Friday, Nov 1st | Nasher Museum

Check-in/ Registration- Nasher and/adjacent location
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM 

Home & Heritage Write-In at the Nasher Museum (FREE)

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Led by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

“So Close You Can Breathe it In”

“Reflective writing on home inspired by Audre Lorde. In this workshop we will take the severely nearsighted poet warrior Audre Lorde as our guide do some close writing about home.”

Lunch at the Nasher Museum

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Opening Ceremony | Reynolds Auditorium, Bryan Center at Duke University ( FREE)

2:00 2:30PM

• Opening Chant & Music: Black Feminist Breathing Oracle & Opening by Alexis Pauline Gumbs 
• Keynote Speech with Prentis Hemphill
  3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
  • Speaker: Prentis Hemphill
    • “The talk will center around Prentis’ newest book What It Takes to Heal, where they explore the relationship between personal healing and social change.”
  • Q&A, Meet & Greet, Book Signing

Dinner Break

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Poetry Slam- The Fruit Durham ( OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)

7:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Host: Bluz aka Boris “Bluz” Rogers

Afterparty & Mixer

9:30 PM – Late
The Fruit Durham 

Saturday, Nov 2 | Durham Arts Council

Early Registration
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Workshops & Book Talks

8:30 AM – 9:45 AM

• YA Workshop: Marvel at My Melanin – Justin Reynolds
• Poetry Workshop: Breath and Body of Home – Tyree Daye
  • “Our breath is the only bodily element we can share with someone who may pick up one of our poems. How a poet or musician controls your breath or their breath creates the emotion that fills the body. If we are making poems about what it means to be a human, in a body, then understanding our natural breath patterns and ways of breaking them is essential to the transference of the poem’s emotional energy.”
• Fiction Workshop: Exploring Race, Place, and Home – Ladee Hubbard
  • “Dive into the challenges of writing and publishing stories that capture the essence of community and family. Ladee will share her experiences writing The Last Suspicious Holdout, and discuss how to balance the pressures of representing our communities while respecting the unique complexity of our characters.”
• Book Talk: How Poetry Lifts Prose Off the Page – Phillip B Williams w/ Moderator Jay Ward
• Playwriting/Dramatic Literature Intensive

Roundtables & Panels- DAC & American Underground 

10:00 AM – 11:45 AM

• Black & Queer South Panel: Exploring Sex & Identity in the Black South 
• Parenting & Kid Lit Panel: Justin Reynolds, Kwame, Alicia D. Williams, Khalia Moreau w/ Moderator Tiffani Staten
• Nonfiction Panel: “Rooted” – Reclaiming Black Land Stories – Brea Baker, Tyree Daye, Alexandra Jane, and special guests
• Poetry Craft Workshop: Form, Black Identity, Intersectionality – Tiana Clark
  • “Black Fusion and Fissure: In this generative poetry workshop, we will explore what it means to make and break forms by fulfilling and thwarting the expectations of our readers as well as create new entry points and energies in our work as a means of exploring our deep history of Black ingenuity and poetic survival.”

Lunch & Learn Sessions- DAC

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

• All Access: Lunch & Learn with Michael Twitty
• VIP Lunch: with guest chef

Book Signings & VIP Side Events

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

• • Speed Dating with Agents & Authors
  • VIP Workshop: Black Boys & Hip Hop Grief – Roscoe Burnems
    • The workshop is a thoughtful unpacking of grief, loss, and healing and how to process it through creative writing.
  • Masterclass: The Four Temperaments
  • In this workshop, we’ll dive into the four temperaments of writing: the structured, the free-spirited, the formal, and the fluid. Writers will explore how each temperament influences their approach to creativity. You’ll learn to identify your primary style and discover ways to balance these temperaments, helping you blend discipline with spontaneity and formality with flow in your work. – Airea D Mathews