The Genius Conference
Schedule
Schedule Subject to Change
Friday, June 7th, 2024
11 am - 5 pm (Grand Hall)
Children’s Art Table (sponsored by Third Place Books)
Featured Authors: Meet and Greet Table
Food & Beverage
Vendor Marketplace - Featured Vendors Include:
African American Writers’ Alliance LANGSTON Seattle
Seattle Public Library/Seattle Reads James D. Macon
Helen J. Collier, Author Carletta Carrington Wilson
Northern Comforts Nefertiti Holistic's
The Mahogany Project Shunpike
Smokey Hot Soup
11:30 am (Grand Hall)
Welcome & Opening Statements: Dr. Georgia McDade, AAWA charter member Melany Bell, AAWA Chair
Workshops
12:00 - 12:50 pm
Writing My Reality (West Room) Featured Writer: Debra Kendrick
The writer takes you on a journey using original plays and real-life stories to guide you to find your voice in the literary world. Through this journey, we will discuss deep literacy, decoding, how to remain relevant and use your challenges for fuel as a writer. WMR will inspire, encourage, and empower.
The Ritual of Writing (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Halisi Ali El (AAWA Member) Facilitator: Merri Ann Osborne (AAWA member and Author)
In this workshop, AAWA member and author Halisi Ali El will share techniques and tools to break through the emotional barriers that can inhibit or prevent us from writing the stories we want to tell.
1:00 - 1:50 pm
Getting Started with Freelance Writing (2 R Room) Featured Writer: Danielle Hayden (AAWA member)
Interested in writing for newspapers, magazines, online publications or businesses but not sure how to get started? Join Danielle and to learn some tips and tricks for how to get published and build a sustainable, steady stream of freelance work. Workshop will include guidance on things like researching outlets to crafting & pitching story ideas to editors to seizing opportunities and leveraging your network (and more!)
Seeds of the Future: An Afrofuturistic Game Show (Theatre) Featured Artists: Jourdan Imani Keith, Merri Ann Osborne & Chino Gonzales
Get ready for Family Feud style trivia and team storytelling with categories from Octavia Butler’s literature to The Black Panther and Parliament Funkadelic or the Hidden Figures that took us into space and much more.
Join your hosts Jourdan Imani Keith, Merri Ann Osborne and Chino Gonzales for an all ages, fun-filled 50 minutes.
2:00 - 2:50 pm
Mixtape Memoir (West Room)
Featured Writer: Reagan Jackson - *SPL - Seattle Reads
If you could leave behind one story from your life like a time capsule to be explored by future generations, what would be your legacy? Our stories of family, friends, communities, challenges, traditions, love, adventure, missed opportunities and paths less traveled are like the songs on a mixtape. In this session we're writing to remember and to be remembered.
The Scripted Spoken Wurd (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Miz Floes (AAWA member)
Ever wanted to see your poetry come to life? Do you know how to create a script (theater or episode)? Attend the SCRIPTED SPOKEN WORD SESSION, A workshop designed to transform your poetic verse. Attendees will learn the art of poetic transformation, while learning the basics of script creation. Attendees are welcome and encouraged to bring works previously created.
3:00 - 3:50 pm
Journalism: Writing About Us, For Us, By Us (West Room) Featured Writer: Lola Peters (AAWA member)
Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B DuBois, Gordon Parks. What would we know of Black history if they hadn't been journalists? Who's telling the stories our great-grandchildren will learn? What will they know about us? Mainstream media has driven mis- and dis-information about Black lives for centuries. How can we make sure that stops now? Who are the journalists telling our stories? How can you become one of them?
I Am Poetry: Decree Creation (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: La Toya A. Hampton
Led by La Toya A. Hampton, MSW artistically known as The Poet Lady Rose, the I Am Poetry: Decree Creation workshop provides participants with an exercise in creating their introduction and declaration of their existence and purpose with an artistic and/or dramatic flair. An excerpt from Ms. Hampton's film, "Petals and Thorns: A Spoken Word Journey" will be shown and used as a guide and prompt for the writing activity participants will engage in during the workshop.
