This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was growing up in a Bronx housing project, her mother called her an aji — a kind of hot pepper — because she would never sit still.
It’s still true: Her conversation on Wednesday evening at the Free Library of Philadelphia with 6ABC news anchor Tamala Edwards turned into a walking interview as she strolled the aisles of the library’s auditorium shaking hands, paying particular attention to those extended by children in the audience.
At one point, a man on the other side of a handshake asked whether she would bring the current presidency to a “swift and peaceful conclusion.”
Sotomayor moved on without response.
She also did not address the tumultuous hearings now happening in Washington over whether Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed as a fellow Supreme Court justice.
Instead, Sotomayor stuck to her new book — actually, two new books, both of them versions of My Beloved World, her previously published autobiography. One of them, The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor, is for middle-grade readers, and Turning Pages: My Life Story is a picture book.