Kim Coleman Foote’s Literary Journey: From Chicago State to Printers Row

Author Kim Coleman Foote reflects on her family’s legacy of strength, her debut novel “Coleman Hill” and the support she’s received as a finalist for prestigious awards. Her path, rooted at Chicago State University, brings her back to Chicago for an exciting weekend at CSU and the 39th Annual Printers Row Lit Fest (Photos Provided). During a Friday morning Zoom meeting, author Kim Coleman Foote shared a powerful family story that highlighted the bravery and strength of the women in her lineage. She spoke of her great-great-grandmother, a remarkable woman who lived during Jim Crow in Alabama at the turn of the century and stood up for herself against all odds. The story described how she handled a white neighbor’s pigs that kept rooting under her house, which caused difficulties: she ended up scalding them with boiling water.& When the neighbor confronted her with a shotgun, she fearlessly stood her ground. “He came to her, and he put a shotgun in her face. And she was like, pull it…and she lived to talk about it,” Foote said. Her debut novel, “Coleman Hill,” published last year, explores her family’s Great Migration journey from Florida and Alabama to New Jersey. The book...