LANGSTON HUGHES STAGE
PRE-FESTIVAL PROGRAMS
PDF Version
MON JUNE 12 | 6:30PM
Black Writers at Work
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037
Authors Farah Jasmine Griffin (In Search of a Beautiful Freedom, Read Until I Understand), Candice Iloh (Every Body Looking), and Ibi Zoboi (Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, American Street) join us for an intergenerational conversation on the writing practices of Black writers today and writers featured in the recently republished Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate. Yahdon Israel, Senior Editor for Simon & Schuster will moderate the conversation.
"Black women writers and critics are acting on the old adage that one must speak for oneself if one wishes to be heard."
—Claudia Tate
Image: "Group portrait of (left to right): Bob Rogers, Ishmael Reed, Jayne Cortez, Léon-Gontran Damas, Romare Bearden, Larry Neal; seated: Nikki Giovanni and Evelyn Neal, in New York City, 1969" Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
WED JUNE 14 | 6:30PM
Henry Threadgill in Conversation with Yusef Komunyakaa, moderated by Brent Hayes Edwards
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037
Join us for an event celebrating the publication of Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music (Knopf), the autobiography of composer and multi-instrumentalist Henry Threadgill, co-written with Columbia University professor and Schomburg staff member Brent Hayes Edwards. The evening will feature a reading and conversation with Threadgill and the poet Yusef Komunyakaa, the two Black Vietnam veterans who have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, as they reflect upon their experiences in the war and its impact on their long careers as artists.
SATURDAY
JUNE 17, 2023
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
OPENING PROGRAMS
11:00 AM
OPENING PERFORMANCE & WELCOME
Literacy is Generational Wealth
Opening procession and celebration featuring Tina Fabrique (The Reading Rainbow), and The Lit Fest Ensemble. The performance will be followed by a conversation with award-winning author and cultural critic, Sarah Ladipo Manyika discussing her latest book Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora.
Join the procession starting outside of the Schomburg Center at 135th Street and Malcolm X Blvd at 10:50 AM ET.
11:30 AM
Woke Baby! Festival (OUTDOOR)
A family-friendly celebration of justice-oriented children’s books curated by Mahogany L. Browne. The day’s events include storytelling, baby yoga & music! With eight back-to-back book readings and signings by guest poets and authors, games, crafts, and more!
Invited guests Cathy Lin Che, Jive Poetic, Shanelle Gabriel, Black Girl Magic Fellows, and Felicia Cade
Langston Hughes Auditorium
11 :30 AM | KEYNOTE CONVERSATION | WATCH ONLINE
Literacy is Generational Wealth
Featuring Sarah Ladipo Manyika Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora
12:45 PM - 1:30 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Magogodi oaMphela Makhene Innards (Fiction)
Tyriek Rashawn White We Are a Haunting: A Novel (Fiction)
Moderator: Leslie-Ann Murray, Brown Girl Book Lover
2 PM - 2:45 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Claude Johnson The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball's Forgotten Era (Non-Fiction)
Moderator: DaLeyna Adkinson, Director, Marketing - Brand Heat & Culture, PUMA
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Ibi Zoboi Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler, Nigeria Jones: A Novel
Moderator: Leslie-Ann Murray, Brown Girl Book Lover
4:30 PM | CLOSING PROGRAM | WATCH ONLINE
Stacy Spikes Black Founder: The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider (Non-Fiction)
Moderator: Joy Bivins, Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
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James Baldwin Stage
11 AM - 12:30 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Woke Baby! Festival
Curated by Mahogany L. Browne, Woke Baby
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Danté Stewart Shoutin' in the Fire: An American Epistle (Non-Fiction)
Moderator: Robert Jones, Jr.
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Jafari Allen There's a Disco Ball Between Us (Non-Fiction)
Robert Jones, Jr. The Prophets: A Novel (Fiction)
Moderator: Samiya Bashir, Executive Director, Lambda Literary
3:30 PM - 4:15 PM | WATCH ONLINE
Nana Brew Hammond, Vanessa Walters, Nancy Naomi Carlson
RELATIONS: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices (Fiction)
Zora Neale Hurston Stage
Hosted by Shanelle Gabriel, Executive Director, Urban Word
12:45 PM | POETRY FOR OUR TIME | WATCH ONLINE
Candace Williams I Am the Most Dangerous Thing
1:30 PM | POETRY FOR OUR TIME | WATCH ONLINE
Cynthia Manick No Sweet Without Brine
2:15 PM | POETRY FOR OUR TIME | WATCH ONLINE
Latasha N. Nevada Diggs Village in conversation with Claudia Rankine
4:30 PM | GET FREE! with music by DJ Commish
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Aaron Douglas Reading Room
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM | The Oldest Living Tulsa Race Massacre Survivor | WATCH ONLINE
Viola Fletcher Don't Let Them Bury My Story
Ike Howard Co-Author of Don't Let Them Bury My Story
Hughes Van Ellis (aka Uncle Redd) Ms. Fletcher's brother
Moderator: Mocha Ochoa, Publisher, Mocha Media
1:45 PM - 2:30 PM | WRITING WITH CARE, READING WITH A OPEN HEART | WATCH ONLINE
Nicole R. Fleetwood, PhD Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Rachel Cargle A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir and Manifesto on Reimagining
*Visit the current exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, open across three galleries in the Schomburg Center
3:45 PM - 4:30 PM | WRITING AND THE RECLAMATION OF POWER | WATCH ONLINE
Dionne Ford Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing
Moderator: Irvin Weathersby (IN OPEN CONTEMPT forthcoming)
American Negro Theatre
12:00 -1:30 PM
MEMOIR WRITING WORKSHOP
Presented by Harlem Writers Guild
A workshop for those who want to use memoir as a framework for writing personal narratives
Facilitator: Dr. Hasna Muhammad
2:00 - 4:00 PM
PERSONAL STORYTELLING WORKSHOP
Presented by The Moth
Over the course of a 2-hour intro to personal storytelling workshop, participants will have the opportunity to shape a life experience of your choosing into a well-crafted story.