Teach: Taking Education and Creating History (Grand Hall)
Black Prisoners Caucus
In 1972, incarcerated men formed the Black Prisoners Caucus (BPC) in Washington state. They took part in a radical legacy of political prisoners coming together for Black liberation, their influence reaching both behind and outside prison bars. The mission of BPC is to promote culture growth and provide incarcerated men and women the tools and platform to confront social issues that perpetuate discrimination, inequality and oppression among prisoners and poor communities of color.
4:00 - 4:50 pm
African-American Writers’ Alliance Showcase (Theatre)
AAWA Featured Writers: Mary Elizabeth Himes, James D. Macon, Santiago, Jaye Ware, Margaret Barrie
Founded in 1991, the Seattle-based African-American Writers' Alliance (AAWA), has provided an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers. Join us in hearing a sampling of work from featured members who represent our diverse and dynamic collective of writers of African descent. Learn more about AAWA and our authors at www.aawa-seattle.org
5:00 - 5:50 pm
The Written Word as an Instrument of Impact (Theatre)
Keynote Speaker: Debrena Jackson Gandy
Join nationally published best-selling author Debrena Jackson Gandy as she shares about the journey from being a self-published author to having all three of her books published by national publishers, including the two published by “Big Eight” publishers becoming national best-sellers. She’ll share how the written word can and is used as an instrument of impact that can change minds, hearts, spirits, narratives, relationships, and our history. She’ll shed light on the changes to the industry and the different landscape of the publishing industry “then and now,” as well as insider tips on the business of book writing and book selling, how to establish a brand as an Author, and marketing.
Saturday, June 8th, 2024
11 am - 5 pm (Grand Hall)
Children’s Art Table (sponsored by Third Place Books)
Featured Authors: Meet and Greet Table
Food & Beverage
Vendor Marketplace, including:
African-American Writers' Alliance LANGSTON Seattle
Seattle Public Library/Seattle Reads James D. Macon
Helen J. Collier Carletta Carrington Wilson
Northern Comforts Lola Sapphire Write, Inc.
Black Women Write Seattle BeeLyn Naihiwet
King County Library System Lanier's Fine Candies
Linda BEST Asian Comfort Food The Mahogany Project
Workshops
12:00 - 12:50 pm
How You Can Use the Seeds of Afrofuturism as a Tool for Healing (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Donte Felder - *SPL - Seattle Reads
Participants will learn about how they can apply the themes of Parable of the Sower and other science fiction narratives to support the journey of healing and self and community.
Let’s Get This Book Published: A Discussion on the Journey to Publishing Your First Book (West Room)
Featured Writers: Victory La Miranda Jeannine Davis, Alejandro Snead, D'Mario Carter Facilitator: Jayna Smith
Jayna Smith, KCLS Social Impact Coordinator and self-published author will facilitate a conversation with three local authors: Alejandro Snead, D'Mario Carter, and Victory La Miranda Jeannine Davis. These dynamic authors will share about their self-publishing and personal writing journeys, and the stories that inspire them. This conversation will explore the challenges associated with publishing, offer advice for aspiring authors on how to collaborate with local libraries/bookstores, and book performances and speaking engagements to drive book sales. Q&A and author book signing to follow.
(Workshop presented by the King County Library System)
1:00 - 1:50 pm
Women Icons in Afrofuturism (West Room)
Featured Writer: Isis Asare
Isis Asare is the CEO/Founder of Sistah Scifi (www.sistahscifi.com) and will discuss Sistah Scifi, the first Black-owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States as validated by the American Booksellers Association. Located in cyberspace, Sistah Scifi is a national brand with over 40K points of contact. In February 2023, the first three Sistah Scifi Book Vending Machines were launched in California and Washington.
Please note the author will be joining us remotely and will not be in-person.
