Application Deadline Extended to Friday, May 24, 2024
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Writers on Writing with Dr. Brenda M. Greene
Writers on Writing Interview with L. Penelope
Air Date: Sunday, April 28, 2024, and Sunday, May 5, 2024
Dr. Brenda Greene and award-winning author of fantasy and paranormal romance, L. Penelope, discuss her motivation for writing Black speculative fiction and the genesis and structure of her chronicle stories. The fiction of L. Penelope centers around Black women and focuses on themes related to history, politics, and romance. Black speculative fiction has exploded in print, film, television, and the media, and Greene and Penelope discuss its current state and future. Greene and Penelope also discuss her writing process and her podcast My Imaginary Friends, a weekly journal of her publishing life. Penelope’s debut novel, Song of Blood & Stone, was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. The novel also won the inaugural award for Best Self-Published Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Penelope is also an award-winning independent filmmaker and co-founder of a literary magazine.
Writers on Writing Interview with
Kadiatou Diallo,
Mother of Amadou Diallo
On February 4, 1999, an unarmed 23-year-old Guinean student named Amadou Diallo was fired upon with 41 rounds. The four officers who shot him were found not guilty. Dr. Greene interviews Kadiatou Diallo, the mother of Amadou Diallo. They discuss her memoir My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son (One World, 2004), her son, and the impact that the tragic killing had on her family.
Writers on Writing Interview with Jamilya Chisholm
Original Air Date: Sunday, March 31, 2024, and Sunday, April 7, 2024
Dr. Brenda Greene interviews N. Jamilya Chisholm, journalist and author of the memoir, The Community (Little A. New York, 2022). Greene and Chisholm discuss her motivation for writing this memoir, a chronicling of her childhood experience in a sect of Islam. Chisholm also delves into other topics that include mother/daughter relationships, the importance of community, literature as healing, and the impact of growing up in a spiritual community centered on Black pride and consciousness. Greene and Chisholm also discuss the challenges and rewards of writing memoirs.
About the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY
For 20 years, the programs of the Center for Black Literature (CBL) have had a dynamic impact in the literary field. The highly anticipated author readings and book signings, journals, symposia, conferences, panel discussions, and writing workshops—and the Center’s intellectual and accessible approach to programming—form an integrative approach to programming that sets CBL apart from others. CBL’s events are known for the way they ensure that Black literary scholarship and conversations are valued and sustained.
Contact Us
Center for Black Literature (CBL)
at Medgar Evers College, CUNY
1534 Bedford Avenue | 2nd Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11216
(Click HERE for the Postal Mailing Address)
Main Phone: (718) 804-8884
Main Office: info@centerforblackliterature.org
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To carry out our literary programs and special events, we depend on financial support from the public. Donations are welcome year-round. Please click HERE to donate. Thank you!
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The Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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