The Harry Belafonte Black Liberation Speaker Series: Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar with Alison Stewart

Amber Ruffin, a Late Night with Seth Meyers writer and host of Peacock's The Amber Ruffin Show, and her sister Lacey Lamar tell crazy stories about racism.

Amber Ruffin and her sister Lacey Lamar both grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Amber escaped and lives in New York, but Lacey is still living in their home state. From racist donut shops to strangers putting their whole hand in her hair, from being mistaken for a prostitute to being mistaken for Harriet Tubman, Lacey's daily experience of racism is a little different than what her sister encounters in New York. Amber and Lacey share horrifying and hilarious tales that are either painfully relatable or shockingly eye-opening (depending on how often you have personally been followed by security at department stores) to tackle the experience of modern-day racism.

Amber and Lacey will be joined in conversation with Alison Stewart, host of All Of It on WNYC.

The Harry Belafonte Black Liberation Speaker Series is made possible thanks to support from Kenneth Cole.

LIVE from NYPL is made possible by the support of Library patrons and friends, as well as by the continuing generosity of Celeste Bartos, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos, and the Margaret and Herman Sokol Public Education Endowment Fund.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
 Amber Ruffin is a writer and cast member on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers. She also amazingly became the first black woman to write for a late-night talk show in American history when she joined the staff in 2014, and was a writer/occasional performer on HBO's Black Lady Sketch Show. She has just launched her own late night show, The Amber Ruffin Show, on Peacock, the new NBC streaming service.  

Lacey Lamar is Amber Ruffin's big sister. She has worked in the healthcare and human service field for more than 25 years, thirteen of those working with troubled youth in her community. She volunteers her time and resources to black, brown refugee and indigenous fellow humans in any way she can. Lacey lives in Nebraska with her unbelievable amazing daughter Imani and their 130lb Great Dane Izzy.

GET THE BOOK
If you have a NYPL library card—or live in New York state and want to apply for one now—you can borrow You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism for free with our e-reader app SimplyE, available for iOS and Android devices. The title is available in accessible formats for community members who do not use standard print. Find out more at: nypl.org/talkingbooks. You can also request this book, and more, for pickup at one of our Grab & Go locations.

Readers everywhere who wish to purchase copies of You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism can do so at The New York Public Library Shop. Proceeds benefit The New York Public Library. 

This program will be streamed on Zoom and simulcast to YouTube. You must register with your email address in order to receive the link to participate. Please check your email shortly before the discussion to receive the link. Captions for this event will be provided. 

Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc.) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Sara Beth Joren at sarabethjoren@nypl.org.

For all other questions and inquiries, please contact publicprograms@nypl.org.

PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER
This Program uses a third-party website link. By clicking on the third-party website link, you will leave NYPL’s website and enter a website not operated by NYPL. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of every third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties with whom you interact with through our Library services. For more information about these third-party links, please see the section of NYPL's Privacy Policy describing "Third-Party Library Services Providers" at https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/legal-notices/privacy-policy.

During this Program, you will be using third-party platforms such as Zoom and YouTube, for the purpose of communication. This service may collect some personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, & password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy, which can be found here: Google Privacy Policy, Zoom Privacy Policy, YouTube Privacy Policy.

Amber Ruffin © Lloyd Bishop

Lacey Lamar. Photo courtesy of the author.