The Fire This Time: Creative Writing as Collective Memory

Featuring:

• Tony Medina
• Kyr Mack
• Tricia Elam Walker
• Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
• Kimberly Collins
• Darlene Taylor
• Kristina Forest

Tony Medina: Dr. Tony Medina, Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University, is the author/editor of 17 books for adults and young readers, including Broke Baroque, DeShawn Days, and I and I, Bob Marley. His work has earned honors such as the Paterson Prize, Rhode Island Children’s Book Award, and the American Booksellers Association Firecracker Award. Medina’s poetry and prose appear in over 100 publications, anthologies, and documentaries, including Furious Flower II. He has served as advisory editor to Nikki Giovanni’s Hip Hop Speaks to Children and is recognized in major reference works on hip hop and African American literature.

Kyr Mack: Kyr R. Mack is currently a Master Instructor and Director of the Writing Center at Howard who specializes in African American literature and rhetoric, digital writing practices, technical communication, and Black popular culture. Before working at the Mecca, he was a 2017 graduate of the Department of English with a Master of Arts in African American Literature and Rhetoric. He is also a 2014 graduate of Hampton University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature.

Tricia Elam Walker: Tricia Elam Walker, author of the novel Breathing Room and other publications, is an award-winning fiction and non-fiction writer and cultural commentator who has written for National Public Radio, The Washington Post, Essence magazine, the Huffington Post and more. She practiced law for sixteen years prior to teaching writing in Washington, DC and Boston. Tricia is also the author of two acclaimed children's books, Nana Akua Goes to School (winner of the 2021 Ezra Jack Keats writer award) and Dream Street (one of the NYTimes 25 best books of 2021). Tricia is currently an assistant professor of Creative Writing at Howard University and is working on several projects including more children’s books, plays, essays and novels. You can find her on instagram at @triciawriting and on twitter at @triciawriting and @WalkerElam.

Sufiya Abdur-Rahman: Sufiya Abdur-Rahman is author of the memoir Heir to the Crescent Moon, winner of the Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction. Her essays, articles, and criticism have appeared in publications including Catapult, The Common Online, Gay Mag, Passengers Journal, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and NPR. She has earned Notable distinction in Best American Essays, received fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and is a two-time alumnus of VONA writing workshops. She is Creative Nonfiction Editor for Cherry Tree, a national literary journal, and is Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at Howard University.

Kimberly Collins: Kimberly A. Collins, author of Bessie’s Resurrection and Choose You!, is a poet, essayist, and educator. A Callaloo Fellow, she teaches at Morgan State University. Her work appears in numerous journals and anthologies, and her poem “Remember My Name” is widely used during Domestic Violence Awareness Month observances.

Darlene Taylor: Darlene R. Taylor, Master Instructor at Howard University and co-faculty advisor to the Sterling A. Brown English Society, is a fiction writer and multidisciplinary artist. Her work reclaims Black narratives through fiction and collage. She has held numerous fellowships and is the inaugural Aminah Robinson Writer in Residence.