LIVE from NYPL, Schomburg Center Literary Festival: Spiritfirst: Akwaeke Emezi with Saidiya Hartman

The bestselling author shares their debut work of nonfiction, Dear Senthuran, a memoir that "deeply engages with the metaphysics of Black spirit and singularly faces the Black reader."

"I wrote it spiritfirst, without disguise," bestselling author Akwaeke Emezi wrote of their memoir, Dear Senthuran. In three critically acclaimed novels, Emezi introduced readers to a landscape marked by familial tensions, Igbo belief systems, and a boundless search for what it means to be free. In Dear Senthuran, they reveal the harrowing yet resolute truths of their own life. Through candid, intimate correspondence with friends, lovers, and family, Emezi traces the unfolding of a self and the unforgettable journey of a creative spirit stepping into power in the human world. Their story weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, their precipitous path to success as a writer, and the turmoil of relationships on an emotional, romantic, and spiritual plane.

Akwaeke Emezi speaks with Saidiya Hartman about their revelatory account of storytelling, self, and survival.

This event is produced in partnership with The Schomburg Center Literary Festival. The Schomburg Literary Festival (June 14 - 19) expands the center's long tradition of championing authors of African descent from across the globe and publications that celebrate Black history and culture. 

The program will be streamed live on this page. If you encounter any issues, please join us on NYPL's YouTube channel.

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• E-Book app: SimplyE, available on iOS and Android
• Purchase: The Schomburg Shop — proceeds benefit the New York Public Library

Check out titles discussed during the program:

• Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi — NYPL Catalog
• The Famished Road by Ben Okri — NYPL Catalog
• Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Somé — NYPL Catalog
• Decolonising the Mind by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o — NYPL Reference
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe — NYPL Catalog
• The World of the Ogbanje by Chinua Achebe — NYPL Reference

NYPL suggests these titles for further reading:

• The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• Black Water Sister by Zen Cho — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• Oreo by Fran Ross — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare
• The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett — NYPL Catalog ; NYPL Talking Books ; Bookshare
• Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman — NYPL Catalog ; Bookshare

Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is the author of The New York Times bestseller The Death of Vivek Oji, which was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize; Pet, a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature; and Freshwater, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and shortlisted fort the PEN/Hemingway Award, The New York Public LibraryYoung Lions Fiction Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Selected as 5 under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation, they are based in liminal spaces. 

Saidiya Hartman is the author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, and Scenes of Subjection. A MacArthur Genius Fellow, she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, Cullman Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar. In addition to her books, she has published articles in journals such as South Atlantic Quarterly, Brick, Small Axe, Callaloo, Bomb, The New Yorker and The Paris Review. She is a professor at Columbia University and lives in New York. 

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