ABOUT GAIL
Gail Milissa Grant, esteemed author, public speaker, and former diplomat, was born on May 5, 1949 in St. Louis, Missouri to leading civil rights activist and attorney, David Grant and his wife, Mildred Grant. During her life, Gail had an unwavering commitment to fostering cultural understanding, championing civil rights, and sharing her writing with the world.
Gail looked up at the stars as a child and dreamed of world travel and adventure. Gail’s academic journey began with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, followed in 1974 within 1972, followed by a Master of Arts in Art History from Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1974. She further enriched her education with a Year Abroad Program at the Italian University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, in 1969, and continued to hone her skills through professional development seminars and language training throughout her career.
Gail’s dedication to education and academia was evident in her role as an Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Howard University in Washington, DC, where she taught in the Departments of Architecture and Fine Arts from 1974 to 1980. She also contributed her expertise as an Archives Technician at The Smithsonian Institution, specifically at the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, from 1974 to 1980.
In 1980, Gail embarked on her diplomatic career with the United States Foreign Service, serving in many countries across the globe, including France, locales in West Africa, and Brazil. She served her country under four U.S. Presidents, including as the officer in charge of the historic meeting between President Clinton and President Mandela on Robben Island, South Africa. Throughout her diplomatic career, Gail’s leadership and expertise were recognized as she held positions such as News Watch Officer in the Operations Center in Washington, DC, from 1989 to 1991, and Program Development Officer in the Office of Arts America from 1994 to 1996. Her contributions to public diplomacy and cultural exchange programs left an indelible mark on the communities she served.
After retiring from diplomatic service in 2001, Gail embarked on a distinguished career as an author and public speaker. Gail wrote about her experience growing up in south Saint Louis at the end of Jim Crow segregation in “At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights,” published in October 2008. Her acclaimed memoir received the Benjamin Franklin Book of the Year 2009 and an Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History in 2010.
In the spring of 2006 Gail married renowned Roman set and stage designer, Gaetano Castelli. Gail reignited Gaetano’s artistic creativity and Gaetano supported Gail’s literary endeavors including her blog, Nightingale Noir. Gail’s first novel, The Sable Cloak, inspired stories embedded in her family history, has been published posthumously by the Hachette Book Group, to be launched in February 2025.
Gail passed away peacefully on May 13, 2024 in her home in Rome, Italy, after an extended battle with metastatic cancer.
Gail’s Own Words that Inspired her Life and her Writing
I always fancied myself an actress or a director or a producer or a playwright or a costume designer . . . or all of them at the same time. In other words, I wanted to be in show business. From the way I memorized every show tune from every hit musical in the late 50s through the 60s and performed them in front of our dining room mirror ad nausea, I knew I was destined to shine as brightly as any light in Times Square. “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story, sung, or rather warbled in full Spanish accent, waving a ‘lace’ fan I fashioned out of paper doilies and twirling, wrapped in one of my mother’s starched tablecloths, was one of my favorite numbers. Did I say there was a long, lean crack in that mirror that my parents never got around to fixing? Well, I think that may have been a sign.
I never made it to Broadway but after more than twenty five years of chasing other muses (a wanderlust satisfied by traveling extensively on four continents and living abroad on two as a diplomat, and a love of art fulfilled by teaching art and architectural history at a university), I returned to my childhood dream of writing, books instead of plays. The first of which, an award-winning family memoir, was a love letter not only to my ancestors but also to a whole generation of black Americans who fought the good fight way before the more publicized civil rights movement of the 1950s.
I also wrote it because their stories were left out of our history books.
I’ve resurrected my thespian talents as a public speaker, talking about my book and unknown civil rights activists and their accomplishments at more than sixty venues (and counting) in Europe, the United States, and North Africa, with my all-time favorite being Oxford University. I’ve also produced art exhibitions, directed conferences, and organized film programs.
My first book was translated into Italian and I have presented it at bookstores and on television and radio in Italy.
So, I really did get to be in the ‘business.’ It just took a while.
Singing? Well, I confine my trilling to the bathtub or in a group where I can’t really be heard! And costumes? Just look in my closet!
Oh! And by the way, did I mention I live in Rome? An outdoor theater without parallel!
ABOUT GAIL
Gail Milissa Grant, esteemed author, public speaker, and former diplomat, was born on May 5, 1949 in St. Louis, Missouri to leading civil rights activist and attorney, David Grant and his wife, Mildred Grant. During her life, Gail had an unwavering commitment to fostering cultural understanding, championing civil rights, and sharing her writing with the world.
