National Black Writers Biennial Symposium 2025

A Night With Hakeem Jeffries

A Black History Month Virtual Event

Visit the CBL Online Archives

Writers on Writing with Dr. Brenda M. Greene

Writers on Writing Interview
with Tony Medina

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Dr. Brenda Greene interviews poet, essayist, and children’s writer Tony Medina. They discuss the genesis for "I Am Alfonso Jones: A Graphic Novel." Medina talks about his need to portray the experiences of young Black men in America. Alfonso represents the loss of childhood as he undergoes a journey and reflects on civil rights icons, the criminalization of youth, the prison industrial complex, and the importance of studying and knowing one’s ancestry. In crafting this novel, Medina makes Alfonso visible. Greene and Medina also discuss other texts by Medina, his writing process, and the ways in which he engages youth and his students in his teaching of writing. Medina closes by reading one of his poems that reflect the life of a Black Latino in New York City.

 

Writers on Writing Interview
with Dr. Uché Blackstock

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Dr. Brenda Greene interviews Dr. Uché Blackstock, founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity (AHE) and author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine (Viking, 2024). Blackstock and Greene discuss the history of systemic racism in the medical field and examples of how race, ethnicity, class, and lack of financial resources contribute to health inequities. They also discuss Blackstock’s journey as a medical student at Harvard, an emergency room physician, and a Director of Diversity at NYU. Blackstock’s witnessing of these health inequities motivates her to form ACE, her own Health Advocacy Organization.

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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