2016 National Black Writers Conference - Complete Schedule (Final)

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Thirteenth National Black Writers Conference

“Writing Race, Embracing Difference”

March 31, 2016 – April 3, 2016

Sponsored by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York

Honorary Chair Rita Dove

Honorees:
Edwidge Danticat
Michael Eric Dyson
Charles Johnson
Woodie King Jr.

Thirteenth National Black Writers Conference

Pre-conference Activities

The year 2016 marks the centennial of the birth of John Oliver Killens, and to honor this literary champion, The Center for Black Literature, The Harlem Writers Guild, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture celebrated Killens’s legacy on Thursday, March 17, 2016.

“Provocateurs: The Symbiotic Relationship between Photographers and Writers” will open in the Charles Evans Inniss Memorial Library at Medgar Evers College on Monday, March 28, 2016. The photography exhibition of 30 images features works by photographers Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Marcia E. Wilson, and Ruddy Roye. This exhibit will be on display through April 29, 2016.

The Conference begins on March 31, 2016, with pre-conference activities on scholarly papers presented on the works of Conference honorees. A Poetry Café featuring well-known and up-and-coming poets will be held on Thursday evening. On Friday, April 1, Conference activities continue with the African Voices / Reel Sisters Film Series, which includes a selection of films with literary themes.

Thirteenth NBWC Conference Program

The formal opening of the Conference is held on Friday evening and will feature a conversation with award-winning poets on the state of poetry produced by Black writers. There will be a special presentation by Honorary Chair, former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. Over the next two days of the Conference, attendees may participate in a workshop with an established writer, attend a panel discussion where they hear writers discuss the most recent trends in literary texts or the impact of self-publishing on the publishing industry; attend a workshop where they work on an element of fiction or poetry or obtain tips for writing a book proposal; attend a reading with an author who will read from his or her latest work; or spend several hours in the Conference bookstore shopping for books. The participating writers of the Conference are very accessible, and as the poet Sonia Sanchez noted at one Conference, “This is a Conference where writers check their egos at the door.” Our Conference attendees thus have an opportunity to speak individually with writers and to have copies of their favorite books signed.

More than 60 writers, poets, and speakers will participate on panels and workshops and give readings throughout the Conference. An Awards Ceremony and Program with featured honorees Rita Dove, Edwidge Danticat, Woodie King Jr., Michael Eric Dyson, and Charles Johnson will be held on Saturday evening. This will be followed by a jazz benefit program in partnership with the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium and with featured artists Tai Allen and Dasan Ahanu. Conference panels continue on Sunday and workshops on the craft of writing will be held in the morning and early afternoon.

 

Thirteenth National Black Writers Conference Schedule

 

Planned Programming (As of March 23, 2016. Subject to modification.)

 

Day One, Thursday, March 31, 2016

Presentation of Conference Papers

11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Academic Building 1

Edison O. Jackson Auditorium

1638 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Coordinated by Victoria Chevalier, Linda Jackson, and Joanna Sit

Panels:

Decoded: Hip-Hop

11 a.m.– 11:35 a.m.

Hannah Silva (“Live Writing: Black British Poets in Performance”)

Creating Dangerously

11:40 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.

Shante Cozier (“The Art of Noir & Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories”)

Renee M. Kingan (“Pushing Back: Jayne Cortez and Unesco’s War on War”)

Ciara Miller (“How [THEY] Got Ovah: Aesthetics of Three Chicago Black Women Poets”)

Althea Tait (“Rita Dove: Movement Between the Aesthetics of Discomfort and the Next”)

Politics of Race and Gender

12:45 p.m.– 2:10 p.m.

Hilda Davis ("The Political and Psychological Implications of Movement in Harlem/New Negro Renaissance Literature”)

Ilinca Diaconu-Stillo (“From Trauma to Community: War, Racism, and African-American Masculinities in Toni Morrison’s Sula and Home”)

Janelle Jemmott (“Michael Eric Dyson: Writing Race, Embracing Difference”)

Janelle Morris (“Service to All Mankind: Utilizing Writings by Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha in Africana Centered Bibliography”)

John Scrimgeour (“The Steps from the Hill: Race and Class in Langston Hughes’s ‘Theme for English B’ ”)

Afrofuturism

2:15 p.m. – 3 p.m.

Kermit Rodriguez (“Toni Morrison: Shattering the Glass Ceiling with the Fist of the African Female Trickster”)

Helen K. Thomas (“Resisting the Silence: Exploring the Radical Act of Remembering through Jacqueline Woodson and Jason Reynolds Young Adult Novels”)

Youth Literacy Program

9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Coordinated by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson of Just Us Books

Presentations with authors Cheryl Willis Hudson Wade Hudson, Calvin Alexander Ramsey,

Denise Lewis Patrick, and author/illustrator Jerry Craft. A book giveaway and group wrap-up closes the program.

