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The Tenth National Black Writers' Conference Program and Activities
03/25/10 14:45 , Categories: Everything The Center for Black Literature
at Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Presents
The Tenth National Black Writers' Conference
Program and Activities
And Then We Heard the Thunder:
Black Writers Reconstructing Memories and Lighting the Way
The Conference will be held at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, unless otherwise indicated
Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize-Winning Author
Honorary Chair
Thursday, March 25, 2010
“Re-Envisioning Our Lives Through Literature”
Writing and Literature Workshops for Elementary, Middle-School and
High-School Students
9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Elementary School Program
Cheryl and Wade Hudson, Zetta Elliot, and Tony Medina
Sponsored by Just Us Books
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Middle-School Writing Workshop
Tonya Hegamin
High-School Program
Tara Betts, John Murillo, and Abiodun Oyewole, Featured Poets
High-School Writing Works
Sponsored by PEN American Center
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Elders Workshop Presentation (Medgar Evers College)
Donna Hill, Moderator
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Off-Site Event:
Spoken Word Poetry Café
Staceyann Chin and Willie Perdomo, Featured Poets
Location:
Brooklyn Public Library
Central Library
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-230-2100
Conference Papers on Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, Kamau Brathwaite,
and John Oliver Killens
Medgar Evers College
Student Support Services Building
1637 Bedford Avenue
Mary Pinkett Lecture Hall, Rm. S122
9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.
“The Resurrection of Memory in the Works of Toni Morrison”
Robin Ford, Moderator
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
“Music as Language in African American Texts”
Emmanuela Maurice, Moderator
2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
“The Legacy of John Oliver Killens”
TBA, Moderator
3:30 p.m. to 4:45 p.m.
“The Politics of Language”
Bakar Wilson, Moderator
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Presentation of Student Play Fanon, Founders Auditorium
Featuring Students at Medgar Evers College, Written by Prof. Delridge Hunter
5:00 p.m.
VIP Opening Reception, at Medgar Evers College
President’s Conference Center, Rm. 1008
Sponsored by the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce and Industry Incorporated
7:00 p.m.
Official Conference Opening:
A Conversation with Kamau Brathwaite and
Welcome to South End Press
Supported by Black Brooklyn Renaissance in Partnership with the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Terrie M. Williams, Mistress of Ceremonies
Thomas Sayers Ellis, Introduction of Kamau Brathwaite
Founders Auditorium, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Friday, March 26, 2010
Leroy Baylor, Master of Ceremonies
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
“The Black Writer as Literary Activist”
Patrick Oliver, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Dorothea Smartt, and Frank Wilderson III Louis Reyes Rivera, Moderator
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“Politics and Satire in the Literature of Black Writers”
Herb Boyd, Thomas Bradshaw, Charles D. Ellison, and Major Owens
Obery M. Hendricks, Moderator
2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“Shifting Identities: The Black Writer in the African Diaspora”
Edwidge Danticat, Courttia Newland, Colin Channer, and Carole Boyce Davies Jacqueline Brice-Finch, Moderator
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“Black Writers Reconstructing the Master Narrative”
Catherine Acholonu, John F. Baker Jr., Breena Clarke, and Betty DeRamus
Pamela Newkirk, Moderator
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
“Tribute to Toni Cade Bambara”
Malaika Adero, Hattie Gossett, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Louis Massiah, Eugene Redmond, Eleanor Traylor, Cheryl Wall, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Sonia Sanchez
Linda J. Holmes, Moderator
Sponsored by The Links, Incorporated
8:30 p.m.
Off-Site Event:
The National Black Writers’ Conference Concert
Presents Talib Kweli, Gary Bartz,
and Very Special Guest Gil Scott-Heron
Produced by Jill Newman Productions
Location:
Littlefield
622 Degraw Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
Brooklyn, New York
Doors Open: 8:30 p.m.; Concert: 9:30 p.m.
Tickets $25 in advance, $30 at the door
For Tickets, visit http://www.littlefieldnyc.com
Jill Newman Productions 917-561-6056, http://www.jillnewmanproductions.com
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Kyra Gaunt, Mistress of Ceremonies
10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
“The Impact of Hip-Hop and Popular Culture in the Literature of Black Writers”
Steven C. Fullwood, Felicia Pride, Touré, and James Peterson
Karen Hunter, Moderator
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
“The Impact of the Internet: Blogging, Publishing and Writing”
Grace Ali, Nick Charles, Troy Johnson, and April Silver
Esther Armah, Moderator
2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“Literary Encounters: East Meets West—A Dialogue”
Meena Alexander, Marina Budhos, Shelley Eversley, and M G Vassinji
Margaret Cox, Moderator
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
*“The Impact of War & Natural Disasters in Literature by Black Writers”
Chris Abani, Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, James McBride, and Maaza Mengiste
Richard Green, Moderator
5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Kevin Powell – Featured Speaker
“Black Writers Creating Memories and Lighting the Way”
Readings
The National Black Writers’ Conference Reading Series Is Sponsored by the African American Literature Book Club, the Brooklyn Literary Council,
and the National Black Writers’ Conference
Medgar Evers College
Student Support Services Building
1637 Bedford Avenue
Mary Pinkett Lecture Hall, Rm. S122
11:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Donna Hill
Sponsored by the Center for Black Literature
12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Colson Whitehead
Sponsored by the National Black Writers’ Conference
12:45 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Joy James
Sponsored by South End Press
1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Bernice McFadden, Rakesh Satyal, and Tiphanie Yanique
Sponsored by the Brooklyn Literary Council
3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Allen B. Ballard, Victor LaValle, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Sponsored by the African American Literature Book Club
6:30 p.m.