So You Want to do a Solo Performance: Taking Your Personal Story to the Stage (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Sharon Nyree Williams
Facilitator: Merri Ann Osborne (AAWA member)
Do you have a personal story you want to share on stage, but you're not sure how to do so? Sharon Nyree Williams is a solo performer, poet, voice-actor actor, arts administrator and more. She will be sharing her experience as a solo show artist. From turning your personal journey into a performance piece, finding the right location/stage, building an audience base, working with directors, producers, musicians, lighting and sound tech, etc. Audience Q&A to follow the panel discussion.
(Workshop sponsored by The Mahogany Project)
African-American Writers’ Alliance Showcase (Theatre)
Featured Writers: Nana Kibibi Monie, Joy Sparks, Hydrolic West, Gaylloyd Sissón, Gail Haynes
Founded in 1991, the Seattle-based African-American Writers' Alliance (AAWA), has provided an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers. Join us in hearing a sampling of work from featured AAWA members who represent our diverse and dynamic collective of writers of African descent. Learn more about AAWA and our authors at www.aawa-seattle.org
2:00 - 2:50 pm
Zen For Your Pen (West Room)
Featured Writer: Liz Brazile
This workshop will cover how mind-body awareness can improve your writing, and how writing can help heal the mind-body connection. Come ready to write and engage in low-impact physical activity. We recommend wearing clothes that are comfortable and easy to move in.
How to Self-Publish a Book Using Canva (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Diane April
Do you want to self-publish a book and sell it on Amazon? Or wondered how to add illustrations to your books? Author Diane April will answer these questions and more as she demonstrates, step by step, the process of how to self-publish a children's book using Canva (an online graphic design tool), and then selling them on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Q&A and author book signing to follow.
HUEMXN by the Pi² Arts Collective (Theatre)
HUEMXN by the PI² Artist Collective, Artistic Director Melany Bell. PI² uses a unique vehicle, the Science of Applied Therapeutic Arts, to create culturally specific healing modalities of I.D.E.A.’s (Inclusion Diversity Equity & Accessibility), programs. By using Art & Science we begin to understand music math & words as the architecture of the, invisible, building blocks of the intangible, & the originating structure of all things.
Artistic Director, Actor Dancer, Melany Bell @melany.bell a.k.a. The Melmatician | Choreographer, actor, dancer & Yoga Guru Trevor Taylor @justliketrevor @sunsolesanctuary | Choreographer, actor, dancer KJ Oliver @kiori.jpeg | black pole entertainer Das Bee.
Black Brilliance and African Genius (Theatre)
Join violinist Akua Kariamu and poets Chelsey Richardson, Amina Adesina Frances Rhoads Eddins and Rajnii Eddins as they honor through poetry and musical collaboration the intergenerational gifts, contributions, narratives, innate creative genius, beauty and rich legacy of Black People past, present and future.
3:00 - 3:50 pm
Keep A’Livin’ (West Room)
Featured Writer: Kathya Alexander (AAWA member)
Author, playwright and storyteller, Kathya Alexander, will share her writing and publishing experiences that culminated into her new book, Keep A'Livin. This novel-in-verse, is a coming of age tale set during the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century and has connections to the African American political movement of today. Kathya will reflect on her 20 year plus journey to get the book published included examining personal and family dynamics, submitting her manuscript to agents, receiving an MFA in Creative Writing, finding a publisher and connecting with a supportive community of writers. Q&A and book signing to follow.
How to Become A Genius: With the Living Powerful Experience (2 R Room)
Featured Writer: Dr. Traci Harrell (AAWA Member)
Dr. Traci Harrell, is an international best selling author with over 25 years of corporate and leadership experience. National Awards include "Top 100 Executive Leaders under 50" and "Leadership Channel-Chapter of the Year". Her personal and professional experiences led her to develop 'The Living Powerful Experience', a program that helps people improve their performance, have more happiness and less stress, and strengthen relationships. In this workshop Dr. Traci will share some of the tools to bring out the Genius in you, supporting you in becoming your best, most successful and most powerful you! Feel free to bring a journal or writing materials to this workshop.
