Today’s column is about one Ingrid Landis-Davis, a person I’d run across several times around town. However, I really didn’t know that much about her until, as my good luck would have it, recently.
You see, I sat next to her on a rank-soaked bench during a local political rally and at an adjacent table during another rally a few months before that. Despite that, I really didn’t know the complete Ingrid Landis-Davis story until I stumbled across a YouTube video of her recent book signing tour in Florida. I couldn’t contact her fast enough.
She granted me time from her busy schedule for an interview at a local coffee shop, 60 minutes that left me stumped by how to coalesce her story down into a single column. So, I decided to offer a snapshot of background here, take liberty in cheery picking her long list of accomplishments, awards, etc., and conclude with a list of questions intended to round out her story.
A tall task? You bet. But here goes.
Ingrid Landis-Davis, born in Durham, North Carolina, is the daughter of Warren “Dean” Stroud who played with the Newark Eagles of the old Negro baseball league. That’s how she ended up in New Jersey and broke tradition by being one of the first women to enroll into previously all-male Rutgers University.
Armed with degrees from Rutgers in Social Services and Creative Writing, she became the second Black stewardess hired by United Airlines and was stationed in San Franscico, California, a hotbed at that time in rough and tumble politics and social activism in the sixties. While there she edited the Diggers Newspaper, created social activist stories with other artists and met late legendary Blues singer John Lee Hooker. The next stop in Ingrid’s career was Hawaii, where she spent 12 years as a copywriter with the Sun Newspaper.
Turning now to a snapshot of her professional career.
With more than 35 years of media sales, management, publication development, advertising and online marketing, Ingrid has worked in markets across the country from New York to Hawaii. Her publication affiliations include the Florida Trend magazine, Pacific Business News, the Business Digest magazine, The Maddux Report, the Las Vegas Business Press, Playbill, and Sacramento News & Review. She participated in the launch of the Tampa Bay Business Journal and Florida Business magazine.
Ingrid is the past president of the Tampa Bay Advertising Federation, the founding president of the Network of Executive Women, founding president of the Democratic Women’s Council of Douglas County, Vice Chair of Trinity County Democratic Party, Chair of Douglas County Democratic Party, founding member of 100 Black Women, and founding member of Hunter’s Green Country Club.
Ingrid is the recipient of the Advertising Professional of the Year Award, was named to Who’s Who of America and was selected as Douglas County Georgia’s 2020 Citizen of the Year. She’s authored two novels, Short Side of the Triangle and Doing Life with Hope (Dec.2023); a cookbook, Exotic Soul Kitchen; and a collection of poetry, Blues Child’s~Verse to Song.
Okay with that as background, here’ re her answers to my questions:
What author/book had the greatest influence on you and how?
Oh my! I’ll give you a long answer to your short question. Some immediately come to mind, including Walter Mosley. I’ve taken several writing workshops with him and talked with him several times even before I even met him. Next, it’s Maya Angelou who I once talked with as well. I loved her work. And there’s Alice Walker who I met once at the launch of her first children’s book which was beautifully illustrated by one of my oldest and dearest friends. It was during an intimate setting in San Francisco. Actor Danny Glover was there with his daughter. Another was Lenore Kandell the poet. She was somewhat of a controversial writer who befriended me in the 60’s when I first moved to San Franscisco. In fact, she stayed with me at the artistic/musical commune when I lived in Haiku.
How would you compare your experiences living in Douglasville versus in other places you’ve lived?
Every community is unique, has its own pluses and minuses and requires different things to make progress and improve the lives of its citizens. To go through how each place is different would take a book or two to write. Nevertheless, I’ve written about much of this in my latest novel: Doing Life with Hope – A Patchwork Journey.
What have your life experiences taught you about dealing with disappointment and rejection?
Disappointments and rejections are just a part of life. Those in the book writing field can attest to that from actual experience. But you learn to get up and keep moving. I have a sign by my back door that reads: An Attitude of Gratitude is a never-ending Prayer. Gratitude determines Altitude.
As a member of the African American community what do you suggest we do more, less of, stop doing altogether or start anew for progress during these trying times?
Well, a lot of good things are already happening, so I’d suggest that we don’t get caught in all the distractions and remain focused on the local community where you live. Politics start at the local level, so my advice is to get involved because as the saying goes ‘out of sight out of mind’ when key decisions are made. Finally, we should reinforce our own organizations and build connections with others outside our traditional networks and identity groups.
Of the many awards you’ve received over your career which ones stand out as the ones you’re most proud of?
Well on the professional side, I’m grateful for receiving the Advertising Professional of the Year Award as well as the Addy Awards for Copywriting. On the volunteer side, the Douglas County Democratic Party Phil Davis Award and the 2020 Douglas County Citizen of the Year Award stand out as especially meaningful for me.
Tell me one question that you hoped I’d ask but didn’t.
Well Mr. Howard, you have been very thorough so I’m good. And by the way, I always enjoy reading your Sentinel articles, so have at it with this one and others you write in the future.
You now get the last word Ingrid; what’s your parting message to my readers?
I’d say get involved and stay involved because, as American author William Faulkner once wrote, you move a mountain one stone at a time.
When Ingrid glanced at her watch, I knew that my time was about to run out. On the way home my experience in that coffee café learning about the other side of Ingrid Landis-Davis’s story conjured up memories of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s famous TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” one that emphasizes the importance of diverse narratives and warns us against the stereotypes that arise from hearing only one person’s perspective about a person or culture.
So, my departing advice after an hour with Ingrid is this: don’t get stuck on one side of someone’s single story …..and never allow a single story be told about you!
Terry Howard is an award-winning writer, a contributing writer with the Chattanooga News Chronicle, The American Diversity Report, The Douglas County Sentinel, TheBlackmarket.com, recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, and third place winner of the Georgia Press Award.
