
{"id":1268,"date":"2007-11-08T07:36:42","date_gmt":"2007-11-08T15:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/11\/08\/recently-tea-with-lee-draws-happy-crowd\/"},"modified":"2007-11-08T07:36:42","modified_gmt":"2007-11-08T15:36:42","slug":"recently-tea-with-lee-draws-happy-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/11\/08\/recently-tea-with-lee-draws-happy-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Recently: Tea with Lee draws happy crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/recently110807resized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/recently110807resized.jpg\" height=\"195\" width=\"261\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Valarie Schwartz\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although Wednesday had been Halloween, eeriness hung in the air Thursday afternoon as I walked into the Estes Street Post Office to find nobody in line and two clerks waiting to serve me \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in a place where there is usually a wait.<br \/>\nWith a little time to kill before going to the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual Tea with Lee (Smith) event at Foster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Market, I popped into University Mall where employees outnumbered customers wherever I went. The paintings of Jane Filer hanging in Tyndall Galleries pulled me in \u00e2\u20ac\u201d her freedom with shapes in predominating primary colors provide such happy paintings it was comforting to be offered assistance just to be able to share by joy.<\/p>\n<p>En route to Foster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it seemed that even the streets had been vacated \u00e2\u20ac\u201d where was everyone at 4:30 p.m.?<\/p>\n<p>The answer was at Foster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which was packed and abuzz.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Like many Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center fundraisers, the room was filled with women (plus four men) and the hum that erupts with their gatherings; happy woman sounds balancing the happy paintings I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just seen, ingredients for a terrific afternoon.<br \/>\nWith finger sandwiches, crumpets, scones and cookies served with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tea\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that was actually wine, the party was on: women greeting friends and acquaintances not recently enjoyed; settling into seating, ready to hush when Ann Gerhardt, executive director of the center, climbed up on a table (one with a microphone and podium standing on it) and brought the gathering to order.<\/p>\n<p>Gerhardt leads the staff of eight (some part-timers) in their challenge to serve the women of the community during the snags that life so unpredictably provides \u00e2\u20ac\u201d career changes, divorce, financial hardship, relationships gone sour \u00e2\u20ac\u201d so they can continue forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We helped 4,500 people in our programs last year, giving them all the tools they need to be self-sustaining,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gerhardt happily stated.<\/p>\n<p>The Tea with Lee tradition provides Smith an opportunity to introduce a local woman author to the women who support the center, and this year Smith brought them Haven Kimmel, who charmed her way into their hearts even before reading from her latest book, The Used World.<\/p>\n<p>Smith had already shared the story of her first meeting with Kimmel, who some years back had followed Smith, her future mentor, into the restroom at Barnes &amp; Noble after Smith had arrived to give a reading.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I thought she was a stalker,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>After Kimmel climbed on the table with a witty remark about the last time she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d stood on a table in a public place, she explained that her purpose in following Smith had been to deliver her a message. Before leaving her native Indiana, her mentor there had given her several of Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s books and told Kimmel that if she ever met Smith she should let her know how important her books had been to Kimmel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Hoosier writer friend.<\/p>\n<p>Kimmel already had the hardest thing about meeting an admired person worked out \u00e2\u20ac\u201d what to say \u00e2\u20ac\u201d providing her the courage to make the approach. She had no way of knowing that Smith would invite her to attend her writer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workshop.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I followed her into the bathroom . . . and ended up with a polished book,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kimmel said of her memoir, A Girl Named Zippy, published in 2002.<\/p>\n<p>There has been no dimming of the luster or courage through publication of her next five books, and her wit and energy won new fans as the women of the Chapel Hill area gathered together, leaving behind checks of gratitude and encouragement for all the Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Center does \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including bringing them together for the happy times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00c2\u00a0 By Valarie Schwartz\u00c2\u00a0 Although Wednesday had been Halloween, eeriness hung in the air Thursday afternoon as I walked into the Estes Street Post Office to find nobody in line and two clerks waiting to serve me \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in a place where there is usually a wait. With a little time to kill before going&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}