Kweli Journal

From our Editor-In-Chief, Laura Pegram June Jordan was my mentor and second mother. She told me that the sky was my ceiling. Looking forward to tonight’s Jazzonia event at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. You can join me by tuning into the Facebook and Youtube channels of the @natljazzmuseum. See you at 7pm! #jazzpoetry #Jazzonia #kwelijournal #jazz #poetry #LangstonsLegacy

These two books are available now for your reading pleasure. Congratulations to @tasha.spillett @michaelagoade @nonieqa.ramos and @_jacqueline_alcantara!

So much of Black history is focused on exceptional people, Greenidge said in a video interview earlier this month. Part of what I wanted to explore is, what’s the emotional and psychological toll of being an exception, of being exceptional, and also, what about the people who just want to have a regular life and find freedom and achievement in being able to live in peace with their family which is what Libertie wants? An excerpt and photo from @nytimes about @kaitlyngreenidge as she discusses LIBERTIE, which will soon be available to all on March 30th!

#flashbackfriday Publisher Phoebe Yeh talking to future National Book Award finalist, Ibi Zoboi at #Kweli15 at the Poets Den Gallery in East Harlem. Art exhibited in Poets Den Gallery was from a fictionalized graphic memoir co-created by mother/daughter team, Leila Esperanza Gómez and Sara Woolley Gómez which chronicles young Esperancita’s upbringing in and eventual exile from the political turmoil of 1940’s Colombia. Registration for #kweli21virtual ends this Sunday, March 21st. Please use the link in our bio to join us April 9th - 11th!

Mark your calendars for KEKLA MAGOON'S latest: REVOLUTION IN OUR TIME, THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY'S PROMISE TO THE PEOPLE. September 2021

Celebration time!

Here's my Inaugural poem out in the New York Times today:

RIO CORTEZ on "The ABCs of Black History" with ANNABELLA CORREA-MAYNARD. A story that spans continents & centuries, triumph & heartbreak, creativity & joy. Join us on WEDNESDAY, 1/27 at 7PM EST. FREE and open to the public.... RSVP: https://bit.ly/3bGMvSh Please share the word.

"[Nadia] spends her life moving between Europe, Africa and New York, reeling from her mother’s desertion and her father’s death. Her task and burden are threefold: to chronicle the historical wounds and legacies of each country; to chart her own descent into grief, mania and madness; to begin the work of emotional reconstruction. She does so with unerring honesty and in prose that is both rigorous and luminous.MARGO JEFFERSON, author of Negroland: A Memoir, winner of the Na...tional Book Critics Circle Award Join us on THURSDAY, JANUARY 28TH, 6:30PM for a reading and conversation between NADIA OWUSU and MITCHELL JACKSON. RSVP here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/nadia-owusu-on-2 Share the word. Thank you.

Apply to CRYSTAL WILKINSON CREATIVE WRITING PRIZE FOR EMERGING BLACK WRITERS!!! Submission window: January 15 - February 15!!!!

#Kweli21 pre-conference events begin this month with RIO CORTEZ (author of The ABCs of Black History, December 2020), JOANNA HO (author of Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, January 2021) & BRITTANY THURMAN (author of Fly, March 2022). Author reading, craft chat, sneak peek of art from Fly by illustrator ANNA CUNHA AND MORE! EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION January 5 - January 24, 2021... Please share the word. Thank you.

Tomorrow's the big day! Just wait until you see this year's line up.