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Rachel E. Cargle and Tia Williams | Well-Read Black Girl

A Renaissance of Our Own and The Perfect Find

Activist, entrepreneur and philanthropic innovator Rachel E. Cargle and award-winning author Tia Williams join Glory Edim to kick off the NEW Well-Read Black Girl Book Club at DC Public Library!

Join the newest and hottest book club in town! Glory Edim is excited to bring her legendary book club to the DC Public Library, introducing a cohort of diverse writers to future generations.

For the inaugural meeting of the Well-Read Black Girl at DC Public Library Book Club, activist, entrepreneur and philanthropic innovator Rachel E. Cargle and award-winning author Tia Williams sit down with Glory to discuss their newest releases - Cargle's memoir and manifesto, A Renaissance of Our Own and Williams' contemporary romance, "The Perfect Find".

Both titles show that in both the real world and in fiction, all women hit a point in their lives where they have to find their truest selves. Whether it is your evolution as a queer person that changes the way you see the world and the way the world perceives like Cargle you or William's character Jenna Jones navigating her career and personal life as the world changes faster than she can keep up, these titles are a reminder that at every stage it is important for us to check in with ourselves and find clarity. 

About Rachel E. Cargle

Rachel E. Cargle is an activist, entrepreneur, and philanthropic innovator. She is the founder of The Loveland Group, a family of companies including Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre, a literary space that celebrates marginalized voices, and The Great Unlearn, an adult learning platform that centers the teaching of BIPOC thinkers. In 2018, she founded The Loveland Foundation, offering free access to mental health care for Black women and girls. 

About A Renaissance of Our Own

There are breaking points in all our lives when we realize that the way things have been done before just doesn’t work for us anymore, be it how we approach our relationships, our belief systems, our work, our education, or even our rest. For activist, philanthropist, and CEO Rachel E. Cargle, reimagining—the act of creating in our minds that which does not exist but that we believe can and should—has been a lifelong process. Reimagining served as the most powerful catalyst for Cargle’s personal transformation from a small-town Christian wife to an incisive queer feminist voice of a generation.

In A Renaissance of Our Own, we witness the sometimes painful but always inspiring breaking points in Cargle’s life that fostered a truer identity. These defining moments offer a blueprint for how we must all use our imagination—the space that sees beyond limits—to live in alignment with our highest values and to craft a world independent of oppressive structures, both personal and societal. Cargle now invites you to acknowledge ways of being that stem from societal expectations instead of your personal truth, and to embark on a renaissance of your own. She provides the very tools and prompts that she used to unearth her own truth, tools that opened her up to be a more authentic feminist and purpose-driven matriarchal leader.

A Renaissance of Our Own gives us the courage to look at the world and say “I want something different.” It serves as a reminder of the power and possibility of reimagining a life that feels right, all the way down to the marrow of your bones.

About Tia Williams

Tia Williams had a fifteen-year career as a beauty editor for magazines including Elle, Glamour, and Essence. In 2004, she pioneered the beauty blog industry with Shake Your Beauty. She wrote the bestselling novel, The Accidental Diva, and penned two YA novels: It Chicks, and Sixteen Candles. Her award-winning novel, The Perfect Find, will be adapted into a Netflix film starring Gabrielle Union. Tia is currently an Editorial Director at Estée Lauder Companies and lives with her daughter and husband in Brooklyn.

About The Perfect Find

Will a forty-year-old woman with everything on the line – her high-stakes career, ticking biological clock, bank account – risk it all for a secret romance with the one person who could destroy her comeback, for good?

Jenna Jones, a former It-girl fashion editor, is forty, broke, and desperate for a second chance. When she’s dumped by her longtime fiancé and fired from Darling magazine, she begs for a job from her arch nemesis, Darcy Vale. Darcy, the beyond-bitchy publisher of StyleZine.com, agrees to hire her rival – only because her fashion site needs a jolt from Jenna’s old-school cred. But Jenna soon realizes she’s in over her head. 

Jenna’s working with digital-savvy millennials half her age, has never even “Twittered,” and pretends to still be a Fashion Somebody while living a style lie (she sold her designer wardrobe to afford her sketched-out studio, and now quietly wears Walmart’s finest). What’s worse is that the twenty-two-year-old videographer assigned to shoot her web series is driving her crazy. Wildly sexy with a smile Jenna feels in her thighs, Eric Combs is way off-limits – but almost too delicious to resist.

Well-Read Black Girl at DC Public Library is generously supported by the DC Public Library Foundation.

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