Join us as we host trailblazer and 55th Governor of New York,   David Paterson,  in conversation with Karen Boykin-Towns, Vice Chair of the  NAACP National Board of Directors.  They'll discuss Paterson's boundary-breaking memoir, Black, Blind, & in Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity.

About the Author:  David Alexander Paterson (born May 20,1954) is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, succeeding Eliot Spitzer and serving out the final three years of Spitzer's term from March 2008 to the end of 2010. He is the first African American to hold that position and the second legally blind US Governor of any state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting Governor of Arkansas for eleven days in January 1975. Since leaving office, Paterson has been a radio talk show host on station WOR in New York City, and was in 2014 appointed chairman of the New York Democratic Party by his successor as governor, Andrew Cuomo.

About Karen Boykin-Towns:  Karen has built a reputation as a visionary and strategic results-driven in complex business and government environments based on demonstrated success in the areas of policy, advocacy, communications, and proactive change management. Since concluding her impressive 22-year career at Pfizer Inc, she now serves as President/CEO of Encore Strategies, LLC. She was recently re-elected Vice Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Board of Directors, the oldest and largest non-partisan civil rights organization in the nation established in 1909.

About MahoganyBooks:  Derrick and Ramunda Young are owners/founders of the award-winning, MahoganyBooks in Washington, DC where they focus on books for, by and about people of the African Diaspora. The couple have been featured in Oprah Magazine, TIME Magazine, Essence, Washington Post Steve Harvey TV and Wall Street Journal among others.  Learn more at mahoganybooks.com

David Paterson and Karen Boykin-Towns at MahoganyBooks Front Row