Gail looked up at the stars as a child and dreamed of world travel and adventure. Gail’s academic journey began with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Archaeology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, followed in 1974 within 1972, followed by a Master of Arts in Art History from Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1974. She further enriched her education with a Year Abroad Program at the Italian University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, in 1969, and continued to hone her skills through professional development seminars and language training throughout her career.
Gail’s dedication to education and academia was evident in her role as an Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Howard University in Washington, DC, where she taught in the Departments of Architecture and Fine Arts from 1974 to 1980. She also contributed her expertise as an Archives Technician at The Smithsonian Institution, specifically at the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC, from 1974 to 1980.
In 1980, Gail embarked on her diplomatic career with the United States Foreign Service, serving in many countries across the globe, including France, locales in West Africa, and Brazil. She served her country under four U.S. Presidents, including as the officer in charge of the historic meeting between President Clinton and President Mandela on Robben Island, South Africa. Throughout her diplomatic career, Gail’s leadership and expertise were recognized as she held positions such as News Watch Officer in the Operations Center in Washington, DC, from 1989 to 1991, and Program Development Officer in the Office of Arts America from 1994 to 1996. Her contributions to public diplomacy and cultural exchange programs left an indelible mark on the communities she served.
After retiring from diplomatic service in 2001, Gail embarked on a distinguished career as an author and public speaker. Gail wrote about her experience growing up in south Saint Louis at the end of Jim Crow segregation in “At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights,” published in October 2008. Her acclaimed memoir received the Benjamin Franklin Book of the Year 2009 and an Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History in 2010.
In the spring of 2006 Gail married renowned Roman set and stage designer, Gaetano Castelli. Gail reignited Gaetano’s artistic creativity and Gaetano supported Gail’s literary endeavors including her blog, Nightingale Noir. Gail’s first novel, The Sable Cloak, inspired stories embedded in her family history, has been published posthumously by the Hachette Book Group, to be launched in February 2025.
Gail passed away peacefully on May 13, 2024 in her home in Rome, Italy, after an extended battle with metastatic cancer.
Gail’s Own Words that Inspired her Life and her Writing
I always fancied myself an actress or a director or a producer or a playwright or a costume designer . . . or all of them at the same time. In other words, I wanted to be in show business. From the way I memorized every show tune from every hit musical in the late 50s through the 60s and performed them in front of our dining room mirror ad nausea, I knew I was destined to shine as brightly as any light in Times Square. “I Feel Pretty” from West Side Story, sung, or rather warbled in full Spanish accent, waving a ‘lace’ fan I fashioned out of paper doilies and twirling, wrapped in one of my mother’s starched tablecloths, was one of my favorite numbers. Did I say there was a long, lean crack in that mirror that my parents never got around to fixing? Well, I think that may have been a sign.
I never made it to Broadway but after more than twenty five years of chasing other muses (a wanderlust satisfied by traveling extensively on four continents and living abroad on two as a diplomat, and a love of art fulfilled by teaching art and architectural history at a university), I returned to my childhood dream of writing, books instead of plays. The first of which, an award-winning family memoir, was a love letter not only to my ancestors but also to a whole generation of black Americans who fought the good fight way before the more publicized civil rights movement of the 1950s.
I also wrote it because their stories were left out of our history books.
I’ve resurrected my thespian talents as a public speaker, talking about my book and unknown civil rights activists and their accomplishments at more than sixty venues (and counting) in Europe, the United States, and North Africa, with my all-time favorite being Oxford University. I’ve also produced art exhibitions, directed conferences, and organized film programs.
My first book was translated into Italian and I have presented it at bookstores and on television and radio in Italy.
So, I really did get to be in the ‘business.’ It just took a while.
Singing? Well, I confine my trilling to the bathtub or in a group where I can’t really be heard! And costumes? Just look in my closet!
Oh! And by the way, did I mention I live in Rome? An outdoor theater without parallel!
SPEAKER
Gail discussed her book and US civil rights history at over 80 venues, including Oxford University, Columbia University, the Smithsonian Institution, Mohammed V University in Morocco, and numerous US embassies throughout Europe.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, including TV and radio.
BLOGGER
Gail was a passionate blogger, sharing insights in to her life, observations on Italian culture and much more – read now here:
