. >> good evening, everyone i'm delight to be here to welcome you to the conversation with lalita tademy and scott shafer. lalita was born in southern california. and their home louisiana west maintained a noncalifornia edge. she's always been interested in her family stories especially ones about here great grand mother emily who died with a life savings hidden in her mattress. lalita level her position at sun miko systems to seresearch her family. she had no choice but to write about the amazing people. the result was "cane river" her novel based on the lives of slave women in louisiana women who whom she descended. the second book, red river published in january of 2007. my pleasure to welcome lalita tademy and scott shafer. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. out of curiousity a show of hands how many of you have read the book? wow? >> you will have a chance to ask questions as well. bear with us. i don't think i need to summarize the back. sounds like everyone -- this is great. we heard a summary there. this is a story of resilience and about the brutality of slavery and the reso

anni >> good evening, everyone i'm delight to be here to welcome you to the conversation with lalita tademy and scott shafer. lalita was born in southern california. and their home louisiana west maintained a noncalifornia edge. she's always been interested in her family stories especially ones about here great grand mother emily who died with a life savings hidden

my pleasure to welcome lalita tademy and scott shafer. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. out of curiousity a show of hands how many of you have read the book? wow? >> you will have a chance to ask questions as well. bear with us. i don't think i need to summarize the back. sounds like everyone -- this is great. we heard a summary there. this is a story of resilience and about the brutality of slavery and the resourcefulness of your family going back several generations. i want to start at the end. your great grand mother emily grandma teet shart for petite. she died in 1936 before you were born. >> before. >> [laughter]. >> thank you, scott. >> what did you hear about your great grand mother growing up? >> i heard everything was she was elegant and she was gorgeous and she was vivacious and she was beautiful and she was amazing. and i also knew that she was color struck. i knew that she had a little judgment of people by their skin tone. and so i really didn't want to like her very much but everyone had had these fabulous stories that she was generous, that she cooked for