R142. How To Eat Your Watermelon in Mixed Company (and Enjoy It)
Thursday, March 28, 2019
9:00 am to 10:15 am
This reading is an exploration of Black writers contending with issues of authenticity, identity, audience, voice, and craft. Featuring four writers who work in various mediums, this reading will feature dialogue around respectability politics, in/visibility, the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, and the non-Black gaze. Rooted in the notion that through the specific we bring out the universal, this reading aims to give insight to marginalization and tokenism in the literary world.
Participants
Moderator:
Justin Phillip Reed is the author of Indecency.
Jonah Mixon-Webster is a poet, sound artist, and educator from Flint, MI. His is the author of Stereo(TYPE) and a Ph.D. candidate in English Studies at Illinois State University. His work is featured in Callaloo, Best New Poets 2017, Best American Experimental Writing 2018, and elsewhere.
Danez Smith is the author of two collections, most recently Don't Call Us Dead, a finalist for the National Book Award. They are the cohost of the podcast VS with poet Franny Choi. Their third collection, Homie, is forthcoming.
Nabila Lovelace
Camonghne Felix