Off-Site Event:
Awards Presentation and VIP Reception
Susan L. Taylor, Emcee
Honorees:
Toni Morrison, Noble Prize-Winning Author and Honorary Chair, NBWC;
Amiri Baraka, Poet, Essayist; Kamau Brathwaite, Poet, Cultural Historian and Professor, New York University; and Dr. Edison O. Jackson, Former President, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Location
ARTCURIAN Gallery at Arthur Bennett Hall
22 Chapel Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201
www.artcurian.org
Tickets $75
To Purchase Tickets, visit www.AALBC.COM
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Eisa Ulen, Mistress of Ceremonies
Talkshops
10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
Fiction: Tayari Jones
**Poetry: Sonia Sanchez
Book Reviews: Clarence V. Reynolds
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Dramatic Writing: Thulani Davis
Creative Nonfiction: TBA
Book Proposals: Krishan Trotman
Panel Discussions
12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
“Speculative Fiction: Fantasy, Horror, and the Supernatural in the
Fiction of Black Writers”
L.A. Banks, Michael Boatman, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Cheo Tyehimba
Dale Allender, Moderator
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
*** “Restoring Community: Black Writers Respond to the Environmental Crises” Alixa and Naima (Climbing PoeTree), and Omar Freilla
Nina Mercer, Moderator
4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
“Editors, Agents, Writers, and Publishers on the Literature of Black Writers”
Regina Brooks, Linda Duggins, Chris Jackson, and Johnny Temple
Fred Beauford, Moderator
*Sponsored by Con Edison
**Poetry Talkshop is Sponsored by The Links, Incorporated
***Sponsored by Con Edison
Brenda M. Greene, Ph.D.
Conference Director; Executive Director, The Center for Black Literature
Program Is Subject to Change.
Kevin Powell's Open Letter to Black America
03/25/10 14:38 , Categories: Everything OPEN LETTER TO BLACK AMERICA
By Kevin Powell
WRITER’s NOTE: The following essay appears in the April 2010 issue of EBONY magazine, but the writer owns this piece. Feel free to post widely AS IS and with proper credit given to Kevin Powell.
DEAR BLACK AMERICA:
This 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is an opportune moment to reflect on how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go. It calls us to reconsider the words Dr. King gave us at the end of his life, when he said that we need “a radical revolution of values.” Certainly, we have much to be proud of. There is the first Black president. There are more Black elected officials, more Blacks in corporate America, the media, and in very real power positions, like Oprah Winfrey, Richard Parsons, Donna Brazile, and Jay-Z.
But, if we are to be brutally honest with ourselves, we’ve also got to acknowledge that things have not been right for some time. The civil rights era concept that our leaders would deliver us into the promised land has devolved into the idea that all we need to do is show up and follow. We have lost the sense of individual responsibility toward collective change.
Think back to the days immediately after slavery, when it was clear that Blacks wanted two things: education and land. In spite of vicious White terrorism, we plodded forward. There was hope, and a vocabulary of purpose. These values emboldened us during the Civil Rights Movement. And they were re-born during the 2008 presidential campaign. Yet, unlike before, many of us have failed to embrace the miraculous kind of self and community transformation that led us to walk, literally, into the teeth of barking dogs, water hoses, and police brutality, mainly because we refused to let anyone turn us around.
Why, politically, did we come out in record numbers for Barack Obama, then instantly return to apathy? Why do we remain suspended in a state of arrested development, believing that a dynamic leader will be our salvation? A civil rights veteran said it best to me many years ago: “We were just happy to get in the door. We never really had a plan beyond that.” So we have to be honest and admit that Black leadership in America, except a few shining examples such as The Brotherhood/Sister Sol in New York City or John Hope Bryant’s Operation Hope, has been too often stuck in yesterday. It has been unable to produce an agenda for Black America that will transform our communities in a holistic way. So we’ve spent 40 years like the Israelites, wandering the wilderness, harboring the misguided expectations that people like Barack, or Oprah, or anyone Black and famous will free us. It simply isn’t going to happen.
And while we’ve been waiting, praying, and producing the same predictable conferences, summits, studies, and reports again and again, Black America is on the brink of catastrophe. We need to remind ourselves that Hurricane Katrina and Haiti’s earthquake only magnify the slow forms of devastation happening each day. They include HIV and AIDS, poverty, Black self-hatred and Black-on-Black violence, the huge class divide, mediocre school systems, and the steady march of our youth into jails and cemeteries. We should stop saying this is a post-racial America because of President Obama. It is not. Despite Barack and Michelle we continue to be bombarded with destructive images of Black people in the mass media. As I travel the country speaking at universities and working for social justice, I note that our prisons are packed with black and brown bodies, and every American ghetto looks exactly the same: a lack of resources, services, and jobs, failing public schools, and limited access to the American dream.
