Wednesday, February 21 at 7:00pm at the Killingworth Firehouse. Author Elisabeth Petry with lead a discussion of her mother’s background and the remarkable family who shaped her. Elisabeth’s inspirational and extraordinary family includes two of the first licensed African American Pharmacists in the state of Connecticut and her mother, Ann Petry who was the first best selling female African American author. The discussion will also provide information on the progress of Ann Petry and the James Family Letters, the documentary being developed by Petry and her cousins. The program is free but advance sign up is required. The snow date is Wednesday, February 28th.
Elisabeth Petry was born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the only child of George D. Petry and Ann (Lane) Petry. Elisabeth worked for more than fifteen years as a journalist at the Middletown Press, the Meriden Record-Journal, and the Hartford Courant. She is the editor of Can Anything Beat White?: A Black Family’s Letters, based on some four hundred letters that her grandmother saved. She is the author of At Home Inside: A Daughter’s Tribute to Ann Petry. She conducts a writing workshop for military veterans at Russell Library in Middletown. With her cousins Ashley James and Kathryn Golden, she is developing a documentary film based on the letters collected in Can Anything Beat White? Elisabeth has an A.B. from Vassar College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She lives in Middletown with her husband, Larry Riley, who is a dog trainer and commander of the American Legion Post 75.
