Pictures from Imagenation and Telem Center for the African Child Readings

Me, Imagenation founder Moikgantsi Kgama, & Ayesha Harruna Attah

Imagenation founder Moikgantsi Kgama, Ayesha Harruna Attah & me

Saturday April 6, 2013 marked the third anniversary of the release of Powder Necklace and I got to start the celebration a week early on Saturday March 30th in a joint discussion on African Writing with fellow author Ayesha Harruna Attah. Imagenation founder Moikgantsi Kgama moderated the conversation in her Rawspace Gallery with questions ranging from a tribute to China Achebe's work and impact, to how to define "African" writing with writers like me and Ayesha living and working in the Diaspora. Ayesha and I shared the mic at my first ever reading of my book and we have done several events together. I think we make a great team. 

Ayesha reading from her upcoming book

Ayesha reading from Harmattan Rain

The Imagenation event was a great gathering, made even more exciting because Pariah actress Adepero Oduye was in the house! (If you haven't seen the film, you should know that Oduye turned in an effortless performance that garnered the praise of none other than the grand thespian herself, Meryl Streep.) 

Reading at Telem's Fundraiser

Singer Azania, Telem board member Veralyn, me & Telem founder Diana

This past weekend, on the actual birthday of my book, I read at the Telem Center for the African Child's "Taste of Africa" fundraiser. It was an amazing event featuring Sierra Leonian, Ethiopian, Moroccan, and Haitian bites (among others!) as well as South African, Ethiopian, and Moroccan wines. Sierra Leonian soul singer Azania warmed the gathering with her live vocals. I left full of food and mirth.

The last three years have been an incredible journey. I look forward to many more years, and books under my belt.

Me

Me, Diana & Telem board member Judy

In Her Words: Emerging African Writers in the Diaspora

Ayesha Harruna Attah (she wrote Commonwealth Writers Prize Finalist Harmattan Rain) and I invite you to join us in discussing our experiences writing about Africa, while living in the Diaspora.

African Literature is global. It's African-American, Afro-Latino, Afro-European, Afro-Asian... as much as it is African. Like the "duckoonoo" and greens the Africans that made the Middle Passage found and reinvented in the Americas, Africa's literature has traveled with many of its authors; evolving into new narratives. But, can a literary work borne in the Diaspora claim authentic African identity? Are there specific characteristics that make literature African?

We'll be having the conversation at ImageNation's rawspace Gallery, an amazing venue located under the umbrella of the ImageNation Cinema Foundation. The Harlem-based media arts organizaton was founded by Moikgantsi Kgama "with the goal of establishing a chain of art-house cinemas dedicated to progressive media by and about people of color."

COME:
Saturday, MARCH 30, 2013 3-5PM
ImageNation rawspace Gallery
2031 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. (7th Avenue between 121st & 122nd)