The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center is hosting its second public BUSBOYS AND POETS LECTURE on April 23rd, 2024 at 6:30pm at the Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center, 3740 Blenheim Boulevard (formerly Old Lee Hwy), Fairfax, VA 22030. Sponsored by Busboys and Poets, this series of annual lectures will cover literature, culture, and global affairs. Our Lecture Partners are: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), City of Fairfax, Fairfax County Public Library, Dept. of African and African American Studies at GMU.
In this centennial year of James Baldwin’s birth, Baldwin’s friend, the award-winning writer and pubic intellectual, Nikki Giovanni will reflect on her friendship with Baldwin, and why Baldwin matters. By reflecting on James Baldwin’s journey inside and outside America, Giovanni will discuss his legacy, include themes of belonging and exile, friendship, sexuality, community and interconnected idealism: black and white collaborators and their impact on internationalism and justice. How James Baldwin belongs to us all in profound interconnection.
In 1971 James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni taped a two-hour “dialogue” for a public TV show called Soul! At forty-seven years old, Baldwin was a legend for 'The Fire Next Time' and countless other essays, novels, and criticism. Giovanni, then twenty-eight, was a luminary of the Black Arts Movement as the author of the 1968 poetry collection 'Black Feeling, Black Talk.' Their conversation was subsequently published in book form as 'A Dialogue.'
You can read more about Nikki Giovanni here: https://nikki-giovanni.com | RSVP HERE
