The John Oliver Killens Reading Series is a testament to the life of the late John Oliver Killens whose advocacy of the Black writer is legendary. The series provides authors, poets, scholars, and writers of the African diaspora with opportunities to expound on their work while in dialogue with a knowledgeable moderator. Featured writers also engage audience members and this creates lively, stimulating conversations. Topics include an examination of the guest's work, the craft of writing, challenges related to writing and publishing, and much more.

The monthly series is always free and open to the college community and the public. A special thanks goes to the Amazon Literary Partnership for its support of this program.

ABOUT JOHN OLIVER KILLENS

"...Killens was an important figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s [and was] a close friend of Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists. [He] created the Black Writer’s Conference (which has been hosted ... at Medgar Evers College since 1986 and) was a Medgar Evers College professor. He was 71 at the time of his death and lived in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. "The Killens Review of Arts & Letters, published by the Center for Black Literature ... was named in his honor in 2010." | Source: African American Literature Book Club.

∴ The John Oliver Killens Reading Series is presented every second Thursday of the month unless otherwise noted.