Austin, TX – Renowned poet and author Nikki Giovanni will headline the 18th Annual Austin African American Book Festival on Saturday, June 29, 2024, at the Carver Museum and Carver Library located at 1165 Angelina Street in Austin, Texas, from 10a.m. to 4 p.m. This year’s festival, Under the theme “Black Feeling, Black Talk: Activism in Poetry and Prose,” the festival will highlight the transformative power of the arts to foster growth and connection in our community.
“We are thrilled to celebrate the festival’s 18th year with our featured guest, Nikki Giovanni,” said Rosalind Oliphant, festival founder. “She is a literary legend and her life embodies our theme and her story will inspire all generations of festival attendees.”
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Austin Poetry slam, the festival will stage an open mic session, hosted by Poet Christopher Michael. Because art is a necessary part of a well- rounded life, James Madison University’s Furious Flower Poetry Center will lead a workshop for those wanting to integrate poetry into their school’s curriculum. The session is open to everyone, and teachers can receive continuing education credits by participating.
Jessica Care Moore, international poet/producer/playwright and the Voice of Detroit will demonstrate the power of poetry to move as she performs her work on the Carver stage.
To close the adult section of the festival, the Festival’s favorite scholar Dr. Michael Cunningham, will lead a discussion on the issues of censorship and advocating for banned books.
Special Guests and Programs:
This year’s festival also includes the following programming for students and families:
Wade Hudson, Co-founder of Just Us Books: will share stories that highlight the importance of representation in children’s literature.
China Smith, founder of Ballet Afrique: will lead a workshop that teaches children to depict the meaning of a poem through movement and dance.
Award-winning author and illustrator Don Tate returns with an art project that will inspire young readers and writers to illustrate their own stories.
Special outreach to schools, including the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD), will ensure accessibility and inclusion for all attendees. The festival aims to foster a welcoming environment where diverse voices are celebrated, and literature serves as a catalyst for meaningful conversations and connections. Through interactive sessions and engaging presentations, students will have the opportunity to explore themes of activism, identity, and social change in African American literature.
About Austin African American Book Festival:
The Austin African American Book Festival is a community-focused event that engages directly with readers to foster creativity, activism, and positive change.
For more information and updates about the 18th Annual Austin African American Book Festival, please visit aaabookfest.org or email info@aaabookfest.org [mailto:info@aaabookfest.org].
Media Contact
Company Name: Austin African American Book Festival
Contact Person: Marcia Williams
Email:Send Email [https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=18th-annual-austin-african-american-book-festival-welcomes-nikki-giovanni-as-featured-guest]
Country: United States
Website: http://www.aaabookfest.org/
This release was published on openPR.
Rents nationwide have cooled from historic highs, according to the latest inflation figures. Austin, Texas, is one of the places where rents are showing a downward trend, but lower-income families say their rents are often staying the same or even increasing. Blair Waltman-Alexin of Austin PBS reports.
Elon Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring company is destroying Texas’ natural beauty and has worsened the life quality of rural Texans, according to Bastrop residents, where the company is located.
“It is beyond heartbreaking, I could start crying just talking about it,” Flynn, 62, a Bastrop resident, told The London Times. “We had these incredible vistas of outstanding natural beauty. It was breathtaking — you’d pull over and cry because it’s so pretty. And now, it’s gravel mines.”
Boring moved to Bastrop in 2021, the town has about 12,000 people and is located east of Austin.
According to Flynn and her husband, since Boring arrived, the landscape has worsened, with trucks operating everywhere, earth mounds scattered in the fields, heavy machines, and new gravel and sand mines erected to support the company’s operations.
Also, there have been numerous environmental concerns about the company’s operation, the company has applied for a permit to dump 145,500 gallons of treated wastewater per day into the Colorado River. The company has also received complaints regarding its handling of wastewater in the area.
Other residents have expressed concern over the rising cost of living produced by the arrival of more Austin newcomers.
“[T]he Austin people are now having to move to Bastrop, the people in Bastrop are having to move out in the country somewhere,” Kenneth Kesselus, the town’s former mayor, told the Times. “We’ve got some houses that in a giant hurry went from half a million dollars to a million.”
However, Flynn hopes that there still will be people who fight to preserve the environment.
“I have three children and don’t want them to think it’s all over,” Flynn said. “I’m a big believer in the pendulum swinging back, and right now we’re in an extreme time of bullying and bad behavior and bad decisions and greed. But it’s going to swing back.”
Flynn owns a farm in Bastrop and an organic site in Austin.
Anybody with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the APD Homicide tip line at 512-974-8477. This marks Austin’s 27th homicide of 2024.
Originally published on mytexasdaily.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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