That said, let us no longer wait on a savior to come. Do we want to continue wandering or do we want to create our future here and now? We have the power to transform our communities by enacting those “radical revolution of values.” So I propose six things we must do immediately: Create a Spiritual Foundation; Move Toward Mental Wellness; Take Care of Our Physical Health; Become Politically Active; Understand the Power of Our Culture; and Start a Plan for Economic Empowerment.
Our spiritual foundation must be rooted in God or something greater than us, and a love for self and for all Black folks, unconditionally. It must grow out of our beliefs and our willingness to act selflessly. And it must begin with mental wellness because we cannot stand up for our convictions, our faith, or ourselves if our self-esteem is not in tact. Susan L. Taylor put it best when it comes to our mental health, Black America: healing is the new activism. Be it the increase in domestic violence, homicides and suicides, or the way so many of us say “I can’t” it is clear to me that since the civil rights period our individual and collective psyches have been damaged. But we can heal by seeking counseling and therapy, forming or joining positive support groups, and courageously ridding ourselves of toxic people, even if they are longtime friends, lovers, or kinfolk.
Physically, we can no longer accept that we are pre-destined for diabetes, high-blood pressure, and other ailments. Yes, like all Americans, we should have access to healthcare. But we should also change our diets and exercise regularly. Recently, my mother was hospitalized. After years of sitting on the sofa watching TV and indulging in terrible eating habits, that was her wake-up call. Change your diet and live. Don’t change and die a painful and preventable death, as many of our relatives have.
Taking charge of our health and wellness also means changing the way we discuss our realities in America. Let us stop bemoaning our “crises” and start strategizing to meet our “challenges.” Let us cease spreading reports that compare us unfavorably to our White sisters and brothers. Likewise, our culture, the way we talk, eat, sing, pray, dance, laugh, and cry must become more balanced so that it no longer reflects solely what is wrong with us, but also projects a vision of how great we can become, or are.
Financially, we’ve got to disconnect our self-esteem from our clothes and cars and instead focus on building true wealth. If my illiterate late grandparents could own land in South Carolina, by saving coins in their day, then we can, too. We can use our resources to empower ourselves, to help our ’hoods, and to support our people. This means doing more than donating to charity. It means a sincere and consistent giving back in terms of time, energy, and presence.
Black America, we’ve been surviving for 400 years in this nation. The question for the twenty-first century is this: Do we want to just survive, or do we want to win? The “radical” answers, if we search hard enough, are right there in our own hands.
…
Kevin Powell is a writer, activist, and author of 10 books, including Open Letters to America. He can be reached at kevin@kevinpowell.net.
“Greening Our Communities” Networking Event to be held at Green Spaces NYC
03/08/10 12:29 , Categories: Everything NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION TO HOST TRIBECA MIXER FOR URBAN COMMUNITY
LEADERS WORKING FOR GREENER, CLEANER NEIGHBORHOODS
“Greening Our Communities” Networking Event to be held at Green Spaces NYC
(NEW YORK) – The National Wildlife Federation will host “Greening Our
Communities” an evening mixer for urban leaders working for greener,
cleaner neighborhoods, scheduled for March 24, 2010, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30
p.m. at Green Spaces in Tribeca.
The networking event promises to be a casual and informative
opportunity to build connections among leaders working on local, state
and national issues. Invited guests include area political, clergy,
environmental and community leaders, as well as heads of funding and
non-profit groups.
The evening will include music, appetizers & desserts, wine and brief
presentations on four initiatives supported by National Wildlife
Federation:
Let’s Raise a Million – A student-led, urban initiative that conducts
FREE complete energy efficient audits and “clean bulb” retrofits for
urban residents of modest means. Atlanta’s West End, Grambling, LA,
and Detroit, MI are already reaping the benefits.
BE OUT THERE – Get our children outdoors to learn about nature and
take pride in their communities!
Clean Energy for All – NWF wants to make sure all communities have
equal access resources to increase their energy efficiency and save
money while improving their quality of life.
Protecting Human Health and Wildlife from Natural Gas Drilling – NWF
is working to ensure that proposed upstate gas drilling doesn't
jeopardize human health, the water supply, and wildlife.
“Greening Our Communities” will take place on the anniversary of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill that occurred in the Prince William Sound,
Alaska on March 24, 1989. It is considered one of the most devastating
human-caused environmental disasters ever to occur at sea. The region
was a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds.
Green Spaces NY is located at 394 Broadway, New York, NY 10013. For
the latest updates on “Greening Our Communities” visit,
http://www.facebook.com/wna.consulting.
To learn more about the National Wildlife Federation visit, http://nwf.org/.
For more information on “Greening Our Communities” contact Warren
Woodberry Jr. at 212-560-2513 or by email at, mail@wnaconsulting.com.
END
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