Stephanie Land
New York Times bestselling author
Molly Smith Metzler
Award-winning playwright and screenwriter
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education
BONUS BOOK GIVEAWAY! We are giving away copies of Class to randomly selected Zoom attendees. Details on the webinar registration page.
When Stephanie Land set out to write her memoir Maid, she never could have imagined what was to come. Handpicked by President Barack Obama as one of the best books of 2019, it was called “an eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor” (People). Later it was adapted into the hit Netflix series Maid, which was viewed by 67 million households and was Netflix’s fourth most-watched show in 2021. Land’s escape out of poverty and abuse in search of a better life inspired millions.
Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.
Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.
Land will be in conversation with award-winning playwright and screenwriter Molly Smith Metzler, the creator, writer, and executive producer of the Netflix limited series Maid, which earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing of a Limited Series. Maid was nominated for three Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Critics Choice Awards, two TCA Awards, The Humanitas Prize, and more.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- The Alliance for Early Childhood
- The Avery Coonley School
- Baker Demonstration School
- Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School
- Catherine Cook School
- Chicago Jewish Day School
- Compass Health Center
- Connections for the Homeless
- Countryside Day School
- The Cove School
- Evanston Township High School D202
- The Family Institute at Northwestern University
- Family Service Center
- The Frances Xavier Warde School
- Francis W. Parker School
- Gorton Center
- Grayslake Community High School D127
- Hyde Park Day School
- Illinois Student Assistance Commission
- Kenilworth D38
- Lake Bluff D65
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Forest Community High School D115
- Lake Forest Country Day School
- Lake Michigan Association of Independent Schools
- Latin School of Chicago
- Leo Catholic High School
- Loyola Academy
- Lycée Français de Chicago
- Magnetar Capital
- Mindful Psychology Associates PC
- Morgan Park Academy
- New Trier High School D203
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Rebel Human
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Resurrection College Prep High School
- Rogers Park Montessori School
- Roycemore School
- Sacred Heart Schools
- Santa Clara University School of Law
- Science & Arts Academy
- Stevenson High School D125
- University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
- Wilmette Public Library
- Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
- Youth & Opportunity United (Y.O.U.)
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