Mon, Mar 30
|https://zoom.us/j/913145520
ONLINE! Bettye Kearse, The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family
Bettye will be in conversation with author, Sherri Burr who presented her book, Complicated Lives Free Blacks in Virginia, 1619–1865 at CW in December 2019
Date, Time & Location
Mar 30, 2020, 6:00 PM
https://zoom.us/j/913145520
About the Event
SEE BELOW FOR LINK TO WATCH THIS ON ZOOM.
Part personal quest, part testimony, part historical correction, The Other Madisons is the saga of an extraordinary American family told by a griotte in search of the whole story.
In The Other Madisons, local Santa Fean, Bettye Kearse—a descendant of an enslaved cook and, according to oral tradition, President James Madison—shares her family story and explores the issues of legacy, race, and the powerful consequences of telling the whole truth. For thousands of years, West African griots (men) and griottes (women) have recited the stories of their people. Without this tradition Bettye Kearse would not have known that she is a descendant of President James Madison and his slave, and half-sister, Coreen. In 1990, Bettye became the eighth-generation griotte for her family. Their credo—“Always remember—you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president”—was intended to be a source of…