Essex County College’s Africana Institute will sponsor its 3rd annual State of Black Writers: Caribbean Connection starting October 27. This year’s event is serving as the preliminary event of the Harlem Book Fair/Newark Event on October 29 with a special tribute to the life and times of the late Gil Scott-Heron.
A series of authors and educators will conduct two free programs at the main Newark campus Thursday, October 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Friday, October 28 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Both programs will be in Smith Hall. The scene shifts to neighboring Rutgers-Newark on Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., where the tribute to Gil Scott-Heron will be held.
Africana Institute Director Akil Kokayi Khalfani and Max Rodriguez, founder of the Harlem Book Fair, will open the program each day at ECC.
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The Essex County College program is as follows:
Highlighting the October 27 program at ECC will be Elizabeth Nunez, set to speak at 1 p.m. Born in Trinidad, Ms. Nunez is currently a professor of English at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York system. She is the award winning author of seven books, including When Rocks Dance, Beyond the Limbo Silence, and Prospero’s Daughter, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. She is also co-founder of the National Black Writers Conference and co-editor of anthologies dealing with Caribbean women writers and black writers in the 90s.
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Also scheduled to speak on October 27 at 11:40 a.m. will be ECC Humanities Division faculty members Dr. Eileen DeFreece, Jennifer Wager and Rebecca Williams.
On October 28, the keynote speaker at 1 p.m. will be poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera. He has assisted in the publication of more than 200 books and is the author of such poetry collections as Scattered Scripture, This One for You, and Who Pays the Cost. The recipient of the Congressional Recognition Award, the man dubbed the “Janitor of History” conducts writer workshops in Brooklyn and is a frequent radio personality.
Also on October 28, starting at 11:40 a.m. will be a black science fiction discussion with authors Ken Sibanda (The Return to Gibraltar) and Brother G (Shades of Memnon and Nimrod the Hunter).
The program is co-sponsored by the Africana Institute at Essex County College, the Frances
