An Evening with Kathryn Stockett in conversation with Pastor Laurie

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In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high.
Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford on a mission to ask her social-climbing sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. And Charlie is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely sisterhood—but in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, women’s freedom is fragile, and making an enemy can have dire consequences, will the price they pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to resilience, friendship, and the fierce, funny women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She lives in New York City and Mississippi.

The Rev. Dr. Laurinda M. Hafner’s passion for prophetic ministry, the social gospel, interfaith dialogue, and the arts has been the mark of her vibrant ministry. She was called as Senior Pastor of Coral Gables Congregational UCC in 2006. In 2022, Pastor Laurie, as she is known, along with another Christian, three Jews, one Unitarian-Universalist and a Buddhist, sued the State of Florida over reproductive rights on religious grounds. From that experience came her contribution to an anthology of writings called, Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v. Wade, edited by Krystale E. Littlejohn and Rickie Solinger from University of California Press. Pastor Laurie is a community activist, especially engaged in LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, the work of anti-racism, anti-book banning, and interfaith dialogue. She is probably best known as the pastor who goes up into the Church Tower each year and stays there until at least six tons of food is collected. Over the past years she has raised more than 125 tons of food for the hungry of South Florida.

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