Doors open at 6:45pm with the book talk starting about 7pm.

Lonnae O’Neal is a senior writer for ESPN/Andscape, where she specializes in the intersection of race, sports and culture. She is a two-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalist's Salute to Excellence Award. Prior to her tenure at ESPN/Andscape, Lonnae spent nearly two and half decades as a reporter and columnist for The Washington Post where she won the Society for Features Journalism award for excellence in commentary and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism award for distinguished work in the coverage of race and ethnicity in America. She is an adjunct lecturer at the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, and she is the author of Bibb Country: Unearthing My Family Secrets of Land, Legacy - and Lettuce and I'm Every Woman, Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood and Work.

Bibb Country: Unearthing My Family Secrets of Land, Legacy – and Lettuce is a deeply personal and fiercely reported exploration of several generations of Lonnae O’Neal’s family, descendants of both enslavers and enslaved, set against the sweep of American history. What began with planting Bibb lettuce seeds in her backyard led Lonnae on a five-year journey all the way back to the antebellum South—revealing ties to the Kentucky Bibb family, a complicated legacy of enslavement, emancipation, and inheritance, and a powerful connection between food, freedom, and identity. In uncovering her own roots, Lonnae transforms the stories we tell—about ourselves, our families, and our nation.