BLACK USA – SHANTRELLE P. LEWIS, RICKEY LAURENTIIS & KLEAVER CRUZ
Categories: Literature
Date: 09/10/2017
Time: 20 h 00
Location: Center for Fine Arts - BOZAR
Links: iCal - Google Calendar
Afro-American literature is primarily associated with classics such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. But who are the American black writers of today? Following the example of YO. Brussels Hip-Hop Generations, the BOZAR exhibition based around hip-hop, we are inviting a number of contemporary Afro-American authors for a literary evening based around the black American body of thought. Themes such as White Supremacy and Black Lives Matter are naturally broached, as are hip-hop, urbanity and feminism.
This evening is the Brussels preview of the Amsterdam literature festival Read My World that is this year based on Black USA.
Shantrelle P. Lewis (1978) was born in New Orleans and lives in Philadelphia. She is a curator, historian and documentary maker. She has written, amongst others, for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC and Huffington Post. Her debut novel Dandy Lion, on “Global Black Dandyism”, was published in 2017. She is currently working on a documentary about the Dutch Zwarte Piet tradition.
Rickey Laurentiis (1989) grew up in New Orleans and lives in Brooklyn. He picked up a number of literary prizes and nominations for his poetry debut Boy with Thorn (2015). The collection celebrates eroticism and desire, but also tackles the physical violence perpetrated against blacks throughout history.
Kleaver Cruz is an Uptown, NY native, a writer, dreamer and lover of travel. His work has been featured on Vibe.com, the Huffington Post as well as La Galería and African Voices Magazine among others. Kleaver is the creator of The Black Joy Project, a digital and real-world movement to center Black joy as a form of resistance. He is the co-founder of the NYC Chapter of the Black Lives Matter network.