Program

9:30 a.m. –9:45 a.m.

Welcome: Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson, authors and founders of Just Us Books Inc.

All student groups convene.

9:50 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.

First and second graders convene in Edison O. Jackson Auditorium

Presentation by Cheryl Willis Hudson, author of My Friend Maya Loves to Dance

and Songs I Love to Sing

10:25 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Presentation by Wade Hudson, author of Its Church Going Time and Feelings I Love to Share

 

9:50 a.m. – 10:20 a.m.

Third, fourth and fifth graders remain in Founders Auditorium

Presentation with Calvin Alexander Ramsey, author of Ruth and the Green Book and Belle, the

Last Mule at Gee’s Bend

10:25 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Presentation with Denise Lewis Patrick, author of Finding Someplace and No Ordinary Sound

 

11:15 a.m.– noon

First and second graders rejoin third, fourth, and fifth graders in Founders Auditorium

Presentation with Jerry Craft, author/illustrator of Mama’s Boyz; and The Offenders: Saving

the World While Serving Detention!

12:05 p.m.

Book giveaway and wrap-up

High School Program

1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Coordinated by Nina Angela Mercer

Poets Jennifer Cendaña Armas, Mo Beasley, and Monique “Orisha Love” Letamendi will perform their poetry for students before facilitating writing and performance workshops. The workshops will explore such themes as place, identity, and social justice. Workshop participants will write their own poems. They will be encouraged to perform their poems in a closing cypher.

Program

Noon –12:20 p.m.

Students assemble into auditorium and break into groups.

12:20 p.m. – 1 p.m.

Performances by Jennifer Cendaña Armas, Mo Beasley, and Monique “Orisha Love” Letamendi

1:10 p.m. –2:30 p.m.

Writing and performance, break-out workshops

2:40 p.m. –3:15 p.m.

Closing cypher (student-centered performances)

Elders Writing Workshop / “Tales of Our Times”

“Black Women Writing Memory, Writing Fate”

3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Edison O. Jackson Auditorium

1638 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Coordinated by Eisa Nefertari Ulen

Memoirists of the Elders Writing Workshop at Siloam Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, New York, will share their wisdom, rooted in history. Their writing explores questions such as: What does the future hold for African-Americans? Can greater knowledge of the past help us create our own destiny? Members include Gloria Bynoe, Shirley Hugguppwhite Cooper, Joan Corbett, Ernie Jackson, Lurline Martineau, Teresa Snyder, Sylvia Suescun, and Cynthia Goodison Tompkins.

Town Hall Forum — Free and open to the public

“Legacy and Succession: The Role and Responsibility

of the Black Writer and Black Institutions”

5:30 p.m. –7:00 p.m.

Academic Building 1, Edison O. Jackson Auditorium

1638 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Author, poet, and publisher Dr. Haki Madhubuti, whose latest book is titled Taking Bullets: Terrorism and Black Life in Twenty-First Century America, a Poet’s Representation and Challenge, will lead a town hall discussion on the subject of legacy and succession. Journalist and reporter Ashley Johnson will join this intergenerational conversation moderated by Wallace Ford.

13th National Black Writers Conference Poetry Café

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Brooklyn Public Library

10 Grand Army Plaza

Brooklyn, NY 11238

Coordinated by Wendy Robinson and Tai Allen

Ashley August will host the 7th Annual Poetry Café with featured poets Liza Jessie Peterson and Nkosi Nkululeko, the 2016 NYC Youth Poet Laureate. Emerging poets include Angel S. Aviles, Chanel Dupree, Khadijah Johnson, and Shye Sales.

 

Day Two, Friday, April 1, 2016

13th National Black Writers Conference and African Voices/Reel Sisters Present the Souls of Black Folk: Films Celebrating Heritage

11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Medgar Evers College, Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Sponsored by the National Black Writers Conference and African Voices/Reel Sisters.

Conference attendees will view films and film shorts that celebrate the rich history, heritage, and faith of Blacks in America. The featured films will be followed by a panel discussion and talkback.

Featured Films

“The Long Night” by Woodie King Jr. (1976, 90 minutes)

11 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.; panel, 12:30–1:15 p.m.

“August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand” by Sam Pollard

(2015, 90 minutes; 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.; panel, 3-3:45 p.m.)

BREAK: 3:45 p.m.– 4:45 pm

Film Shorts

4 pm-4:45 p.m. (panel, 4:45-5:45 p.m.)

