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Bridgett M. Davis: The World According to Fannie Davis

In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her home. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis’ mother.

Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie ran her numbers business for 34 years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: “Dying is easy. Living takes guts.”

Bridgett M. Davis’ memoir, The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In The Detroit Numbers, is a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She is also the author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow and Shifting Through Neutral, shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award. She is writer/director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts, and a creative writing and journalism professor at Baruch College, (City University of New York). Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Millions, Salon, the LA Times and O, Oprah Magazine. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she lives in Brooklyn with her family. Visit her website at www.bridgettdavis.com.

Natalie Peart is a former bookseller and current writer, reader and podcast producer. Her chaplet Sixty-one has been published with Belladonna*, a Brooklyn press. She is currently working on season 4 of the award-winning podcast, The Stoop. Natalie creates in the county of Kings.

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When: Thu., Feb. 6, 2020 at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Books Are Magic
225 Smith St.
718-246-2665
Price: Free
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In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her home. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis’ mother.

Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie ran her numbers business for 34 years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: “Dying is easy. Living takes guts.”

Bridgett M. Davis’ memoir, The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life In The Detroit Numbers, is a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She is also the author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow and Shifting Through Neutral, shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award. She is writer/director of the award-winning feature film Naked Acts, and a creative writing and journalism professor at Baruch College, (City University of New York). Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Millions, Salon, the LA Times and O, Oprah Magazine. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she lives in Brooklyn with her family. Visit her website at www.bridgettdavis.com.

Natalie Peart is a former bookseller and current writer, reader and podcast producer. Her chaplet Sixty-one has been published with Belladonna*, a Brooklyn press. She is currently working on season 4 of the award-winning podcast, The Stoop. Natalie creates in the county of Kings.

This event is free!

Buy tickets/get more info now