More than 250 readers, writers, and community supporters gathered to celebrate the Houston launch of Defender Managing Editor and NAACP Image Award–winning author ReShonda Tate and her newest novel, With Love From Harlem. The standing-room-only events brought Harlem Renaissance glamour and historical reflection to Houston, as guests turned out to support a hometown storyteller whose work continues to center Black history and legacy.
A proud product of Houston Independent School District schools, Tate described the moment as a full-circle return to the city where her writing journey began. She credited local teachers and mentors with nurturing her voice — one that has since produced more than 50 books spanning fiction, history, and social commentary. After three years of deep research, Tate’s latest work restores trailblazing jazz pianist and activist Hazel Scott to the spotlight, introducing new readers to a woman whose brilliance and bold activism reshaped music, film, and civil rights history.
The novel (available at Kindred Stories and wherever books are sold) explores Scott’s groundbreaking career and her high-profile, complicated marriage to congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., once known with Scott as Harlem’s most electrifying power couple. Through rich historical detail and emotional depth, Tate brings readers inside a world of art, politics, love, and sacrifice — where ambition and activism often came at a steep personal cost.
The celebration was held as part of the grand opening of the Edison Arts Cultural Center, a new creative hub designed to spotlight arts, culture, and community engagement in the Missouri City–Houston area. The center was created as a gathering space for performances, literary conversations, exhibitions, and educational programming, with a mission to elevate diverse voices and make the arts more accessible to the community. Hosting the book launch conversation there added special significance, aligning the unveiling of a history-restoring novel with the debut of a venue dedicated to preserving and promoting cultural expression.
Check out the Photo Gallery. (Photos by Jimmie Aggison)
