A Program of Virginia Humanities
Claudrena Harold and Louis Nelson (Charlottesville 2017) join Hawes Spencer (Summer of Hate) in a discussion of the historic events of August 11 and 12, 2017, when alt-right hate groups descended on Charlottesville, Virginia.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, History, Law / Supreme Court, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Southern / Appalachian
Robert Parkinson (The Common Cause) and Douglas Winiarski (Darkness Falls on the Land of Light) discuss their acclaimed books, presenting important new discoveries and voices from early American political and religious history, and examining themes that echo true today.
More »Tags: African-American, American Indian, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, History, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Spirituality / Religion
Lillie Williams, with drummer Darrel Rose, will tell the stories of Anansi and the Sky Kingdom and Anansi Gives Wisdom to the World by Patricia C. McKissack. This story will include dancing, drumming, singing, and lots of audience participation.
More »Tags: African-American, Arts, Music, StoryFest / Youth
Listen to and honor the Women’s Initiative’s “Challenge Into Change” essay contest participants while celebrating the power of storytelling as a way towards healing and empowerment. LaTanya McQueen (And It Begins Like This) will read from her work, contest participants will be recognized, and the top three award recipients will read from their own work.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Family / Aging, Gender, Health / Mind / Body, Language / Culture / Folklife, Nonfiction, Publishing / Books / Writing, Social Justice
Charlottesville City Councilor Wes Bellamy (Monumental) and former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu (In the Shadow of Statues) discuss their experiences working as elected representatives and examining the history behind and presented by public monuments in their cities.
More »Tags: African-American, Arts, Biography / Memoir, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Headliners, History, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Engage in a discussion with the internationally renowned meditation teacher Ruth King (Mindful of Race) on topics of racism, white supremacy, and racial identity.
More »Tags: African-American, Health / Mind / Body, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Spirituality / Religion
Saidiya Hartman (Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments), DaMaris Hill (A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing), and Christina Proenza-Coles (American Founders) bring to life important narratives of African-American men and women, their leadership roles in our country’s development, their commitment to social justice, and the experiences of women of color “bound yet unbridled.”
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Gender, History, Language / Culture / Folklife, Poetry, Social Justice, Southern / Appalachian
Authors and journalists Thomas Kapsidelis (After Virginia Tech: Guns, Safety, and Healing in the Era of Mass Shootings) and Pam Kelley (Money Rock: A Family’s Story of Cocaine, Race, and Ambition in the New South) discuss challenges and resilience in confrontations with violence and social disintegration in the contemporary American South.
More »Tags: African-American, Asian-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Nonfiction
Charita Cole Brown (Defying the Verdict) and Zack McDermott (Gorilla and the Bird) discuss their own experiences with mental health and illness, sharing hope for ending the stigma of mental illness.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Family / Aging, Gender, Health / Mind / Body, Nonfiction
A.D. Hopkins (The Boys Who Woke Up Early), Anna Jean Mayhew (Tomorrow’s Bread), and Elaine Neil Orr (Swimming Between Worlds) discuss their powerful stories from the American South in the 1950s and 1960s, featuring well-drawn characters growing up and working through tremendous social changes.
More »Tags: African-American, Book Club Picks, Fiction, History, Southern / Appalachian
Joelle Biele (Tramp), Kyle Dargan (Anagnorisis), and DaMaris Hill (A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing) read from their latest collections of poetry.
More »Tags: African-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War
Tressie McMillan Cottom (Thick) will read selections and discuss her collection of essays in conversation with Ashley C. Ford.
More »Tags: African-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Gender, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Scott Barretta, William Ferris, and Tom Rankin discuss their collaborative effort in creating Voices of Mississippi, the life’s work of Ferris, an audio recordist, filmmaker, folklorist, and teacher with an unwavering commitment to establish and to expand the study of the American South.
More »Tags: African-American, Arts, Folklife, History, Language / Culture / Folklife, Music, Nonfiction, Southern / Appalachian
Carol Anderson (One Person, No Vote), Michael Eric Dyson (What Truth Sounds Like), and Martha S. Jones (Birthright Citizens) discuss their award-winning works focused on American rights, racism, and resistance.
More »Tags: African-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Headliners, History, Language / Culture / Folklife, Law / Supreme Court, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Abigail DeWitt (News of Our Loved Ones) and Ed Pavlić (Another Kind of Madness) discuss their far-reaching fiction, featuring characters faced with global and personal turbulence.
More »Tags: African-American, Book Club Picks, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Fiction, Food / Beer / Wine / Travel, Global, History
Hal Crowther (Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers: A Gallery of Memorable Southerners) and Charles Marsh (Can I Get a Witness? Thirteen Peacemakers, Community Builders, and Agitators for Faith & Justice) discuss their collections of biographical essays on unexpected and underappreciated leaders in struggles for justice and equality.
More »Tags: African-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Gender, History, Latinx, Law / Supreme Court, LGBTQ, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Authors Michael Mewshaw (The Lost Prince), Imani Perry (Looking for Lorraine), and Charles J. Shields (The Man Who Wrote the Perfect Novel) examine the lives of mid-twentieth century literary stars Pat Conroy, Lorraine Hansbury, and John Williams.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Nonfiction, Publishing / Books / Writing, Southern / Appalachian
Melanie Hatter (Malawi’s Sisters) discusses her debut novel, which received the inaugural Kimbilio National Fiction Prize.
