Virtual Book Talk: Cousins

Co-Sponsored With the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (MSV), Hadley Regional Library's Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, and Samuels Public Library

What happens when a white woman, Phoebe, contacts a Black woman, Betty, saying she suspects they are connected through slavery? Join the co-authors of Cousins, which explores each woman's dramatic story and how they came together on a path toward reconciliation. Presented in partnership with Handley Regional Library's Stewart Bell Jr. Archives and Samuels Public Library in Front Royal.

Registration is free but please consider donating what you can to MSV. Register by November 3. Visit www.themsv.org or call 540-662-1473, ext. 240. After registering, you will receive an email confirmation with the Zoom link for the program.

Dr. Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin grew up in rural Culpeper and Warren counties, Virginia, one of five children. Thanks to her father’s determination, she entered and graduated from Warren County High School after suing the school board, based on the landmark Supreme Court Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954. Baldwin started her employment as a factory worker and climbed the corporate ladder to achieve executive management employment. After she retired, she wrote and published her autobiography, Wit, Will & Walls. Based in Texas, she is actively involved in Coming to the Table, and speaks frequently with Phoebe Kilby about making connections across the racial divide to create a more just and peaceful world.

Phoebe Kilby grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where she lived with her physician father, mother, and sister. Kilby had a long career as an urban and environmental planner, working on contracts with local, state, and federal governments. She studied at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. A descendant of enslavers, Phoebe was inspired by the Coming to the Table movement to connect with descendants of persons her family enslaved. She is dedicated to helping others uncover and explore the truths of their experiences and move toward racial reconciliation.