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Actress, producer, and now accomplished author, Tika Sumpter, came to Lofty Pigeon Independent Bookstore in Prospect Park, Brooklyn to celebrate her new children’s book “I Got it From My Mama” On April 22nd, Sumpter came out to meet fans and sign copies of her new book.

The book, which originally was released on April 8th, is a heartfelt story of curious Ella the Curious, who navigates through daily valuable lessons guided by her honest and relatable mother. It is a story about the goal of motherhood isn’t perfection but about growth, understanding, and the power of apologies.

“It is a love letter to my mom,” said Sumpter, when she met with local Brooklynites and spoke on what she learned so far in her successful career from her humble beginning in Hollis, New York. She is now on a national book tour doing meet-and-greets and signing copies of her book. The next stop at her bookstore will be April 24th-25th in Atlanta and April 27th in Los Angeles for The Los Angeles Festival of Books. On April 23rd, she will have a special interactive children’s book reading, in the Storyland: The Bronx Book Haven at the Bronx Terminal Market.

Sumpter is an accomplished TV and film actress. Sumpter graduated from Marymount Manhattan College as a communication major. After college, doing some modeling work,  she was cast on the daytime soap opera, One Life to Live, from 2005-2010. In 2010, she made her film debut, in “Stomp The Yard: Homecoming”, the movie Sparkle (2012), and “A Madea Christmas” (2013).  In 2011, she joined the cast of CW’s “Gossip Girl” and BET’s “The Game”, then the OWN prime time soap opera, “The Haves and the Haves Nots”. During that time, she starred in the movies “Ride Along?” (2014), “Ride Along 2″(2016), “Get On Up” (2014), and the crime drama  “The Old Man & The Gun”(2018). In 2016, she produced and starred in the biographical romantic drama “Southside with You” (2016), and received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture nomination. From 2019-2021, she starred in the ABC comedy series, “Mixed-ish” and starred in the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise.

“Storytelling was part of my childhood,” said Sumpter “I wanted to create something for children and parents. When I became a parent, I became more empathetic,” she said. The book is inspired by her 8-year-old daughter Ella-Loren. In a recent interview, on the Tamron Hall Show, she spoke on her miscarriage through her journey with IVF. This sparked her creativity and she found her voice through creating stories and wanting to help other parents on their journey to parenthood.

Sumpter did a special reading to the children, where she greeted and took photos and videos with fans who got to meet the actress and get copies of her new book signed for parents and kids. After reading her book to the children in the audience, Sumpter spoke to the children, who wanted to know how can they get into acting. ” If you want to be an actress, you have to do it because you love acting, and not just to become famous,” she said.

She continues to take photos and sign special copies for personalization requests made online. Her children’s book is just scratching the surface. Sumpter and her husband, Nicholas James, are growing the Ella Curious world, with a magical storytelling podcast called “Adventure of Curiosity Cove”, which will officially release on September 9th. The podcast is an extension of the book filled with original stories and adventures with Ella that are valuable lessons for kids and help parents take a moment to breathe. There will be a new episode every Monday.

Sumpter is developing more creative ideas with her women-owned production company Fort Sumpter and her podcast on motherhood, @loveforsumpter. This podcast offers a place for resources for mothers and a place to decompress the obstacles of motherhood. The idea behind the production is to build a fort of support, love, laughter, and respect around children. The company is focused on a full- spectrum of storytelling with the creation of television, film, and other animation projects.

As the book signing was coming to an end,  a mother-and-daughter duo asked Sumpter if the book would be expanding into a tv show, a movie or more books in a series. Sumpter laughed and replied, “Stay tuned!”

 

Photo Credit: Sherica Daley