Third Annual Celebration of Diverse Literary Voices of Texas February 22-23, 2019 at Austin Central Library

The Third Annual Celebration of Diverse Literary Voices of Texas is sponsored by KAZI Book Review, hosted by the Austin Public Library and supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department and PEN America.  It is also supported by sponsors HEB, Capital Metro, Travis County Commissioner Jeffrey Travillion, Austin Spurs, Velva Price. and Walter Muse.  Special thanks to the Austin Revitalization Authority for their support.

ALL EVENTS WILL BE HELD AT AUSTIN CENTRAL LIBRARY SPECIAL EVENTS CENTER

710 W. Cesar Chavez St., Austin, Texas

 

February 22, 2019 – RSVP For Friday

7 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Diverse Literary Voices of Texas Presents: An Evening With Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Leonard Pitts, Jr.

Author of the new historical black novel set during World War II, THE LAST THING YOU SURRENDER, and nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald

Moderator: Hopeton Hay, Host and Producer, KAZI Book Review; Founder, Celebration of Diverse Literary Voices of Texas

 

February 23, 2019 – RSVP For Saturday

10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Registration and Book Sales

 

10:30-11:15 a.m.

Zora Neale Hurston’s BARRACOON: The True Story of One of the Last Known Survivors of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Jennifer Baker, editor, EVERYDAY PEOPLE: The Color of Life—A Short Story Anthology, and host of Minorities in Publishing Podcast

Daina Ramey Berry, Professor of History at UT Austin and author of THE PRICE FOR THEIR POUND OF FLESH

Moderator: Julie Hudson, Assistant Professor of English, Huston-Tillotson University

 

11:20-12:05

From Roots to Bloom: Deconstructing Latinidad

Carrie Fountain, author, I’M NOT MISSING

Jasminne Méndez, author, NIGHT-BLOOMING JASMIN(N) e: Personal Essays & Poems

ire’ne lara silva,author, CUICACALLI/House of Song poetry collection

Moderator: Natalia Sylvester, author, EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME

 

12:10-12:55 p.m.

Everyday People: Diversity In Fantasy, Young Adult, and Short Story Fiction

Jennifer Baker, editor, EVERYDAY PEOPLE: The Color of Life—A Short Story Anthology, and host of Minorities in Publishing Podcast

Nicky Drayden, author, TEMPER

Jacob Grovey, author, THE DIFFERENTERS (YA)

Moderator: Billy Carr, KAZI 88.7 FM

 

12:55 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.

Book Sales 

 

1:15-2:15 p.m.

Voter Suppression and Role of Press in Safeguarding Democracy

Carol Anderson, author, ONE PERSON, NO VOTE: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Our Democracy and Professor of African American Studies, Emory University

Gary Bledsoe, President, Texas NAACP and Interim Dean, Texas Southern University School of Law

Leonard Pitts, Jr., nationally syndicated columnist, Miami Herald, and author, THE LAST THING YOU SURRENDER

Moderator: Alberta Phillips-Bledsoe, Austin writer and journalist

 

2:30-3:15 p.m.

Violence Against Black Slaves/Prisoners and Ethnic Mexicans in Texas: From South Texas to Sugar Land

Diana Ramey Berry, author, THE PRICE FOR THEIR POUND OF FLESH: The Value of the Enslaved from Womb to Grave in the Building of a Nation

Monica Munoz Martinez, author, THE INJUSTICE NEVER LEAVES YOU:  Anti-Mexican Violence in the Texas Borderlands

Moderator: John Moran Gonzalez, Director, UT Austin Center for Mexican American Studies

 

3:30-4:15 p.m.

The Depiction of Immigration in Fiction and the Media Bots, Trolls, and Truth

Moderator: Douglas Criss, Digital Trending News Writer, CNN

Leonard Pitts, Jr., nationally syndicated columnist, Miami Herald, and author, THE LAST THING YOU SURRENDER

Chaitali Sen, author, THE PATHLESS SKY

Natalia Sylvester, author, EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME

 

4:15-5 p.m.

Book Sales