National Museum of Women in the Arts Book Club

Join us for a dynamic live reading of Saida Agostini’s poetry collection STUNT (2020), a reimagining of the life of Nellie Jackson, an early twentieth century brothel owner, freedom fighter, and entrepreneur.

Literary maven Lisa Pegram will lead the reading, which will also feature Agostini and performing artists Holly Bass, Dehejia Maat, Maryam Fatima Foye, and Melani Douglass. The reading will be followed by a conversation with the author about the book and its themes, and then a Q&A session. Images from NMWA’s collection that represent themes from STUNT will also be interspersed throughout the program.

This book discussion series, presented by the museum‘s public programs and Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center teams.

About STUNT:
What does it mean to know the interior lives of Black women? STUNT imagines scenes from the life of Nellie Jackson. Born in 1902, Miss Nellie ran a brothel in Natchez, Mississippi for sixty years until her death in 1990. A freedom fighter and entrepreneur who spied on the KKK and supported civil rights activists, Nellie Jackson is a legend that troubles our notions of Black narratives and histories. By turns jubilant, sensual and violent, STUNT imagines Nellie as a woman who revels in her Blackness, power and creation.