Ann Petry: Life and Legacy

Born in Old Saybrook in 1908, Ann Lane Petry shot to public notice in 1947 when her novel, The Street, hit the bestseller list. The first Black American woman to sell a million copies of a book, she shunned fame while building a body of work that included novels, short stories, literary criticism, and children’s books. Her work examined the ways that race, class, and gender affected the lives of Black women, anticipating the critical framework known today as intersectionality.  In this free, virtual discussion, Dr. Deborah McDowell and Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield will explore Petry’s work and legacy. 

This event is free! Click here to register. When you do, you’ll receive the Zoom link in your email confirmation. Questions? Contact Natalie Belanger, Adult Programs Manager, at nbelanger@connecticutmuseum.org.

 About Our Speakers: 

Dr. Deborah McDowell, a scholar of African American/American literature, is the Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Virginia. Her publications include ‘The Changing Same’: Studies in Fiction by African-American Women, Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin, as well as numerous articles, book chapters, and scholarly editions. Extensively involved in editorial projects pertaining to the subject of African-American literature, she founded the African-American Women Writers Series for Beacon Press and served as its editor from 1985-1993. This project oversaw the reissue of fourteen novels by African American women writers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She also served as a period editor for the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, now in its third edition; contributing editor to the D. C. Heath Anthology of American Literature, and co-editor with Arnold Rampersad of Slavery and the Literary Imagination.  

Dr. Ravynn K. Stringfield is an author, scholar, and artist. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from William & Mary. Her research focuses on Black women and girls as creators and protagonists of new media narratives that are futuristic, fantastic and/or digital in nature. Currently, Dr. Stringfield is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the Rhetoric and Communication Studies Department at the University of Richmond.