Telling the Stories of Black Lives through Biography

The joys and challenges of producing biographies of Black subjects will be the focus of a major national conference March 21-22, 2025, in Montgomery, Alabama, presented by BIO in collaboration with Troy University-Montgomery.

Telling the Stories of Black Lives through Biography is believed to be the first conference of its kind since the 1980s. Through talks, panel discussions, and opportunities to tour Montgomery's major civil rights memorials, the conference is intended to appeal to writers and readers of biography and history along with teachers and students from throughout the Southeast region.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Saidiya Hartman, a MacArthur Fellow and author of three books that serve to recover life stories from the fogs of history: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals; Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route; and Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. Her Wayward Lives was selected by The New York Times as one of the Best Books of the 21st Century.

Registration

Early registration is $95 for BIO members until Jan. 1, when the fee goes up to $125. Non-member registration is $140, and students can attend for $30. All registration fees include admission price to Civil Rights sites operated by the Equal Justice Initiative, including the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial, and the Freedom Movement Sculpture Park.

What to Expect

Site tours are recommended on Friday, March 21, though sites can be visited through the weekend, for those staying in the area through Sunday. Other historic sites, including the Rosa Parks Museum and the Edmund Pettis Bridge, are accessible in and around Montgomery. Keynote talk, four panel discussions, and other events will fill the day on Saturday, March 22, at the downtown Montgomery campus of Troy University, concluding with a dinner and talk in the evening.

Friday, March 21

9 a.m. Registration opens. Sign up for one of two Legacy Museum tours. Other Equal Justice Initiative sites can be accessed at your leisure. A museum shuttle can transport attendees to a riverboat for access to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. The riverboat leaves every hour on the half-hour, 9:30 am - 4 pm.

10 a.m. Group 1 attends the Legacy Museum

1 p.m. Group 2 attends the Legacy Museum

5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Friday, March 21: Welcome reception at The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 S. Court Street, Montgomery, AL 36104.

Saturday, March 22

All sessions at Troy University - Montgomery, 231 Montgomery St.

8:30 a.m. Registration opens; coffee service

9 - 10 a.m. Conference Keynote: Saidiya Hartman

10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. Panel 1: "Looking Past Icons: Eyeing Unsung Figures as Vital Biography Subjects": Rachel Swarns, Kevin McGruder, Eric K. Washington (moderator).

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Panel 2: "Black Women's Biographies and the Gaps They Fill": Maryemma Graham, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Tamara Payne (moderator).

12:45 p.m. - 2 p.m. Luncheon

2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Panel 3: "Approaching Research/Filling in the Gaps": Hannah Durkin, Tanisha C. Ford, Carla Kaplan (moderator).

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Panel 4: "Writing Biography: A Discussion on Craft": Tamara Payne, Ray Anthony Shepard, Eric K. Washington, Steve Paul (moderator).

5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Reception and closing dinner.

Lodging

BIO has reserved rooms at the Staybridge Suites, 275 Lee Street, in downtown Montgomery (334-532-0700) at a group rate significantly cheaper than rates of other comparable hotels on Thursday and Friday nights, March 21 and 22, 2025.

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Rooms are $189 double and $169 single plus tax. Reserve before Feb. 15 to get the group rate. The hotel is one block from the conference facilities at Troy University-Montgomery.

If driving, email [email protected] to arrange free parking at the university.

Host or Publisher Biographers International Organization