HGA presents the sev­enth annu­al fea­tured show, It’s All About the Sto­ry. Each year gallery mem­bers choose a local author and book or sto­ry col­lec­tion to respond to in their own medi­um. Pre­vi­ous authors include Michael Mal­one, Jill McCorkle, Lee Smith, Allan Gur­ganus, John Bemis, and Nan­cy Pea­cock. This year the artists have select­ed a work by a per­son who plays a very sig­nif­i­cant role in the his­to­ry of Hills­bor­ough, Eliz­a­beth Keck­ly. Her mem­oir, Behind the Scenes, or Thir­ty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, describes her remark­able jour­ney from slav­ery in Hills­bor­ough to free­dom as an accom­plished dress­mak­er and con­fi­dante of Mary Todd Lin­coln. Each piece in the group show, It’s All About the Sto­ry, is an artist’s response to Keckly’s inspir­ing book.

In con­junc­tion with the show, a read­ing by Dr. William L. Andrews from his new book “Slav­ery and Class in the Amer­i­can South” is being host­ed at 3pm on Feb­ru­ary 10th at the Hills­bor­ough Gallery of Arts. Dr. Andrews is the May­nard Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish at the Uni­ver­si­ty of North Car­oli­na at Chapel Hill and an expert in African Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture, South­ern lit­er­a­ture and North Amer­i­can slave nar­ra­tives. A recep­tion and book sign­ing will fol­low the read­ing.