THE CHILDREN'S CORNER
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Woke Baby! Festival | WATCH ONLINE
A family-friendly celebration of justice-oriented children’s books curated by Mahogany L. Browne. The day’s events include storytelling, baby yoga & music! With eight back-to-back book readings and signings by guest poets and authors, games, crafts, and more!
1:00 PM | READING AND ART MAKING
Kahran and Regis Bethencourt Crowned: Radical Folk and Fairy Tales with arts educator Zenzele Johnson
Reading, Chat, and Crown Making
2:30 PM | READING AND ART MAKING
Shawn Martinbrough Judge Kim & The Kids' Court arts educator Zenzele Johnson
THE MARKETPLACE
Stop by the Black Future Newsstand while your here!
1517 Media
Amsterdam News
Better Equipped Solutions
Black Beaker Books, LLC
Black Future Newsstand
Black Woman Be Whole
Columbia University Press
FAKE ARTiST ERN | Ernest A. Ford
Harlem Writers Guild, Inc.
Joy Ufomadu
Keith Knight: Gentleman Cartoonist
Kids's Corner
Kwame King | Victory Lift Publishing
Loc'd and Lit, Corp.
Luz M. Mack
Mama Ruby's Bookshelf
Northern Wind Comics
Pyroglyphics Studio
Read & Refresh Lounge
powered by HarperCollins
Revolution Books
Schomburg Pop-Up Shop
Schomburg Society
Sincerely, Bädé
The Surge Series
Total Equity Now
Tuma's Books
Walk Tall Girl
WBAI-Pacifica Radio
...and more to come!
Read & Refresh Lounge powered by HarperCollins
Walking between stages located indoors and outdoors can be exhilarating and exhausting. We invite you to stop by the outdoor rest area where attendees can grab free water, a bit of shade, and a seat to look over the books they have acquired during the festival while being treated to a free book or two from Harper Collins.
Launch of the Black Future Newsstand
What does a media that loves Black people look, feel, sound, and taste like in a future where reparations are real? The Black Future Newsstand invites Black folx to not only imagine a media that loves us, but to step inside and create it. Join us for their official public launch of Black Future Newsstand at the Schomburg Center for its Annual Literary Festival. (Learn More)
Text Credit: https://blackfuturenewsstand.com/
THE MARKETPLACE
Stop by the Black Future Newsstand while your here!
1517 Media
Amsterdam News
Better Equipped Solutions
Black Beaker Books, LLC
Black Future Newsstand
Black Woman Be Whole
Columbia University Press
FAKE ARTiST ERN | Ernest A. Ford
Harlem Writers Guild, Inc.
Joy Ufomadu
Keith Knight: Gentleman Cartoonist
Kids's Corner
Kwame King | Victory Lift Publishing
Loc'd and Lit, Corp.
Luz M. Mack
Mama Ruby's Bookshelf
Northern Wind Comics
Pyroglyphics Studio
Read & Refresh Lounge
powered by HarperCollins
Revolution Books
Schomburg Pop-Up Shop
Schomburg Society
Sincerely, Bädé
The Surge Series
Total Equity Now
Tuma's Books
Walk Tall Girl
WBAI-Pacifica Radio
...and more to come!
Read & Refresh Lounge powered by HarperCollins
Walking between stages located indoors and outdoors can be exhilarating and exhausting. We invite you to stop by the outdoor rest area where attendees can grab free water, a bit of shade, and a seat to look over the books they have acquired during the festival while being treated to a free book or two from Harper Collins.
Launch of the Black Future Newsstand
What does a media that loves Black people look, feel, sound, and taste like in a future where reparations are real? The Black Future Newsstand invites Black folx to not only imagine a media that loves us, but to step inside and create it. Join us for their official public launch of Black Future Newsstand at the Schomburg Center for its Annual Literary Festival. (Learn More)
Text Credit: https://blackfuturenewsstand.com/