This week, BA fam—grab your coffee, get cozy, and let’s talk all things The Ghosts of Gwendolyn Montgomery, our official August/September book club pick! Mandi Woodruff-Santos sits down with none other than Clarence Haynes, author, publishing pro, and all-around NYC icon for a bold, joyful, and real convo packed with gems.

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Show recap:

• Mandi introduces Clarence and gets real about what inspired the Brown Ambition Book Club and her own book altar game. 
• Clarence shares how the powerful women of NYC—and some serious Shirley Chisholm style—sparked his creation of Gwendolyn Montgomery. 
• Dive deep into the book’s plot: a high-powered publicist with mystical secrets, a fashion event gone wild at the Brooklyn Museum, and a botanica in the South Bronx run by an Afro-Latine queer psychic
• Discussion on breaking generational trauma, mother wounds, fierce ambition, and why we’re all haunted by more than just ghosts. 
• A real talk about dating as a queer Black man in NYC—Clarence gets candid on finding intimacy in the big city and the sometimes wild, sometimes isolating dating scene.
• The realities of Black-centered speculative fiction—why it matters and what hustle it takes to get these stories out there.

Follow Clarence on IG @clarenceahaynes