CHOCOLATES FOR MARY JULIA | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Mar 18, 2024 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Mar 18, 2024 6:00 pm
450K
In Chocolates for Mary Julia, Mudd-Krijgelmans writes about her decadeslong career as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, which took her to countries around the world as an official representative of the United States. Her debut memoir, Flowers for Brother Mudd: One Woman’s Path From Jim Crow to Career Diplomat (2018), explored her upbringing in a Black family in the milieu of segregated Kentucky, her intellectual awakening, and a life-altering Fulbright scholarship to India. This newest volume centers on her diplomatic career from the 1970s through the ’90s. Written chronologically, the book opens in New Delhi, introducing readers to a range of cultural and political figures in India’s history. Particularly poignant is her description of a trip to Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta in 1975.
The memoir then takes readers on her subsequent journeys to Bangladesh, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Belgium. Although the author’s diplomatic expertise regarding Cold War–era geopolitics is on full display over the course of the narrative, its strength lies in its tone of vulnerability, often speaking to Mudd-Krijgelmans’ personal experiences as a Black woman in the diplomatic corps. Not only was she frequently the only Black woman in meeting rooms, but she was also raised as a Catholic, making her part of a religious minority in her Black community.
Her faith, she writes, would serve as a point of pride for her, particularly when Pope John Paul II’s defiance of communism mirrored her diplomatic objectives to limit Soviet influence in Europe and Asia. As indicated in the book’s title—which references the author’s mother, Mary Julia Harris—this work is also a celebration of Mudd-Krijgelmans’ family, whose dreams and sacrifices shaped her life. The author effectively shows how she experienced both systemic discrimination and achieved her own version of the American dream, reflecting the many complexities of her country’s history. Even while forced to continue her parents’ crusade in the “fight for equal rights,†she says, she remained a “burning patriot.â€
Judith Mudd-Krijgelmans is joining us on the Busboys stage to share a powerful memoir of a pioneering diplomat. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Judith will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of CHOCOLATES FOR MARY JULIA will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Judith Mudd-Krijgelmans was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, during the last days of racial segregation in the midst of the civil rights movement. Although shadowed by struggles and doing without, a loving family nurtured her. It was presided over by an upstanding, social studies teacher father (â€Brother Muddâ€), who rose from tobacco, tenant farming to head a school in coal country; and starry-eyed mother, Julia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Educated in Catholic schools, Judith was challenged to learn and make friends outside the narrow confines of the community she lived in. Although no one she knew was involved in foreign affairs, in this secure environment she set her mind on becoming a diplomat. Going away to college in Baltimore at Morgan State brought her in contact with a wide range of diverse people and offered her opportunities to build on her dream: a paid summer internship at Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC; a Fulbright to teach and study in India where she lived for two years.
After returning from India she earned a Master’s from American University’s School of International Studies; but not before going through a threadbare three years as a single parent. She got a break when she became speech writer to Harlem black Republican lawyer Gloria E.A. Toote, then-Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Nixon Administration, and in 1975, achieved her dream of joining the Foreign Service.
Working in public diplomacy (PD), she served in New Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Taipei, Hong Kong, Brussels, Libreville (with visits to Sao Tome); Bujumbura, and Brazzaville. At the start of her career in India, she gained recognition throughout the sub-continent for her promotion of Roots, the book and the film series. Career highlights include spearheading the first US-Hong Kong cultural presentation and establishment of a long-term American Fulbright Scholar Program in Mali. Among the variety of Washington tours were directing the first US civic education program in South Africa; responsibility for PD posts in eight French-speaking sub-Saharan African countries; and directing the first public outreach with web site for the State Department’s Office of Population, Refugees and Migration.
On leaving the Department in late 2004 she was honored with the Secretary’s Career Achievement Award for “outstanding dedication and commitment to the promotion of USG interests by telling America’s story to the world…†Her memoir looks back on the pivotal events that motivated her to pursue a career that won her this distinction. Get in touch at judithstory.com.
