Nancy Pelosi is speaker emerita of the United States House of Representatives, the first woman to be elected speaker of the House and reportedly a driving force behind President Joe Biden’s decision to step aside in the 2024 race.

She’s also a Baltimore girl.

Born and raised in the city, Pelosi attended the Institute of Notre Dame, an all-girls Catholic school that has since closed. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. and her brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, both served as mayor of Baltimore. When “Young Tommy” died in 2019, Pelosi referred to Baltimore as “our city.”

More recently, Pelosi toured the wreckage of the Key Bridge collapse and joined a “Baltimore” magazine writer for lunch in Little Italy, where she grew up.

Back Thursday night in the town she grew up in — wearing purple, for the Ravens (more on that later) — Pelosi spoke before a packed audience at the Central Enoch Pratt Free Library. She was joined by Karsonya Wise Whitehead, host of “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA radio.

“I always drew strength from learning politics in Baltimore,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi was in town on the heels of the release of her new book, “The Art of Power: My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House,” an autobiography about her time as a congressional leader, including as Speaker of the House.

Here are some local takeaways from her event — and the Maryland connections in Pelosi’s new book.

Visiting the library

One of the first things Pelosi talked about was visiting the very library she was speaking in Thursday night.

“I came here all the time,” Pelosi said.

She told a story from her time at school, where a nun accosted her after she said something snarky. “Who do you think you are, Mahatma Gandhi?” the nun asked.

Pelosi said she remembered thinking she would find out later at the library. When she went to the library, Pelosi said, she found a book, “Mahatma Gandhi: For Children.”

“In this library, in the ’50s, before practically all of you were born,” Pelosi said, to laughter. “Isn’t that remarkable?”

Growing up in Baltimore politics

Pelosi grew up at a time when the Catholic Church was influential in the city — and in her family. One of the driving forces behind her politics, she said, was that connection to her faith.

“My motivation in politics ... there’s a spark of divinity in every person. We must respect that,” she said.

She talked about being born into a family that was “devoutly” Catholic, proud of their Italian heritage, patriotic and “staunchly” Democratic.

She talked about public service as a “noble calling” in which politicians were elected to help people.

As for other political lessons from Baltimore?

“It was that imperative that we had to be responsible for each other. It was also the insistence of knowing how to count votes,” she said to applause, laughter and cheers.

Jamie Raskin

Jamie Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District and gets several mentions in Pelosi’s book — mostly related to Raskin’s roles in the January 6 investigation and in the second impeachment of then-President Donald Trump.

Pelosi writes that she originally appointed Raskin to be in charge of the Democrats on the House floor during the certification of the 2020 election. Shortly before, Raskin’s son Tommy, died by suicide.

“I didn’t even want him to come to the House” for the election of the speaker on Jan. 3, 2021, Pelosi wrote, but Raskin insisted. Pelosi recounts that Raskin, who lives in Takoma Park, agreed to not lead the floor debate on the Electoral College on Jan. 6, but still gave a speech before the official vote certification.

Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. and Thomas D’Alesandro III

Pelosi writes that the “value of protecting homes” and the people who work to buy them is in her DNA, because of her father and brother and their work in Baltimore.

Her mother, Annunciata M. “Nancy” D’Alesandro, Pelosi says, argued passionately for providing housing while she was the first lady of Baltimore. And Pelosi writes that she was proud of her brother for making “equal accommodation in housing his priority.”

Steny Hoyer

Steny Hoyer represents Maryland’s 5th Congressional District and has served as House majority leader. Pelosi describes him as “a longtime friend.”

She also describes running against Hoyer for Democratic whip in December 2001.

In her book, Pelosi writes that one of the hardest things to do as member of Congress is to ask someone to choose between colleagues. She writes, though, that “well before” the day of the vote, Pelosi knew she had the votes to win.

Hoyer is also mentioned in the book for his “experience and expertise” in crafting legislation and his work on the Affordable Care Act and for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, including calling the governors of Maryland and Virginia to send the National Guard to quell the rioters who had broken into the Capitol.

The Ravens

Toward the end of her talk, Pelosi interrupted herself in the midst of telling the emotional story of when her husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer in their home.

“See I have purple, for the Ravens?”

After the cheering stopped, Pelosi finished the story. The first thing her husband said, when he had recovered enough to speak, was about her connection to the team, Pelosi said.

“The first thing he said, after the operation and all that, was, ‘Oh, she’ll be so happy ‘cause the Ravens won last night.’”

The Ravens did in fact win 27-22 the night before Paul Pelosi was attacked.