Author & Illustrator Kadir Nelson in Coversation with Hanif Abdurraqib

Kadir and Hanif will be discussing Kadir's latest book . The event is free, but registration is required.

Award-winning creator Kadir Nelson delivers the perfect gift for basketball fans of any age—a beautifully illustrated history of the game and its key players over the years—in this companion to his bestselling We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Copies of Basket Ball will free* thanks to donations received from local nonprofit, Cbus Libraries. *One copy per family while supplies last.

Kadir Nelson is the illustrator of many books for young readers, including the Caldecott Medal winner The Undefeated, written by Kwame Alexander; the New York Times bestseller We Are the Ship, winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award and Illustrator Honor as well as the Sibert Medal; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, written by Carole Boston Weatherford, which was an NAACP Image Award winner, Caldecott Honor Book, and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner. His work has appeared in many publications, including Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and The New Yorker. Kadir’s original paintings are in the permanent collections of the US House of Representatives and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and National Museum of African American History and Culture, and he has been inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. He lives in Southern California and invites you to visit him online at kadirnelson.com.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. Abdurraqib’s recent book, A Little Devil in America, was the winner of the Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burns Prize and a finalist for the National Book Award. His first full-length poetry collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, They Can't K*ll Us Until They K*ll Us was named a book of the year by NPR, Esquire, BuzzFeed, O: The Oprah Magazine, Pitchfork, and Chicago Tribune, among others. Go Ahead in the Rain was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award and Kirkus Prize finalist and was long-listed for the National Book Award. His second collection of poems, A Fortune for Your Disaster, won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

Opened in March 1987, The King Arts Complex is located on the near East side of Columbus, Ohio, in one of the oldest areas of African-American life in the city. Serving as a major anchor for development in the King-Lincoln District, The King Arts Complex is an oasis for cultural and educational activities as well as community facility for special events. Learn more at kingartscomplex.com.

Cbus Libraries is a grassroots, charitable 501(c)3 nonprofit that has gifted over 10,000 books to the Central Ohio Community, Follow them on social media @cbuslibraries.

Cover to Cover has served Central Ohio and beyond since 1980. The bookstore combines an inclusive and welcoming selection, expertise, and the best in children and teen literature. Learn more at covertocoverchildrensbooks.com

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