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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

November 13–15, 2026
"We Were Never Meant to Survive"
Rest • Resilience • Radical Joy

Every session is an invitation to rest, to imagine, to write, and to reconnect.

Choose a day below or scroll to explore the full weekend schedule

* Please note that as we are working to bring you the best experience things may change* 

Friday
Saturday
Sunday

GGO 2026

Friday

Conference Schedule

Registration 9:30 AM–1:00 PM
Registration & Welcome Lounge
Check in, grab your conference materials, meet fellow attendees, visit sponsors, and explore the opening vendor market.
Griot & Grey Owl Team
Lobby
↑ Back to Friday
Community 3:15 PM–4:30 PM
Community Reception & Vendor Market
Full session description coming soon.
Authors, vendors, community partners, and attendees
↑ Back to Friday
Film 7:45 PM–9:15 PM
Opening-Night Film Screening
Full session description coming soon.
Film to be announced
↑ Back to Friday

GGO 2026

Saturday

Conference Schedule

Registration 8:00 AM–9:00 AM
Registration
Full session description coming soon.
Griot & Grey Owl Team
↑ Back to Saturday

Concurrent Sessions

Workshop Block One

9:00 AM–10:00 AM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Craft & Place
Workshop
Writing the South Without Apology: Ecology, Memory, and Southern Landscape
Full session description coming soon.
Nadia Alexis
↑ Back to Saturday
Journalism & Professional Development
Workshop
Digging for the Truth: Reporting, Research, and Finding the Story — A Freelancing Masterclass
Full session description coming soon.
Aaliyah Wright
↑ Back to Saturday

Concurrent Sessions

Workshop Block Two

10:15 AM–11:15 AM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Memory & Preservation
Workshop
Beyond Preservation: Helping Memories Find Their Way Home and Returning Black Stories to the South
Full session description coming soon.
Cynthia Harbor
↑ Back to Saturday
Talk 11:30 AM–12:30 PM
Intersectional Community Care: Rest, Resilience, and Radical Joy
A featured conversation on creative survival, community care, rest, pleasure, resilience, and what it means for Black artists and cultural workers to imagine lives beyond endurance.
Danez Smith, Ericka Hart
↑ Back to Saturday
12:30 PM–1:30 PM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Community
Lunch, Vendor Market & Book Signings
Full session description coming soon.
Participating authors, vendors, and conference attendees
↑ Back to Saturday
Outside Activation
Talk
Land & Lineage: Rooted: Africulture—The Plants and Lands of African People in the South
Full session description coming soon.
Michael Carter Jr.
Outside
↑ Back to Saturday

Concurrent Sessions

Concurrent Sessions

1:45 PM–2:45 PM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Publishing & Editing
Panel
Editors Roundtable and Pitch Fest
Full session description coming soon.
Editors and agents to be announced
↑ Back to Saturday

Concurrent Sessions

Concurrent Hallmark Sessions

3:00 PM–4:00 PM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Concurrent Sessions

Saturday Afternoon Featured Sessions

4:00 PM–5:15 PM

Choose the session that speaks to you.

Community 5:30 PM–7:30 PM
Dinner Break, Book Signings & Evening with the Griots
Full session description coming soon.
↑ Back to Saturday
Slam 8:00 PM–10:00 PM
Griot & Grey Owl Poetry Slam
Full session description coming soon.
Emcee to be announced
↑ Back to Saturday

GGO 2026

Sunday

Conference Schedule

Community 9:30 AM–10:00 AM
Morning Break & Community Gathering
Full session description coming soon.
↑ Back to Sunday
Community 11:45 AM–12:30 PM
Vendor Market, Book Signings & Community Fellowship
Full session description coming soon.
Participating authors and vendors
↑ Back to Sunday
Closing 1:45 PM–2:45 PM
Music, Closing Ceremony, Community Gratitude & the 2027 Announcement
Full session description coming soon.
Griot & Grey Owl founders, musical guests, and conference team
↑ Back to Sunday
Volunteer 2:45 PM–3:15 PM
Volunteer Closing & Breakdown
Full session description coming soon.
Griot & Grey Owl team and volunteers
↑ Back to Sunday

All Workshops

Workshop

Writing the South Without Apology: Ecology, Memory, and Southern Landscape

Saturday 9:00 AM →
Workshop

Abstract and Prophetic Poetics

Saturday 9:00 AM →
Workshop

Digging for the Truth: Reporting, Research, and Finding the Story — A Freelancing Masterclass

Saturday 9:00 AM →
Workshop

Smile Black Child: Interactive Children’s Book Workshop

Saturday 9:00 AM →
Workshop

Writing Joy When the World Is Burning

Saturday 10:15 AM →
Workshop

Hoodoo, Voodoo, and the Stories We Inherit

Saturday 10:15 AM →
Workshop

Beyond Preservation: Helping Memories Find Their Way Home and Returning Black Stories to the South

Saturday 10:15 AM →
Workshop

Legacy and Lineage of the Black Church Fan

Saturday 10:15 AM →
Workshop

Cowboy Carter: Exploring Black Cowboy Heritage in Fairfield County

Saturday 4:00 PM →
Workshop

Yoga & Writing Reflection: An Outdoor Healing and Rest Practice

Sunday 8:30 AM →

All Panels

Panel

Owning a Black Art Business: Building, Gathering, and Sustaining Community

Friday 1:00 PM →
Panel

Afrofuturism, History, and the Black South

Friday 2:15 PM →
Panel

Black Boy Joy: Writing Black Boys Beyond Survival, Friendship and Black Masculinity

Saturday 1:45 PM →
Panel

Editors Roundtable and Pitch Fest

Saturday 1:45 PM →
Panel

You Cannot Be an Anchor for Them and Swim Too: Hood Wellness and Self-Care

Saturday 4:00 PM →
Panel

Young, Black, and Boundless: YA and Children’s Literature

Saturday 4:00 PM →

All Talks

Talk

Intersectional Community Care: Rest, Resilience, and Radical Joy

Saturday 11:30 AM →
Talk

Land & Lineage: Rooted: Africulture—The Plants and Lands of African People in the South

Saturday 12:30 PM →
Talk

Ancestral Knowledge and Genealogy in Creative Nonfiction and Poetry

Saturday 1:45 PM →
Talk

Where the South Gets Strange: Black Women, Place, Humor, and the Unruly Imagination

Saturday 1:45 PM →
Talk

Bloom How You Must: Black Women, Wellness, and the Cost of Overachievement

Saturday 3:00 PM →
Talk

“Nasty Work”: Sex, Power, and the Politics of Desire

Saturday 3:00 PM →
Talk

Dinner & Poet Laureates, Place, and the Power of the Southern Voice

Saturday 6:00 PM →
Talk

Sunday Brunch: Writing, Food, Spirit, and the Stories That Sustain Us

Sunday 10:00 AM →
Talk

Rest Is a Spell: Oral Tradition, Healing, and Ancestral Practice

Sunday 12:30 PM →