Black Talk

Textile presents its inaugural fall literary event, Black Talk: In Conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib and Antonio Michael Downing, including readings from Hanif's and Antonio's newest works — “" and “," respectively.

Local bookshop Words Worth Books will also be selling books by both Hanif Abdurraqib and Antonio Michael Downing. All tickets are free, however general admission does not guarantee seating in the auditorium. Please get in touch with us regarding needs around accessibility.

Hanif Abdurraqib is an award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His newest release, A Little Devil In America (Random House, 2021) was a winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2021, Abdurraqib was named a MacArthur Fellow. His first collection of essays, They Can't K*ll Us Until They K*ll Us, (2017) was named a book of the year by Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest (2019) was a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

Antonio Michael Downing was raised in Toronto, Kitchener, and Brooklyn. He is an author and performance artist. His memoir Saga Boy was shortlisted for the 2021 Speakers Book Award and Toronto Book Award. He was recognized by the Taylor Prize for Non-Fiction as one of Canada's Strongest Emerging Authors. His newest release is a debut children's book Stars in My Crown (Tundra Books, 2024), and his forthcoming debut novel is Black Cherokee (Simon & Schuster, 2025). He writes and performs music as John Orpheus.

Together, they will discuss shaping Black identity, the weight of excellence as expectation, and expected to touch on the relationship between the arts and culture, space and place, and Black life. How is Black life archived in Waterloo Region? How do we protect Black histories from gentrification? How do we distinguish between cultural theft and cultural integration? What do we get wrong about Black masculinity and basketball? How are geography and memory intertwined when we try to recount our stories? What can nostalgia teach us?

We’d like to extend immense gratitude to our key partners, funders, and community supporters whom we are grateful for believing in the importance of our inaugural fall literary event, which would not be possible without their support.

Key Partners: Waterloo Public Library, Musagetes Foundation, City of Waterloo, Good Company Productions, Words Worth Books, and the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo

Funders: Ontario Arts Council, City of Waterloo, Waterloo Region Community Foundation, and The Musagetes Fund

Community Support from: Rhythm & Blues Cambridge, The Freedom Marching Project, and Congress of Black Women of Canada - Waterloo Chapter

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Doors open at 6:30 pm.

Host or Publisher Waterloo Public Library