pride

I am so, so proud of my friend Camille. She's the little sister of one of my best friends, and feels like my sister too. She's written the definitive book on Bert Williams, a black American (by way of Antigua) star of vaudeville and Broadway. Williams was the premier black actor/singer of his day, and had a lasting influence on American popular music. He was known and admired by talents like Duke Ellington and WC Fields. Camille, ahem, Dr. Forbes, gave a reading on Williams at the Riverside Public Library today. As I learned, Riverside is where he spent part of his childhood and graduated from high school, so there was lively interest in Camille's research and her impression of the time in which he lived.

Find out more about Camille's book here.

Bert Williams: Burnt Cork, Broadway, and the Story of America's First Black Star