Mandell JCC Book Festival In Your Living Room | Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power

In partnership with the JCC Literary Consortium, the Mandell JCC Book Festival In Your Living Room is a virtual series of author Zoom talks and Q&As.

April 7 | 8:00 p.m.
“Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power” by Brooke Baldwin
In Conversation with CNN’s Holly Firfer

Zoom Author Talk & Q & A

Book purchases include signed bookplate! A Cappella Books is the official bookseller of the National JCC Literary Consortium.

After more than 20 years in a male-dominated industry, often reporting on the world’s most powerful men, veteran journalist and CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin spent two days back-to-back covering the 2017 presidential inauguration and the historic Women’s March in D.C. The experience changed her perspective and led to the question: what happens when women huddle? Baldwin wanted to learn from women who were forming change movements, or who were supporting each other in the workplace whether it be the courthouse, a Hollywood writer’s room, or on the sports field. But most of all, she wanted to learn what happens when women harness each others’ power by gathering together—either in person or virtually—to huddle.

Baldwin’s new book, Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power is a blend of journalism and personal narrative examining how women have come together in a wide variety of times and places, to provide each other with support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to solve problems or enact meaningful change.

Fascinated by this huddle phenomenon, Baldwin used her journalistic curiosity to explore:
◦ The benefits of all-girls learning environments, such as Karlie
Kloss’s Kode with Klossy and Reese Witherspoon’s Filmmaker
Lab for Girls in which young women are given the freedom to
make mistakes, and find their confidence.
◦ The wisdom from trusted pioneers such as Gloria Steinem, Billie
Jean King, and Madeleine Albright as well as contemporary
trailblazers like Stacey Abrams and Ava DuVernay.
◦ The ways huddles of women can make seismic change,
including the huddle of Indigenous women saving the planet,
the women who founded Black Lives Matter, the mothers
fighting for sensible gun laws, America’s favorite female
athletes (Megan Rapinoe, Hilary Knight, and Sue Bird to name a
few) agitating for equal pay, and female teachers rallying to
improve working conditions for all educators.
◦ How women are choosing to become more intentional about
the life-saving power of friendship, including the bonds
between military wives, new moms, and nurses getting through
the time of COVID-19.
Along the way, readers learn about Baldwin’s personal journey of growing up in the South during a time of relative “huddle drought” and climbing the ladder of the male-dominated television news industry.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Brooke Baldwin is a Peabody Award finalist and news anchor at CNN. She is also the creator and host of CNN’s Digital series “American Woman,” which focuses on the stories of trailblazing women who have broken barriers in their fields and are now helping other women do the same. Huddle is her first book.

TICKETS: FREE virtual ticket/$36 for one virtual ticket and one copy of the book (includes shipping)

Partner: Liberty Bank