(Workshop presented by the National Black MBA Association, Seattle Chapter)
The Rhapsody Project (Theatre)
Come hear The Rhapsody Project Songsters perform songs that reflect the heritage of each musician present, while centering and highlighting the foundational influence of Black American music on our shared culture. Playing a mix of blues, jazz, soul, stringband and klezmer tunes, young people ages 15 and older celebrate the gumbo of songs that is our country's greatest
4:00 - 4:50 pm
Voices Across Verses: The Publishing Journey According to the Writers (West Room) Featured Writers: Renee Simms, c.r. glasgow (doc; Dr.g), Reagan Jackson
Moderator: Jodi-Ann Burey
This engaging session will highlight the rich experiences of Black women who have navigated the complex terrain of the publishing industry in various literary forms. From emerging voices to established authors, our panelists will share their unique journeys across fiction, poetry, and non-fiction.
(Workshop presented by Black Women Write Seattle)
Character Development (2 R Room)
Featured Writers: Helen Collier (AAWA member), Jo Lute Ervin, Verna Lynne Reese (AAWA member)
As an author, Helen Collier uses magical realism and sci-fi as tools for her characters and stories. In this workshop, Helen will be interviewed by Jo Lute Ervin, and Verna Lynne Reese who will explore her process around authentic character development, character dialogue, and how engaging characters can leave you with a novel that readers can't put down! The novels 'Unexpected, Unexpected II, and the Miss Anna' Trilogy of books, written by Helen, will be the starting point for this discussion. Q&A to follow.
MATURE CONTENT WILL BE DISCUSSED
R U An Endangered Species?™ (Theatre)
Featured Writer: Jourdan Imani Keith - *SPL - Seattle Reads
Find Out: Dreams, Visions and Resistance presented by Jourdan Imani Keith is an interactive experience focused on Afrofuturism in the "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler, "The Uterine Files" by Jourdan I Keith, and the short film "Pumzi" by Kenyan science-fiction writer Wanuri Kahiu. R U An Endangered Species?™
Find Out is a trademark of Urban Wilderness Project
5:00 - 5:50 pm
The Griot Party (Theatre)
The Griot Party Experience is Hip Hop Spoken Word Storytelling Comedy Theater. Griots are the blood of the community and we seek to heal our collective hurt via multiple forms of storytelling.
6pm – 8 pm
Genius Conference After Party (Grand Hall)
Join us for the Genius Conference After Party! A night of celebration for AAWA’s inaugural writers’ conference. We invite you to network, connect, build community and celebrate as we dance to the mixing artistry of DJ Afreesha!
Want to learn more about the Artists?
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Don’t forget to check out the Vendor Marketplace, including:
Lanier’s Fine Candies
James Macon
Helen J. Collier
BeeLyn Naihiwet
Shunpike, James Thompson
Lola Sapphire
Carletta Carrington Wilson
Linda's BEST Asian comfort food
Nefertiti Holistic
Northern Comforts
The Mahogany Project (TMP)
King County Library System
Smokey Hot Soup
Black Women Write Seattle
Seattle Public Library - Seattle Reads
Want to learn more about the Vendors?
Scan this 👇 QR code:
African-American Writers’ Alliance
The Seattle-based African-American Writers' Alliance (AAWA), a diverse and dynamic collective of writers of African descent, provides an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers. Californian Randee Eddins called to order what became the first meeting of the AAWA over 30 years ago in 1991. Since then, our membership has grown and includes writers from around the globe. With the support and encouragement of charter member Dr. Georgia McDade, and the collective of AAWA writers, we help one another polish our skills, provide peer review, and create opportunities for public readings and other media venues. Ultimately, the group encourages members to publish individually and collectively. We must tell our stories in our words and encourage others to do the same.
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Sponsors Include
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