Literature Through A Black Woman’s Lens on Thursday 29 July 2021
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 2021-07-30

Tonya Pinkins presents Through A Black Woman’s Lens—Literature livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 29 July 2021 at 2 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 4 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 5 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Literature
Black female characters over the centuries and in present time are often in white narratives as the role of the “Caring Modern Day Aunt Jemima”. How can we reshape this story?

About the Series
Black women are the educators, the providers and the defenders of our community, but we are often left out of the narrative of our own stories. TONYA PINKINS (writer director, and producer of the socio-political horror film, RED PILL) and Howlround have partnered to create a 6-part series with some America’s leading Black women from the world of literature, film, academia, theater, tech and business to discuss and take a deeper look into the Black Woman’s lens and perspective on the world that we live in. We will discuss what scares us, why we are not heard, seen or understood and what changes need to be made to protect our hearts, minds, bodies and soul. We will provide an outline of how as Black women we can pivot, center our stories, and tell the world who we are, what we are doing and how the rest of the global society can get on board.

“This is not a conversation, This a moment to listen to Black women and take action on what we are saying.” -Tonya Pinkins

Panelist Bios

CYNTHIA BOND is a New York Times Best-Selling Author. Her novel RUBY was chosen to be an Oprah Book Club selection. RUBY was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and an Indie Next Pick. A PEN Rosenthal Fellow, Bond attended Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, then moved to New York and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She founded the Blackbird Writing Collective in 2011. Cynthia taught writing to at-risk and homeless youth for over twenty years. She is currently completing the second book in the RUBY Trilogy. A native of East Texas, she lives in Los Angeles with her daughter.

TANYA MCKINNON is the founder of McKinnon Literary where she represents New York Times bestsellers and award-winning non-fiction, children's books, and graphic novels. She specializes in non-fiction that addresses cultural issues as well as gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. She is most drawn to work that pushes political and cultural boundaries. In addition to agenting, She holds an MA in cultural anthropology, and teaches a course on Writing for Children in the Publishing Certificate Program at The City College of New York.

ALICE RANDALL is a New York Times best-selling novelist, award-winning songwriter, educator, and food activist. A graduate of Harvard University, she holds an honorary doctorate from Fisk University, is on the faculty at Vanderbilt University, and credits Detroit’s Ziggy Johnson School of the Theater with being the most influential educational institution in her life. She is widely recognized as being one of the most significant voices in 21st century African-American fiction.

Randall has presented across the nation: In auditoriums, libraries, museums, and ballrooms; in fields, in graveyards, and harborside. She once did a talk for a group of students as they marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, In all those spaces she weaves history, literature, practical wisdom, and political passion into powerful exchanges with large and small audiences. She covers expected territory in unexpected ways and makes unexpected territory accessible.

Her most frequent topics include: fiction, fiction writing, and literary theory; soul food cookbooks, Black foodways, and Black Cocktail culture; Black presence and influence in country music, country lyric in American culture, a country music through a feminist lens. She is known for integrating cooking demonstrations, food tastings, and even pop-up hula hooping sessions into her talks. Randall’s fiction has been or is currently being taught at a wide range of universities, including Fisk, Harvard, Iowa State, Penn State, Philander Smith, Princeton, Tuskegee, The University of Texas Austin, The University of Virginia, and Wesleyan.