More »Tags: African-American, Fiction
Authors Mary Carter Bishop (Don’t You Ever), Bridgett Davis (The World According to Fannie Davis) and Erin Hosier (Don’t Let Me Down) share deeply personal stories of themselves and their families in these memoirs.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Nonfiction, Social Justice, Southern / Appalachian
Jesse Jarnow (Wasn’t That a Time), Tim Mohr (Burning Down the Haus), and Imani Perry (May We Forever Stand) discuss the roles played by music and musicians in organizing social movements, past and present.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Folklife, Global, History, Music, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Raymond Arsenault (Arthur Ashe: A Life) and David W. Blight (Frederick Douglass) discuss, through their acclaimed biographies, the extraordinary lives of the famous African-American activist-leaders Arthur Ashe and Frederick Douglass.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, History, Nonfiction, Publishing / Books / Writing, Social Justice, Southern / Appalachian
In a compelling one-on-one conversation, bestselling and award-winning authors Laurie Halse Anderson (SHOUT) and Jason Reynolds (Long Way Down) discuss their relationships to writing and reading, the impact that storytelling and books have had on their lives, and the ways in which their work is meant to be a call to action for readers.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Book Club Picks, Fiction, Gender, Health / Mind / Body, Poetry, Publishing / Books / Writing, Social Justice
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black), John Lingan (Homeplace), and Mathangi Subramanian (A People’s History of Heaven) give short readings of their work during this annual “late-night” Festival program. Jesse Jarnow (Wasn’t That a Time) and Tim Mohr (Burning Down the Haus) will deejay.
More »Tags: African-American, Arts, Asian-American, Book Club Picks, Fiction, Food / Beer / Wine / Travel, History, Humor, Language / Culture / Folklife, Music, Nonfiction, Publishing / Books / Writing, Southern / Appalachian
Editor Arjun Sethi (American Hate: Survivors Speak Out) and author Nadine Strossen (Hate: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship) discuss discrimination, hate, and free speech in America, identifying ways to counteract vitriol and work toward reconciliation.
More »Tags: African-American, American Indian, Asian-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Language / Culture / Folklife, Latinx, Law / Supreme Court, LGBTQ, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Historians Raymond Arsenault (Arthur Ashe: A Life), Frye Gaillard (A Hard Rain), and Preston Lauterbach (Bluff City), through biography, personal history, and a little-known story, examine multiple views of lives and stories of a critical time in American history.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, History, Nonfiction
Author Esi Edugyan (Washington Black) and narrator Dion Graham will discuss the creative process between author and performer with moderator Andi Arndt.
More »Tags: African-American, Fiction, Publishing / Books / Writing
Richard Gergel (Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring) and Steve Luxenberg (Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation) discuss the historical backgrounds for groundbreaking court rulings that both denied and ignited civil rights for African-Americans in the United States. UVA Law School Dean Risa Goluboff moderates.
More »Tags: African-American, Law / Supreme Court, Nonfiction, Social Justice
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black), Karen Bender (The New Order), and Chaya Bhuvaneswar (White Dancing Elephants) discuss their powerful collections of short stories, ranging from the lyrical and meditative to the bizarre and darkly dystopian.
More »Tags: African-American, Asian-American, Book Club Picks, Family / Aging, Fiction, Gender, Language / Culture / Folklife, Science Fiction / Fantasy
Authors Deborah Baker (The Last Englishmen), Catherine Kerrison (Jefferson’s Daughters) and Caroline Weber (Proust’s Duchess) discuss their respective subjects, all fascinating in their own right and important within the context of their times, and why their lives continue to interest us today.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, History, Nonfiction
Mitchell S. Jackson (Survival Math), José Olivarez (Citizen Illegal), and Sarah Smarsh (Heartland) share and discuss their deeply personal works of nonfiction and poetry, each representing an eye-opening look into larger social and political issues in America.
More »Tags: African-American, Biography / Memoir, Book Club Picks, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Family / Aging, Headliners, Language / Culture / Folklife, Latinx, Nonfiction, Poetry, Publishing / Books / Writing, Social Justice
The Charlottesville Chapter of The Links Incorporated presents its sixteenth annual Celebration of the African American Literary Tradition, including brunch, musical and spoken word performances by community youth, a tribute to book festival authors, book sales and signing. Tickets required.
More »Tags: African-American, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry
James Horn (1619) and Joseph Kelly (Marooned) reexamine well-known origin stories for our country and Commonwealth, presenting groundbreaking new histories of the 1607 arrival of colonists in Jamestown and the 1619 arrival of the first African enslaved people and establishment of Virginia’s first General Assembly. Consequential decisions wrought in harsh conditions led to the birth of democracy, and also laid the cornerstone for racial inequality from the beginning.
More »Tags: African-American, History
Esi Edugyan (Washington Black) and Kevin Powers (A Shout In The Ruins) discuss the meanings of trace, violence, and freedom in their acclaimed historical novels. Edugyan and Powers each received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for an earlier novel; they are accompanied in conversation with Award jury member Rita Dove.
More »Tags: African-American, Current Affairs / World Affairs / War, Fiction, History, Social Justice, Southern / Appalachian
The 25th annual Virginia Festival of the Book will be held Wednesday, March 20 through Sunday, March 24, 2019 in venues across Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