“Outta My Name” by Director/Writer Cathleen Campbell

(Length: 4 min. Category: Narrative)

A woman who’s ridiculed for her unusual name unexpectedly discovers the power of truly connecting with another person.

“Bird” byDirector Booker T. Mattison

(Length: 10 min.)

A college track star who is training for the Olympics is accused of a crime.

“My Home” by Director/Producer Denise Khumalo

(Length: 14:40 min.; Category: Documentary)

A story about an African woman’s struggle to keep her traditions and customs alive while living in an increasingly Western world.

“Across the Tracks” by Director, Cowriter, Cinematographer/DP, Editor Michael Cooke

Coproducers: Don Battee, Errol Sadler, Isabella Way, Monica Hines

Cowriter/Producer: Kimberly Y James

Coproducer, Assistant Director Monica Hines and Shaniqua Henry-Davis

(Length: 15 min. Category: Narrative)

Two African-American sisters grow up in 1960s Georgia. One is born with fair skin and when schools integrate, she decides to change her destiny—by passing for white.

The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Reel Sisters is founded by African Voices and LIU Brooklyn.

BREAK: 5 p.m.–6 p.m.

Thirteenth National Black Writers Conference Opening Night Program

Poets Reflect on the State of Contemporary Poetry

6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Hosted by Cheryl Wills

Anchor and senior reporter for New York One News.

Rita Dove, Honorary Chair of the 13th National Black Writers Conference, A conversation and readings on the state of poetry in today’s society. Featured poets include Rita Dove, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and Afaa Michael Weaver among others.

 

Day Three, Saturday, April 2, 2016

Medgar Evers College, Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Panels and Roundtable conversations

Dr. Lindamichelle Baron, Emcee

“Afrofuturism: Reimagining the Past, Present and Future”: A Panel Discussion

10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The genre Afrofuturism emerged in the past two decades and is related to the term coined in 1992 by cultural critic Mark Dery. In his essay “Black to the Future,” Dery describes it as an African diasporic cultural and literary movement whose thinkers and artists see science, technology, and science fiction as a means of exploring the Black experience.” Author Walter Mosley, who wrote an essay titled “Black to the Future,” notes that this genre speaks clearly to the dissatisfied through its power to imagine the first step in changing the world. Panelists will discuss how these genres are represented in the literature produced by Black writers.

Moderator: Kiini Ibura Salaam

Panelists: Nnedi Okorafor, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Kiese Laymon

“Decoded: Hip-Hop and Youth Culture”: A Panel Discussion

11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Elements of poetry and creative wordplay figure prominently in the language of hip-hop and in the various ways today’s youth express themselves. Panels will explore questions such as: In what ways is hip-hop culture connected to literature and the works of pioneering Black writers? In what ways can hip-hop raise awareness of the African-American literary canon? What are some of the components that would comprise a hip-hop literary movement?

Moderator: Joan Morgan

Panelists: MK Asante, Marcyliena Morgan, David Kirkland, and James Peterson

Lunch 1:15 p.m. – 2 p.m.

“Creating Dangerously: Courage and Resistance in the Literature of Black Writers”: A Conversation

2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

In Edwidge Danticat’s acclaimed book Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, the author explores the passions and the tribulations that writers and artists face in their roles as chroniclers of cultural and political events and as the voices of opposition that strive to be heard under oppressive circumstances. In this discussion, the panelists will talk about the ways literature sheds light on the risks writers take when working under challenging cultural and political situations. They will also discuss the manner in which individual and collective truths are presented in those works for readers to interpret.

Moderator: Victoria Chevalier

Panelists: Edwidge Danticat and Charles Johnson

“The Politics of Race and Gender in the Literature of Black Writers”: A Conversation

3:45 p.m. – 5 p.m.

In the age of President Obama, one prevailing question that comes to mind is this: Is the country more racially divided or less racially divided than it was 15 or 20 years ago? Have women honestly made significant strides in traditionally male-dominated fields? Narratives written and published today that focus on racial and gender challenges are emerging heavily in the fiction and creative nonfiction works by Black writers. How do the works of these writers impact the conversations about race in America? In this conversation, the writers will discuss some of the key components in literary as well as academic writings that address issues of race and gender and examine whether the works impact the way people view race and gender.

Moderator: Wallace Ford

Panelists: Paul Beatty and Cora Daniels

Videotape Presentation “Between the World and Me” and Ta-Nehisi Coates interview with Dr. Brenda Greene

5:15 p.m.

