Howard University Will Host Annual International Black Writers Festival

This fall, Howard University will present The International Black Writers Festival, an initiative of the university’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. This year’s third annual festival brings together writers, academics, critics, and artists in conversation about the diversity, complexity, and beauty of writing the global Black Experience. The festival takes place September 24-26 in the Blackburn Center’s Digital Auditorium on Howard University’s Main Campus.

The 2024 IBWF features a robust lineup of panel discussions, conversations, student presentations, and additional events that touch on the Black experience, exploring topics such as settler colonialism, Black satire, Afrofuturism, Black artists in rock music, and writing critical biographies. Topics will also expand on the legacies of Amiri Baraka and James Baldwin, on what would have been their 90thand 100th year, respectively. Award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat is the festival’s keynote speaker, and will discuss her forthcoming book We’re Alone, a series of essays which include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin, and explores themes such as environmental catastrophe, colonialism, motherhood, and resilience.

Other panelists and participants include Black academics and luminaries such as New York Times contributor and writer Salamishah Tillet, dramaturgist Nina Angela Mercer, novelists Leslie-Ann Murray and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, and more to be announced in the lead-up to the program. In addition to panels, the festival will also include student readings and a special podcast exploring the festival’s themes and how they tie into Howard University’s history.

As a follow-up to the festival, on October 2nd Ta-Nehisi Coates will launch his forthcoming book with a special event including a conversation with Dana Williams, chair of the English department at Howard University, and a reading from his upcoming book, The Message, which details trips Coates has taken to Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, examining the storytelling of history across communities.

“We are thrilled to see IBWF enter its third year. It continues to grow with each season. It's always exciting to see students and members of the Howard community engaging with such amazing writers,” said Dr. Benjamin Talton, Director of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and Professor of African History at Howard University. “These events are opportunities for tough conversations and debate. At the same time, they are spaces in which we can share ideas, collaborate, and inspire. We are building on a long tradition of convenings of artists, writers, and activists at Howard University.”

The festival is free and open to the public, and recordings of the panels will be available on MSRC’s website and YouTube page following the events. Read more about the full program at msrc.howard.edu.