Community & Events
A Conversation Worth Having — Atlanta Life Hosts Author Tayari Jones
Date TBD · Atlanta, Georgia
Event Recap · Community · Culture
Some partnerships make perfect sense the moment you name them out loud. Atlanta Life Insurance Company and Tayari Jones — an institution rooted in this city's history and an artist rooted in its soul — coming together to celebrate a book that is both deeply personal and deeply Atlanta. It was not a stretch. It was a natural meeting of two entities that love this city and the community it has built.
This spring, Atlanta Life opened its offices to the public for an intimate fireside chat with Jones — author, cultural icon, and the mind behind Kin, her celebrated new novel and her second selection for Oprah's Book Club. The evening was exactly what it was designed to be: a real conversation, in a real space, between a remarkable woman and the community that claims her as its own.
An Evening at Atlanta Life
The event was held in Atlanta Life's conference center — a setting that felt right for a conversation about history, identity, and the stories that shape a place. Open to the public, the evening drew an audience of community members, book lovers, and admirers of Jones's work who came ready to listen, to ask, and to connect.
At the center of the evening was a fireside chat moderated by Courtney Johnson, Atlanta Life's Vice President of Group Solutions. Courtney brought both warmth and intention to the conversation — creating the kind of space that allowed Jones to speak freely, to go deep, and to share the layers of Kin and its connection to Atlanta in a way that felt genuine rather than performative.
Their conversation moved across the landscape of the book, Atlanta's cultural history, and Jones's own relationship with the city — touching on the Atlanta University Center, the civil rights movement, the cultural forces that have shaped Black Atlanta, and the thread that connects all of it to a present-day city still in the process of understanding its own story.
Atlanta Life's Place in That Story
Jones spoke about Atlanta Life's influence on Atlanta — on the city's development, its identity, and the Black community that built it. For an institution founded in 1905 by Alonzo Herndon, Atlanta's first Black millionaire, that history is not incidental. It is foundational. Atlanta Life has been part of this city's fabric for more than 120 years — through the civil rights movement, through the growth of the Atlanta University Center, through the building of a city that became the capital of a region and a movement.
To hear that history named and honored by one of Atlanta's most celebrated contemporary voices — in our own building, in front of a community audience — was a moment that carried weight. It was a reminder that the story Atlanta Life is part of is still being told, still being discovered, and still worth sharing.
The Conversation Opens Up
After the fireside chat, the floor opened to the audience — giving guests the opportunity to bring their own questions directly to Jones. The exchange was lively and warm, the kind of back-and-forth that only happens when a room full of people are genuinely invested in both the subject and the person speaking.
The evening closed with a book signing — Jones moving through the room, connecting with guests, signing copies of Kin, and taking pictures with the people who had come to celebrate her. It was unhurried and personal. Exactly the kind of closing a night like this deserved.
Why This Felt Right
Atlanta Life gave Tayari Jones a platform not because it needed to — she is already one of Atlanta's most recognized voices — but because it wanted to. Because we believe in using our space, our reach, and our relationships to amplify the people and stories that reflect what this city is made of. Because Kin is about belonging, legacy, and the histories we carry with us — and those are themes Atlanta Life has been living inside for more than a century.
This was a natural partnership. Two Atlanta institutions — one rooted in the past and building toward the future, one telling the stories that make the past worth knowing — finding common ground in a love for this city and the community that sustains it.
We are grateful to Tayari Jones for her time, her trust, and the generosity she brought to a room full of people who came simply because they admire her. And we are grateful to everyone who joined us for an evening that reminded us, once again, why Atlanta is worth celebrating.
About Tayari Jones
Tayari Jones is an Atlanta-based author and cultural icon whose work explores identity, history, and the complexity of Black American life. Kin is her most recent novel and her second selection for Oprah's Book Club. Her writing has established her as one of the most important literary voices of her generation and a celebrated figure in Atlanta's cultural community.
Atlanta Life Insurance Company is committed to the communities it serves — through purposeful partnerships, meaningful presence, and a mission that has guided this organization for more than 120 years.