Talkback moderated by Todd Craig

Thirteenth National Black Writers Conference Awards Ceremony

6:45 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Hosted by Indira Etwaroo, PhD

Executive Director, Center for Arts and Culture, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation

Jazz Program and Benefit Reception

8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Skylight Café

Academic Building 1

1638 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

With performance by Dasan Ahanu and Tai Allen, accompanied by Brooklyn Jazz Consortium, performing the works of Gil Scott-Heron and Oscar Brown Jr.

 

Day Four, Sunday, April 3, 2016

Conference Talkshop, Panels, and Roundtables

Medgar Evers College, Founders Auditorium

1650 Bedford Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11225

Book Proposals, Regina Brooks

Writing an Undeniable Nonfiction Book Proposal

10 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Room TBA

If you’ve ever been told “you should really write a book” and you’ve decided to give it a try, this workshop is for you! From memoirs to cookbooks, if you want to be published in nonfiction you’ll need a book proposal. In this session, Brooks will teach both the art and science of crafting an irresistible book proposal. She will walk you through the key elements of a book proposal—section by section.

Poetry, Keisha-Gaye Anderson

10 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

Room TBA

This talkshop will explore how memory—actual, imagined, and re-imagined—is used in African American poetics to witness, communicate and construct collective realities, while also serving as a call to activism and social change. Through close examination of language, structure, form and other devices used within selected poems from the African-American literary tradition, workshop participants will become familiar with approaches to this craft that focus on powerfully commemorating, documenting, and witnessing subjective and collective struggle endemic to the Black experience. Participants will employ this understanding in creating their own poems for sharing with other workshop participants.

Fiction, Victor LaValle

Building a Better Novel

10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Room TBA

You want to write a novel, but as you’ve learned easier said than done. While inspiration and enthusiasm are great they don’t help you figure out how to organize all those pages you’ve written. We'll discuss basic questions about how novels are structured, how to map out the motivations of your characters, how to identify (or create) a good antagonist, how to create a dramatically interesting narrative for the reader to follow and more. This is going to be a talk about the mechanics of a novel, nuts-and-bolts stuff.

AALBC Publishing Workshop

Noon – 2:30 p.m.

Room TBA

A workshop on fundamentals dealing with various aspects of the publishing process, focusing on practical elements such as editing, promotion, book production, and distribution presented by AABLC (African American Literature Book Club) with Troy Johnson, Carol Taylor, and Earl Cox.

Panels and Roundtable Conversations

Patrick Oliver, Emcee

“Creative Writing Programs and Writers of Color: Current and Future Trends”

Noon – 1:15 p.m.

This discussion on creative writing programs and workshops is an outgrowth of the essays, conversations, and concerns of writers of color in MFA programs and writing workshops.

Very few writing workshops focus on writers of color and both Junot Diaz and Honoree Fannone Jeffers have recently written essays on the lack of diversity in these programs and workshops. Students and workshops participants in creative writing programs make up a part of our audience. The discussion will focus on topics such as: Do MFA programs and writing workshops offer safe spaces for writers of color and are writers of color marginalized in these programs and workshops? How can we address these concerns in MFA programs and writing workshops?

Moderator: Donna Hill

Panelists: Meena Alexander, Victor LaValle, and Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie

“Black Writers in the Digital Age”

1:30 p.m.–2:45 p.m.

African-American writers have faced many hurdles in getting their works published. While the Digital Age, or New Media Age, have presented new outlets to submit works, what rewards and risks do the Digital Age offer Black writers? Has the Digital Age broadened the readership of works by Black writers? What are some challenges Black writers face in the new information age? Panelists will explore and examine these questions.

Moderator: Akiba Solomon

Panelists: Paul Miller, Farai Chideya, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, and Johnny Temple

“Shaping Memories: The Odyssey to Adulthood”

3 p.m.–4:15 p.m.

This panel will address the various themes and moral values captured at historical moments of time in the journey from youth to adulthood. The novels and memoirs by these authors cross several genres and attract a cross-generation of readers.

Moderator: Cathie Wright-Lewis

Panelists: Coe Booth, Breena Clarke, D. Watkins, and Michael Datcher

A Conversation with Michael Eric Dyson and Khalil Gibran Muhammad

“Writing Race, Embracing Difference”

4:30 p.m.–6 p.m.

In an essay titled “Writing Race in America,” which appeared in the “Chronicle of Higher Education,” on March 10, 2014, David Wright, a Black writer and associate professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois, Urbana, argues that creative writing teachers should not allow their students to avoid the difficult subject of race. Wright’s argument is based on the premise that race is socially constructed, is very much present in America, and that contrary to what people may assert about living in a postracial society, we live in a fully racial one. This premise guides the conversation that will be held between Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad.