Langston Hughes Literary Arts Festival

Transcription

1 The 10 th Annual Langston Hughes Literary Arts Festival Celebrating the Power of the Written Word through Performances, Poetry, and Prose Bernice L. McFadden Karen E. Osborne Katia D. Ulysse Angel Nafis Tejas Desai Jacqueline Johnson Iain Haley Pollock Kyla Marshell Saturday December 1, am 4:30pm LANGSTON HUGHES COMMUNITY LIBRARY & CULTURAL CENTER For more information and to register, visit queenslib.org/literaryartsfestival2018 Note: Registration is recommended but not required. QueensLibrary.org Queens Library is an independent, not-for-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any other library system.

2 Event Schedule Celebrating the Power of the Written Word through Poetry, Prose, and Performance 11am Akashic Books Author Talk and Panel with Bernice McFadden, Karen Osborne, and Katia Ulysse, and moderator Angel Nafis 12:30pm Tejas Desai presents The Brotherhood Chronicle and discusses The New Wei literary movement 1:30pm Cave Canem Poets Tour featuring Jacqueline Johnson, Iain Haley Pollock, and moderator Kyla Marshell 3pm Literature to Life presents If Beale Street Could Talk Books will be available for sale and signing. Funding is provided in part from the New York State Council of the Arts and the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst. 2

3 11 AM Bernice L. McFadden Akashic Books Author Talk and Panel with Bernice McFadden, Karen Osborne, Katia Ulysse, and moderator Angel Nafis Bernice L. McFadden is the author of nine critically acclaimed novels including Sugar, Loving Donovan, Nowhere Is a Place, The Warmest December, Gathering of Waters (a New York Times Editors Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books of 2012), Glorious, and The Book of Harlan (winner of a 2017 American Book Award and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction). She is a four-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of three awards from the BCALA. Praise Song for the Butterflies is her latest novel. Karen E. Osborne is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University s Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, and serves on the board of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. She lives in New York and Florida. She is the author of Getting It Right. Karen E. Osborne 3

4 11 AM Katia D. Ulysse Akashic Books Author Talk and Panel with Bernice McFadden, Karen Osborne, Katia Ulysse, and moderator Angel Nafis Katia D. Ulysse is a fiction writer born in Haiti. Her short stories, essays, and Pushcart Prize nominated poetry appear in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Caribbean Writer, Smartish Pace, Phoebe, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, Mozayik, The Butterfly s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, and Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat. She has taught in Baltimore public schools for thirteen years, and served as Goucher College s Spring 2017 Kratz Writer in Residence. Drifting, a collection of short stories, drew high praise from literary critics. She is currently at work on another short story collection. Mouths Don t Speak is her latest novel. 4 Angel Nafis Angel Nafis is a Cave Canem Fellow and author of BlackGirl Mansion (Red Beard Press, 2012). Her work has appeared in The BreakBeat Poets Anthology, Buzzfeed Reader, The Rumpus, Poetry Magazine, and more. She represented NYC at the National Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is an Urban Word NYC mentor and founder, curator, and host of the Greenlight Poetry Salon. The recipient of the 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship and the 2017 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, she is an MFA Candidate in Poetry at Warren Wilson College. With poet Morgan Parker, she is The Other Black Girl Collective.

5 12:30 PM Tejas Desai Tejas Desai presents The Brotherhood Chronicle and discusses The New Wei literary movement Tejas Desai is an American novelist. He is the author of the international crime epic The Brotherhood Chronicle, set to be released in , and the acclaimed Good Americans (2013), which Kirkus Reviews called a solid collection of rare caliber that speaks volumes about the human condition and modern life in America. He is the founder of The New Wei literary movement, which he has written about in the Huffington Post, Neworld Review, Publishing Perspectives, and other publications. He was born, lives, and writes in New York City, where he works as a supervising librarian. 1:30 PM Jacqueline Johnson Cave Canem Poets Tour featuring Jacqueline Johnson, Iain Haley Pollock, and moderator Kyla Marshell Jacqueline Johnson is a multi-disciplinary artist creating in poetry, fiction writing, and fiber arts. She is the author of A Woman s Season (Main Street Rag Press, 2015) and A Gathering of Mother Tongues (White Pine Press, 1998), winner of the Third Annual White Pine Press Poetry Award. Ms. Johnson has taught poetry at Pine Manor College, City University of New York, Poets House, Very Special Arts, Imani House, the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, and African Voices. Works in progress include The Privilege of Memory and How to Stop a Hurricane, a collection of short stories. She is a graduate of New York University and the City University of New York. A native of Philadelphia, PA., she resides in Brooklyn, New York. 5

6 1:30 PM Iain Haley Pollock Cave Canem Poets Tour featuring Jacqueline Johnson, Iain Haley Pollock, and moderator Kyla Marshell Iain Haley Pollock s poetry collections include Ghost, like a Place (Alice James Books, 2018) and Spit Back a Boy, winner of the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Individual poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, The Baffler, and The New York Times Magazine. Pollock teaches at Rye Country Day School in Rye, NY and at the Solstice MFA Program of Pine Manor College. He also serves as poetry editor of Solstice Literary Magazine. Kyla Marshell Kyla Marshell s poetry and prose have appeared in Blackbird, ESPNw, Gawker, The Guardian, O, the Oprah Magazine, the Poetry Foundation, SPOOK Magazine, Vinyl Poetry, and elsewhere. Her work has earned her an Academy of American Poets College Prize, a Jacob K. Javits fellowship, two residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. In 2013, Ebony.com named her one of 7 Young Black Writers You Should Know. A Spelman College graduate originally from Boston, she grew up in Silver Spring, MD, Morehead, KY, and Portland, ME, and now lives in New York. 6

7 3PM Literature to Life presents If Beale Street Could Talk This is a story that remains disturbingly poignant, sixty years after it was first published. James Baldwin s If Beale Street Could Talk is a story of abiding love in the face of injustice. Told from the perspective of its young heroine, this story of one family s fight for justice in a society where institutional discrimination has the power to destroy lives will resonate with audiences from all walks of life. Adaptation and Direction: Elise Thoron Suggested Ages: 15 and up. Literature to Life is a legacy of the awardwinning American Place Theatre, cofounded by veteran director, acting teacher, and producer Wynn Handman. 7

8 The 10 th Annual Langston Hughes Literary Arts Festival Saturday December 1, am 4:30pm Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center Northern Boulevard, Corona T Books will be available for sale and signing. Funding is provided in part from the New York State Council of the Arts and the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst /18