The Brooklyn Book Festival is TODAY (SEPT. 23RD) and many Black authors will be participating. Just some of those conversations are reflected here:
Brooklyn Borough Hall Courtroom (209 Joralemon Street)
12:00 P.M. Characters on Characters.
Best-selling literary lions Walter Mosley, Edwidge Danticat and Dennis Lehane discuss their unforgettable characters and the darkness that often enshrouds them. The program will also feature short readings. Moderated by Harold Augenbraum of the National Book Foundation.
5:00 P.M. The Fragility of Electability: Campaigns, Character and Messing with Texas.
A conversation with Gail Collins (As Texas Goes...How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda), Jodi Kantor (The Obamas) and John MacArthur (The Outrageous Barriers to Democracy in America, or, Why A Progressive Presidency Is Impossible). Moderated by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Brooklyn Borough Hall Community Room (209 Joralemon Street)
12:00 P.M. Through the Eyes of a Child.
Join Somali-English author Nadifa Mohamed (Black Mamba Boy), Maaza Mengiste (Beneath the Lion’s Gaze) and Congo’s Emmanuel Dongala (Johnny Mad Dog and Little Boys Come from the Stars) for a conversation on contemporary African novels which explore themes of identity, memory and violence through child narrators. Moderated by Bhakti Shringarpure,Warscapes.
2:00 P.M. Calabash Presents.
Jamaica’s legendary Calabash International Literary Festival celebrates 50 years of Jamaican independence with readings by premier Jamaican-born novelists and poets Chris John Farley(Kingston Noir), Jacqueline Bishop (Snapshots from Istanbul), and Ishion Hutchinson (Far District). Moderated by Calabash co-founder Kwame Dawes.
3:00 P.M. BOCAS Presents.
Trinidad’s groundbreaking annual NGC Bocas Literary Festival comes to Brooklyn to celebrate 50 years of Trinidad & Tobago independence with readings by Earl Lovelace (Is Just a Movie),Victoria Brown (Minding Ben) and Anton Nimblett (Sections of an Orange). Moderated byNicholas Laughlin, BOCAS organizer and editor of the Caribbean Review of Books.
Main Stage (Borough Hall Plaza)
3:00 P.M. The Dark Side.
When a character has a dark side or a painful history, how does an author write about it? AuthorsAmelia Gray (Threats), Dennis Lehane (Moonlight Mile) and Sapphire (The Kid) deal with violence in their work and discuss how they handle it. Moderated by Greg Cowles, New York Times Book Review.
4:00 P.M. Good Times – Different Times.
Jimmie Walker (Dyn-O-Mite: A Memoir) and Bern Nadette Stanis (Situations 101: Relationships, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly) from the landmark TV sitcom, Good Times, in conversation. Moderated by Carolyn Greer, Brooklyn Book Festival.
Saint Francis Auditorium (180 Remsen Street)
4:00 P.M. Isabel Wilkerson in Conversation with Amy Goodman.
Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson discusses themes from her bestselling National Book Critics Circle Award-winning The Warmth of Other Suns, which views the Great Migration of the 20th Century as an epic tale of immigrants journeying to new and unfamiliar lands. In Conversation with Amy Goodman (The Silenced Majority Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope), host and executive producer of “Democracy Now!” public radio and TV news program.
5:00 P.M. Nothing Ever Breaks But the Heart.
Novels that span generations and continents to remind us to tread lightly when following the heart. Stewart O’Nan (The Odds), Gail Tsukiyama (A Hundred Flowers) and Terry McMillan(Getting to Happy) read and discuss their work. Moderated by Jeffrey Lependorf, CLMP.
Saint Francis Screening Room (180 Remsen Street)
10:00 A.M. Home Is Not A Place.
Four authors read and discuss their books whose protagonists are challenged to create and negotiate their identity in a new homeland--a journey fraught with confusion, rebellion and uncertain outcomes. Graphic novelist Leela Corman (Unterzakhn), and authors Patricia Engel(Vida), Luis Alberto Urrea (Into the Beautiful North) and Jose Manuel Prieto (Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire). Moderated by Tiphanie Yanique (How to Escape from a Leper Colony).
2:00 P.M. Poetic Visions.
Poets and artists Star Black (Velleity’s Shade), Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Mule & Pear) andDanny Simmons (Deep in your Best Reflection) discuss the relationship of poetry to the visual arts in their own work. Moderated by Bianca Stone.
St. Francis McArdle (180 Remsen Street)
12:00 P.M. The Politics of Identity—Do They Still Matter?
As America grows more diverse, “minorities” will soon be the majority and this shift in demographics affects our culture and the ways we think about it. Can—and should—we move beyond the idea of race in America? Baratunde Thurston (How to Be Black), Rebecca Walker(Black Cool) and Wesley Yang (author of the New York magazine “Paper Tigers” and a forthcoming book on Asians in America) will interrogate the stereotypes we still have of each other, both positive and negative, and examine the ways we run from and cling to various aspects of identity, race, and heritage. Moderated by Amitava Kumar.
