO of the Wiseman Group, a leadership research and development firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California.
Registration link: https://libraryc.org/cals/19367/register