DETROIT WRITER HONORS HER TIE TO GIANT OF AMERICAN DERMATOLOGY, THE LATE DR. CLARENCE S. LIVINGOOD, IN AUTHOR AND R-TV COMMENTATOR, TAVIS SMILEY'S LATEST BOOK - WILL BE PART OF NATIONAL "KEEPING THE FAITH DAY" OBSERVANCES SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 14, 2002

The caring and compassionate work of a celebrated American dermatologist Dr. Clarence Livingood with a facially disfigured black girl in Detroit the late 1960's and early 1970's is detailed in a personal memoir excerpt featured in Tavis Smiley's "Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Hope and Healing in Black America." (Doubleday Books). Keeping the Faith" offers 89 poignant essays from ordinary black Americans and public figures including Cornel West, Iyanla Vanzant, Danny Glover, and Smiley himself relating stories, reminiscences and testimonies" of each authors most important life changing and sometimes, life-saving experiences." Tavis Smiley and 40 contributors to the book will celebrate the book's publication and the power of the personal story to uplift during National Keeping the Faith Day slated for November 14, 2002.

NEWS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Karen Williams at 734-727-7051
         Veraandwillieschild@att.net

DETROIT-AREA WRITER HONORS HER TIE TO CELEBRATED AMERICAN DERMATOLOGIST, THE LATE DR. CLARENCE S. LIVINGOOD, M.D., IN AUTHOR, PRIME TIME CORRESPONDENT, AND HOST OF THE TAVIS SMILEY SHOW
(NPR), TAVIS SMILEY'S LATEST BOOK - WILL BE PART OF NATIONAL "KEEPING THE FAITH DAY" OBSERVANCES SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 14, 2002

INKSTER, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 6, 2002: Inkster (MI)writer, Karen Williams, and
contributor to Tavis Smileys Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage,
Healing and Hope from Black America (Doubleday, $22.95, ISBN:0-385-50514-0;
October 2002), will join 40 national contributors including four additional Michiganders, Dawn Harris, Donna Johnson-Thomas, Sharon Blessman and Ken Brown, in hosting public and private booksignings across the country to share their inspirational
stories of love, hope and healing as part of National Keeping the Faith Day"
on November 14, 2002.

"Keeping the Faith" offers 89 poignant essays from ordinary black Americans
and public figures including Cornel West, Iyanla Vanzant, Danny Glover, and
Smiley himself relating stories, reminiscences and testimonies" of each
authors most important life changing and sometimes, life-saving experiences";
all stories of faith in God, others, in oneself, and someone having faith in
you." Williams contribution, Biography of a Scar," an excerpt from her
memoir, details her experience as a patient of former Henry Ford Hospital
Dermatology Department Chair, Dr. Clarence Livingood.

Livingood, considered a "giant of American Dermatology", the only physician to
have been awarded a Distinguished Service Award from the American Medical
Association, and a long-term affiliate of the American Board of Dermatology and
the American Academy of Dermatology, died in 1998 of Leukemia. He treated
Williams from 1969 to 1974 for severe facial disfigurement caused by extensive
keloid scarring resulting from a case of Chicken Pox. Hers was considered a
landmark case, and is a story particularly valuable to the black facially
disfigured, or anyone who knows what it means to weep and feel marked"
literally and symbolically because they are perceived to be different."

Facial disfigurement in the black community, the short and long-term effects
of it on the disfigured, their caregivers and families, has received little
attention in popular press and books. Ive been blessed to find healing in
writing about and sharing my experience, especially in Tavis Smiley's "Keeping
the Faith." I encourage others to consider or write about their own actual or
symbolic scarring, and perhaps seek and find meaningful resolution or insight
in this kind of reflection ," Williams said.

Former chair of the award-winning Detroit Writers Guild, and a widely
published, poet, essayist and fiction writer, Williams manages Maternal Child
Health and Minority Health programs at Detroit-area health department.
        
A selection from Biography of a Scar", pages 48-51: (Chapter Two: Inspiration):

     One day, in a scene that mirrored a key passage of Shirley Jacksons The
Lottery," two schoolmates followed me home through the woods near our home and
pelted me with pebbles. My mother shared the experience with my father. He
waited for at a corner the next afternoon. His voice curt and rough as told the
boys, If you ever mess with my daughter again..." When does a persons beauty,
ugliness or disfigurement fail to count? I wondered if those boys cruelty was
predisposed by something outside my body. Are children that eager to harm or
potentially maim?" END