3:00 P.M. Location, Location, Location.
Colin Channer (Kingston Noir), Mark Leyner (The Sugar Frosted Nutsack) and Jessica Hagedorn (Toxicology) discuss themes of violence, drug use and crime in the very different locations of Jamaica, Dubai and Manhattan’s West Village. It just goes to show that almost every place in the world is united by the dark and devious. Moderated by Brigid Hughes.
5:00 P.M. The Poet Novelist.
Poets and novelists Ben Lerner (Leaving the Atocha Station), Eileen Myles (Inferno: A Poet’s Novel) and Sapphire (The Kid) explore the boundaries, possibilities, divergences and intersections of poetry and prose. Moderated by Camille Rankine, Manhattanville College.
St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church (157 Montague Street)
2:00 P.M. Literary Lions.
Readings by award winning authors Pete Hamill (Tabloid City), Edwidge Danticat (Create Dangerously) and Paul Auster (Winter Journal). Whether their point of view is a palimpsest of Brooklyn fiction or set in other places, they have each lived in Brooklyn and been influenced by it. Followed by Q & A. Introduced by Johnny Temple, Publisher, Akashic Books and Chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council.
3:30 P.M. A Fiction Triumvirate: McFadden, Oates, Whitehead.
Three of America’s finest authors read from their work, followed by Q & A. Bernice L. McFadden, Joyce Carol Oates and Colson Whitehead. Introduced by Rob Spillman, Tin House.
Brooklyn Historical Society Library (128 Pierrepont Street)
10:00 A.M. The Nation Presents Election 2012.
The presidential election comes at a critical moment for the United States. Demands for US engagement abroad are substantial—particularly in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. At home, shortages of jobs and housing are creating domestic crises unseen in generations. What are the stakes in Election 2012? A conversation featuring Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Change I Believe In), Tom Frank (Pity the Billionaire) and Eric Alterman (The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama). Moderated by Touré.
12:00 P.M. An Education: Coming of Age in America Today.
How does higher education serve our democracy? With college tuitions at an all-time high, instruction migrating to online platforms, and the number of good jobs for those without college degrees declining, America is at a crossroads. Columbia professor Andrew Delbanco (College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be), Andrew Hacker (Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids, and What We Can Do About It), and Brooklyn College Dean Kimberley L. Phillips (War! What is it Good For? Black Freedom Struggles & the U.S. Military From World War II to Iraq), discuss the past, present and future of higher education as a path to adulthood in America. Moderated by Richard Greenwald.
1:00 P.M. Love, Life, and Imagination.
Join four writers who turn the ordinary into extraordinary. Featuring characters with questionable motives, in unusual places and circumstances, novelists Alan Cheuse (Song of Slaves in the Desert), Bradford Morrow (The Uninnocent), Donna Hill (If I Could) and Eliza Factor (The Mercury Fountain) discuss love (lost and gained), life (given and taken) and the imagination in the telling. Moderated by Marcela Landres.
4:00 P.M. Tales of a Few Cities.
While New York and other cities have survived the Great Recession, cities like Camden teeter on the brink of collapse. Which cities will thrive in the new economy? Who (or what) will rescue the places in decline? Discussion with Chris Hedges (Days of Destruction); Mark Binelli (upcoming Detroit City is the Place to Be) and former NY Times columnist and DemosBob Herbert. Moderated by Ted Hamm.
Brooklyn Law School Student Lounge (250 Joralemon Street)
4:00 P.M. Creative Life in NYC - Art, Music and Creative Culture in the 70’s 80’s and Beyond.
James Wolcott (Lucking Out: My Life Getting Down and Semi-Dirty in Seventies New York),Nile Rodgers (Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny) and Cynthia Carr (Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz) discuss art, music, and creativity in NYC through the decades. Moderated by Will Hermes (Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever).
North Stage (Borough Hall Plaza/Columbus Park)
11:00 A.M. New Works: Poetry Reading.
Poets Cathy Park Hong (Engine Empire), Stephen Motika (Western Practice), Kwame Dawes (Duppy Conqueror), Idra Novey (Exit, Civilian) and Patrick Rosal (Boneshepherds) will read from their recently published volumes of poetry. Introduced by Joseph O. Legaspi.
5:00 P.M. Eats Empires.
Jamaican born Lowell Hawthorne (The Baker’s Son), father of the Golden Krust empire, and food historian Robin Shulman (Eat the City) discuss the impact of food on economic development and urban revitalization. Moderated by Carlo Scissura, CEO, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
More info is at http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BBF/Home