Schomburg Center Literary Festival Returns

By Lisa Herndon, Manager, Schomburg Communications and Publications
September 11, 2020
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
A logo of the Schomburg Center Literary Festival. The words Schomburg Center Literary Festival, The Virtual Edition, Sept. 21-26. An illustrustion of a man holding a book. The background color is light blue.

The Schomburg Center Literary returns for a second year. It's virtual and takes place over six days.

Get ready for a book lovers feast!

The Schomburg Center Literary Festival is back. For its second year, it’s virtual and takes place from Monday, September 21 to Saturday, September 26.  There will be readings and panel discussions for all ages and genres, ranging from prose to poetry, comic books to young adult novels, fiction and nonfiction.

Join the conversation as authors such as Roxane Gay, Eddie Glaude Jr., Dean Atta, Nicole Fleetwood, and many more discuss their works. Visit The Schomburg Shop to purchase books featured in our discussions.

Join us for a pre-festival event celebrating Black poetry!

Against the side of a wall, a large image of the book cover African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song

Photo: Lisa Herndon

Lift Every Voice: 250 Years of African American Poetry
THURSDAY, September 17 | 6:30 PM
Library of America, in partnership with the Schomburg Center, presents the launch of Lift Every Voice, a nationwide celebration of the 250-year-long African American poetic tradition.

The celebration is anchored by the publication of the anthology, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song, edited by poet and Schomburg Center Director Kevin Young. The evening features poets Nikky Finney, Sonia Sanchez, and Pulitzer Prize-winners Jericho Brown and Tyehimba Jess, plus many more.
Register

Against the side of a building wall, the logo of the Schomburg Center Literary Festival. An illustrustration of a man holding a book.

Photo: Lisa Herndon

Marking Time with Nicole Fleetwood
MONDAY, September 21 | 7 PM

Nicole Fleetwood and Elizabeth Hinton discuss Fleetwood’s new book, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, about how those who are living in prisons turn ordinary objects into elaborate works of art. The program is co-presented by The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Register

Audre Lorde: Radical Care and Political Warfare
TUESDAY, September 22 | 8 PM

Authors Roxane Gay, Mahogany L. Browne, and Tracy K. Smith discuss the clarion call of Audre Lorde's work in the context of today's political turmoil and the recent republications of Sister Outsider and The Cancer Journals, along with a new publication, The Selected Works of Audre Lorde.
Register

The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown
WEDNESDAY, September 23 | 7 PM
Explore the republication of The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, edited by the late Michael S. Harper with a new foreword by award-winning poet Cornelius Eady. Eady, JoAnne McFarland, artistic director of Artpoetica Project Space, and Brian Gilmore, poet and law professor, discuss Brown’s impact and legacy.
Register

Conversation and Reading with Jacqueline Woodson
THURSDAY, September 24 | 1 PM
National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson has a celebrated 30 year career as a writer. Join the conversation and readings with Woodson as she discusses her second novel Red at the Bone and her newest children’s book Before the Ever After.
Register

YA Author Talk: The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
THURSDAY, September 24 | 2:30 PM

Award-winning author Dean Atta will join us live from the United Kingdom to discuss his debut young adult novel, The Black Flamingo. Atta was named as one of the most influential LGBTQ people in the UK by The Independent on Sunday.
Register

YA Author Talk: Back to School with Black Comics and Graphic Novels
THURSDAY, September 24 | 4:30 PM
Cultural representation matters in literature for young adults and this panel features black comic creators whose narratives address school-aged protagonists and the social issues entangled with their coming of age stories and their education in and out of school.  Join the conversation with Jerry Craft (New Kid, A Class Act); Greg Anderson Elysee (Is’Nana The Were-Spider); Liz Montague (Liz at Large); and Shauna Grant (Princess Love Pon). Deirdre Hollman EdM, founder, The Black Comics Collective, moderates.
Register

YA Author Talk: Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh
THURSDAY, September 24 | 6:30 PM

Nigerian-American author Candice Iloh reads from her debut young adult novel, Every Body Looking, and discusses her work with Mahogany L. Browne.
Register

On Saturday, September 26, join us for a day of events for kids and adults.
Check out the full schedule below and don't forget to register for the daylong conclusion of our festival in advance.

A wall with the picture of the logo of the Schomburg Center Literary Festival. It has the words Schomburg Center Literary Festival and an illustration of a man holding a book.

Photo: Lisa Herndon

11 AM Session |  URGENT LESSONS FROM JAMES BALDWIN
Author Eddie Glaude Jr. discusses his new work Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. In it, he ”combines biography, history, and polemic to make an argument that we stand on the precipice of a decision about who we are as a country that will reverberate for decades.”

2 PM Session | THIS SKIN HAS BEEN OVER, UNDER, AND THROUGH
These books offer a window into Black imaginaries that traversed the waters of the Atlantic in search of freedom, safety, love and opportunity. Geography: West Africa, Jamaica, U.S.

These are concurrent sessions.
FICTION: A Tall Story of Sugar featuring Curdella Forbes
POETRY: Sometimes I Never Suffered: Poems featuring Shane McCrae

3:15 PM Session | UNTANGLING THE BINARY
When faced with circumstances that may force one person to contract, others find a way to expand. Explore what it means to live beyond expectations with this exciting group of authors. Geography: Nigeria, U.S. These are concurrent sessions.
FICTION: The Death of Vivek Oji featuring Akwaeke Emezi
POETRY: Love from the Vortex featuring Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D
NON-FICTION: Coming Full Circle featuring Wanda Lloyd

4:30 PM Session | READERS & WRITERS: A Conversation with Bernardine Evaristo and Roxane Gay
British writer Bernardine Evaristo is the award-winning author of eight books. Her novel, Girl, Woman, Other, won the 2019 Booker Prize, making her the first Black woman to win the prestigious award. Roxane Gay, a prolific writer and voracious reader, wrote in her year-end reading summary that the novel was her favorite book of 2019. The two will discuss Evaristo's work.
Register

Visit The Schomburg Shop online to purchase all of the books featured at the Lit Fest. All proceeds support the restoration and preservation of Schomburg Center archived materials and collections.

The Schomburg Center Literary Festival is generously sponsored by the New York Life Foundation and Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation.

 

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