Attending An Author/Book Talk (2 pts)

 

On November 17, 2025, I attended an author talk at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, featuring Dr. Ashley Farmer and the launch of her biography of Pan-Africanist activist Queen Mother Moore, Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, And The Untold Story of Audley Moore. Dr. Farmer was in conversation with Dr. Akinyele Umoja, professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. 

I was extremely excited for this book talk because I had thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Farmer's previous work of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era. I really admire the masterful way that she uplifts the lives and work of Black women who have been elided in the larger historical narrative. Queen Mother Moore is a prime example of this, at least in my experience, because it wasn't until recently that I learned about her and the tremendous impact she has had on the Black Freedom Movement. 

In the conversation, Dr. Farmer gave us a brief overview of Queen Mother Moore's life, beginning with her upbringing in a middle-class Creole family that set her on a trajectory to join the Black elite. It was after marrying a Jamaican seaman and becoming involved in the then-burgeoning Garvey movement. What I found interesting was that despite her more conservative gender politics, she lived her life in a way that put her movement work ahead of any relationships with men. I honestly think that she is similar to a lot of Black women in the sense that we often proliferate a patriarchal narrative of how we ought to behave in our relationships to men, but in reality, because of the material conditions of our lives, we often have to live in a much different way than that. 

I also enjoyed Dr. Farmer's insight into her archival research process, what it looks like to work with often scant archival remnants, and how Black women historians have often had to engage in reconstruction and recovery when writing about Black women's lives. I was especially intrigued by this because I am engaging with archives in my current research and having to contend with archival gaps and ruptures. 

After the talk, I felt even more empowered to engage with Queen Mother Moore's life with a better understanding of who she was and to continue the work of excavating the lives of our undersung voices. 

- Gabrielle Cassell