Narratives of Strength: Rediscovering Jackie Kennedy and Owning Our Stories

Join bestselling author Dawn Tripp and the UNITED’s Executive Director Carly Callahan for a candid, thought-provoking conversation that explores how reclaiming the stories of women in history helps us better understand and reclaim our own. Inspired by Dawn’s acclaimed novel Jackie, the evening will use the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as a lens through which to examine the complexities of power, voice, and identity for women in America – then and now.

Together, Dawn and Carly will reflect on their own experiences navigating the expectations placed on women in leadership, art, and public life. They will explore how women have long been required to cultivate subtle, strategic tools to exercise influence, and how society has often preemptively dismissed or diminished their power. Jackie’s story, as rendered in Jackie, becomes not just a portrait of an icon, but a springboard for a deeper conversation about memory, myth, and the urgent need to reclaim the narrative.

Drawing on over a decade of archival research and personal insight, Dawn will share what she uncovered about the inner life of Jackie Kennedy, a woman whose quiet strength and formidable intellect helped shape American history. Together, she and Carly will invite the audience to consider how telling our stories with honesty and intention can shift culture, and how remembering women fully is an act of power in itself.

A Q&A and book signing will follow the conversation.