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Donna Brazile coming to Gary to headline Black Expo

Crusader Staff Report

Democratic political strategist, television commentator and New York Times best-selling author Donna Brazile will be in Gary Saturday, April 27, to headline a major Black conference at the Genesis Convention Center.

Brazile will be the keynote speaker at the 27th Annual Indiana Black Expo (IBE) State Luncheon Conference, a day-long event that will include workshops on housing, financial literacy and community organizing.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, who serves as the IBE Chairman, will kick off the conference during a breakfast that will be held during the opening session.

Tanya Bell, president and CEO of the IBE, will speak on the state of the organization following Freeman-Wilson’s opening remarks.

The conference will conclude with an awards ceremony at 4 p.m.

Brazile is scheduled to speak at noon. Born in New Orleans, Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist and television political commentator. She is also the former interim National Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), as well as the former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute.

In 2017, Brazile released “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.” The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller. In 2018, Brazile released another book, titled, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics.” Brazile co-authored the book with Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore and with Veronica Chambers. All four Black women became trail blazers decades before women of color were elected mayors of major cities throughout the country.

Aside from working for the full recovery of her beloved New Orleans, Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office. Since 2000, she has lectured at over 125 colleges and universities across the country on such topics as “Inspiring Civility in American Politics,” “Race Relations in the Age of Obama,” “Why Diversity Matters,” and “Women in American Politics: Are We There Yet.”

She first got involved at the age of nine when she worked to elect a City Council candidate who had promised to build a playground in her neighborhood; the candidate won, the swing set was installed, and a lifelong passion for political progress was ignited. Brazile worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she became the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign.

Brazile also authored the best-selling memoir “Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics.” Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated newspaper columnist for Universal Uclick, a columnist for Ms. Magazine, and O, the Oprah Magazine, an on-air contributor to CNN, and ABC, where she regularly appears on ABC’s “This Week.” Her secret passion is acting; she has recently made two cameo appearances on CBS’ “The Good Wife.” Ask her and she’ll tell you that acting, after all, is the key to success in politics.

In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Ms. Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries” for the magazine’s first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement.

She is currently on the board of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Last, but never least, she is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. In the aftermath of the two catastrophic hurricanes that made landfall in the Gulf region, Brazile was appointed by former Governor Kathleen Blanco to serve on the Louisiana Recovery Board to work for the rebuilding of the state and to advocate for the Gulf recovery on the national stage.

Ms. Brazile received honorary doctorate degrees from Louisiana State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black, Catholic institution of higher education in the United States.

Ms. Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, DC.

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