What I Heard In The Tea Room

By Jack Wibbe

My name is Emilia, I'm coming up on 75. Back in my teenage years I was a bartender in a speakeasy down Wentworth Avenue in Chicago, where the white city bumps up against the Black Belt.
This was a different kind of speak, for women to get into trouble, or sometimes get out of it. And it's a place where they told stories, like the court of the Persian king.
I heard the story Nellie the Circumnavigatrix, travelled around the world.
I heard the tale of Sofia the Kiowa girl who hunted criminals in the old west.
And Ivy, ran a gay speakeasy in Kentucky.
And Sadie, colored woman who led her people to Chicago.
And Missus Roosevelt, the woman who would be king, never got to be president. The Alice one, not the Eleanor one.
And Trudy, the hoor who helped Harry Truman get elected.
And Penny, helped thousands of girls elope to Maryland.
And Rory, the girl who shut down the Chicago Mafia.
And Billie, the nurse who helped the children who survived the death camps.
This speakeasy is a real speak, where the gals speak easy, and everyone listens.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FR2QNFYF
• ISBN13: 9798264962523
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 526 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"