Exclusive Portraits: Stacey Abrams at Chicago Humanities Festival

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CHICAGO – Stacey Abrams, the activist from Georgia, has created power in an old fashioned way … by actually getting out the vote. Her efforts had Georgia … a southern state … show up for Joe Biden in 2020, and her influence produced two Democratic Senators to represent Georgia going forward. She appeared at the Chicago Humanities Festival on June 1, 2023.

Stacey Abrams, Chicago Humanities Festival, June 1st, 2023
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Stacey Yvonne Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, but grew up in Mississippi. When her ministerial parents moved to Atlanta to finish their degrees, Abrams graduated high school there in 1991. After her Bachelors, Masters and Law Degrees, she worked in various businesses before getting elected to the General Assembly in Georgia and front-running the Democratic Party in the State. She ended her term there to run for Governor, losing in 2018 in a squeaker that weakened the Republican Party in the state. Her “Fair Fight” initiative in 2020 was instrumental in turning Georgia Blue, an extraordinary turnabout for a historically segregationist and Confederate state.

Abrams appeared at the Spring Season Chicago Humanities Festival in an event moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, and represented “Rogue Justice,” her second novel written under her name (released May 23rd). She is a long-time novelist, writing eight romance themed books under the name Selena Montgomery, and two non-fiction activist books again under her own name. Photographer Joe Arce took these Exclusive Photos at the event at the Vic Theatre in Chicago.

Stacey Abrams and Her Book ‘Rogue Justice’
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com