Bebe Moore Campbell keeps it real with talk

There was standing room only in room 501G of the Cathedral of Learning on Thursday afternoon,… There was standing room only in room 501G of the Cathedral of Learning on Thursday afternoon, as community members, students and faculty gathered to hear novelist and Pitt alumna Bebe Moore Campbell speak.

The event was part of a series hosted by the English department, bringing distinguished alumni back to the University to speak about their experiences.

Perched upon a stool in front of a podium, the petite-framed Moore began the story of her life, while the audience sipped on coffee and tea and ate sweet snacks. Her keep-it-real attitude and commanding voice kept the lecture lively and entertaining.

Moore was raised in a Philadelphia row home by her mother and grandmother. In the summers, she would go to North Carolina and spend time with her father, who, after a car accident, was left paralyzed.

Her second book, “Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad,” detailed their relationship and how it developed.

Professor Faith Adiele told the audience that the book came out when she was preparing to meet her own father for the first time.

“It served as a manual for me,” Adiele said.

Moore graduated from Pitt with a degree in education in 1971. She is not afraid to say that she would not have made it into the University today.

“I didn’t break 1100 on the S.A.T,” Moore said.

Moore also revealed that she taught elementary school children for five years, and was a freelance writer on the side for 10.

“I never believed that my calling to be a writer was a calling to be poor,” she said.

As a “pen-for-hire,” Campbell wrote for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise and many other publications.

Her first book, “Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage,” started off as a piece written for Savvy Magazine. She used it to get her foot in the door of the writing world.

Much of Campbell’s writing deals with interpersonal relationships. She delves into the complexities that occasionally exist between families, communities and different races, often echoing her personal life.

“You write what you know,” Moore said.

Her experience dealing with a mentally ill loved one helped in the development of Moore’s first children’s book “Sometimes My Mommy Gets Mad.”

She read from her picture book about a little girl whose mother has bipolar disorder.

Though Moore noted for anyone interested in children’s books that “The pay is terrible,” she didn’t steer aspiring writers away from the field all together.

“There’s always a new generation of children to discover your book, so it has a long shelf life,” she said.

The lecture ended with a second reading from Moore’s book, “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine,” a book inspired by the Emmett Till murder in 1955.

To date, Moore has written 10 books, the last two of which will be released between 2006 and 2007. She is also a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”

She has received numerous awards, such as the NAACP Image Award for Literature and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Literature Award, along with the University of Pittsburgh’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

Currently, Moore lives in Los Angeles Ca. with her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr.