The final event in #ObsidianVoices Spring 2022 events has officially been announced! “—ing While Black” will take place April 29 at 6PM CT.
This will be a reading and conversation about Black embodied consciousness with Tyehimba Jess, Michael Warr, Breauna L. Roach, and Naudia Williams. Editor Duriel E. Harris will act as moderator.
You will also hear more about an ongoing online poetry project featured around Michael Warr’s “What Not to Do…[an unfinished poem]” which can also be found in Obsidan issue 46.2 as well.
Stay tuned to their website for more information and to RSVP.RSVP here for their final Spring event.
Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora has announced its first #ObsidianVoices Spring 2022 events.
They are kicking off the new year on January 28 at 6PM CT with Whirlwind, a reading and conversation celebrating the Furious Flower Poetry Prize published in Obsidian 46.2. The event will be moderated by Lauren K. Alleyne and will feature Diamonde Forde and Kweku Abimbola.
Next, circle February 11 in your calendar. At 6PM CT they will be hosting a reading and conversation celebrating Obsidian 47.1. This event will be moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas and Nandi Comer and will feature Trace DePass, Aris Kian, MARS Marshall, Olufunke Ogundimu, & Ronda Racha Penrice.
These events are free and open to the public, but you do have to RSVP to receive the Zoom link.
Started in 2020 to help bring writers and audiences together in celebration of newly created work, #ObsidanVoices is back with three new events! All events are virtual and free to attend. You do have to register, still, though.
First off is Radiant Youth. Taking place November 19th at 6PM CST, this event is a reading and conversation celebrating Issue 46.2. Lineup includes Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Alex Jennings, C. Liegh McInnis, Chinonye Omeirondi, and Kristina Kay Robinson. Moderator of the event is Danielle L. Littlefield.
Next is Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine – a reading and conversation celebrating Obsidian 47.1. This will take place virtually on December 3 at 6PM CST. Moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas and Nandi Comer, the lineup features Sheree L. Greer, Michal “MJ” Jones, Shayla Lawz, Christian Loriel Lucas, and Daniel B. Summerhill.
Lastly, we have Heirloom: Preserving HBCU Futures – a reading and conversation celebrating Obsidian 47.2. This will take place online December 10 at 6PM CST. Moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas and featuring Reynaldo Anderson, Roman Johnson, Tony Medina, Carmin Wong, and more.
If you’re interested in submitting to Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, they have extended the deadline to submit to their Gender Queer/Genre Queer Playground Special Issue. Ronaldo V. Wilson is the issue’s guest editor. Submissions due by January 1, 2022.
Literary magazine Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, edited by Duriel E. Harris, is now the host and curator of @Salon. Founded in 2011, @Salon is an interdisciplinary event welcoming artists and art enthusiasts to come together for conversation, poetry, spoken word, music, sound, performance, and visual and digital art. Obsidian‘s @Salon welcomes Black writers and artists and their allies to come together for conversation and exchange.
This year’s event QPlayaz|QPride @Salon 2021 will take place virtually viz Zoom on Tuesday, June 22 starting at 5:30PM PT/7:30PM CT/8:30PM ET.
Interdisciplinary artist and writer Ronaldo V. Wilson is the Play Leader and Playaz include Vidhu Aggarwal, Lucas de Lima, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Angela Peñaredondo. This event launches Obsidian‘s call for Genderqueer/Genrequeer Playground special issue curated by Wilson with an interactive poetry reading and mixed-genre queer conversation.
QPlaya-ground will feature rounds of verbal four square, double d-iz-utch, and tag between participants. RSVP here (did I mention it’s free?).
Yet another great literary publication through which global cultures and perspectives can be explored is Obsidian: Literature of the African Diasporas. The most recent issue (v8 i2 – don’t let the 2007 date throw you; it just came out) focuses on Ghana – “Honoring the Legacy and Literature of Independent Africa, 1957-2007.”
Editor Sheila Smith McKoy introduces the issue: “As the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from its ‘colonizer,’ Ghana set the stage for the domino effect of freedom across the African continent…In this issue, Obsidian celebrates the legacies of Independent Africa, her literature, her cultures, and their impact across Africa, her Diaspora and our world.”
Poets in this issue include Kofie Anyidoho, Makuchi, Shane Book, and Sheila Smith McKoy – “all offer riffs on the issues that contextualize the experiences of African and Diasporan identity.” M. Genevieve West interviews Makuchi, several essays “provide diverse perspectives on Ghana and her legacy,” and Kim Coleman Foote contributes to the fiction.
