Freedom to Read Presentation and Roundtable

October 15, 2023
Miller Library and Virtual
Free with registration: https://live-howardcounty.pantheonsite.io/event/freedom-read-presentation-and-roundtable-person

Join with librarians, publishers, authors and your community in supporting the essential right to read at the Freedom to Read Presentation and Roundtable, presented in partnership by theHoward County Library System (HCLS) and the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society (HoCoPoLitSo).

At 1:30 PM, come to the Miller Branch for thoughtful discussion and readings by distinguished award-winning poets and publishers Grace Cavalieri and Truth Thomas, and stay to watch and participate in the virtual Roundtable panel discussion at 2:30 PM with award-winning author, musician, and screenwriter James McBride, Washington Post satirist and author Alexandra Petri, renowned historian and author Dr. Richard Bell, andAmerican Library Association President Emily Drabinski.

This event will be free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.Includes a Complimentary copy of The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. 

 (Read the entire American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement here.) 
 

In-Person Presenters at 1:30 PM:

Grace Cavalieri: is an American poet, playwright, and radio host of the Library of Congress program “The Poet and the Poem.” In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.

Truth Thomas is a singer-songwriter and poet born in Knoxville, Tennessee and raised in Washington, DC. He studied creative writing at Howard University and earned his MFA in poetry at New England College. His collections include Party of Black, A Day of Presence, Bottle of Life and Speak Water, winner of the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry.

Virtual Roundtable Panelists at 2:30 PM: 

James McBride is a national bestselling, award-winning author, musician, and screenwriter. His landmark memoir, The Color of Water (1996), has sold millions of copies and spent more than two years on The New York Times bestseller list. His 2013 novel, The Good Lord Bird, about American abolitionist John Brown, won the National Book Award for Fiction. In 2015, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama “for humanizing the complexities of discussing race in America.” 

Emily Drabinski is the current President of the American Library Association and Associate Professor at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies.

Dr. Richard Bell is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow (2021-2023) and has held research fellowships at more than two dozen libraries and institutes including residencies at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance at Yale University and the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Register: https://live-howardcounty.pantheonsite.io/event/freedom-read-presentation-and-roundtable-person

Wilde Readings – Second Tuesdays of the month

Wilde Readings is a free monthly literary reading series that provides local writers — poets, fiction, non-fiction — a chance to share their work with the community. The format showcases featured authors, as well as an open mic for interested audience members. Wilde readings are held in person and online. In person session are at the Columbia Association Art Center in the Village of Long Reach. Click here to learn more about Wilde Readings.

Already This Season

The Bauder Lecture with Nadia Owusu, hosted by Tope Folarin

September 21, 2023
Howard Community College

This Thursday, September 21, 2023, HoCoPoLitSo proudly presents in partnership with Howard Community College and the Howard County Library System, the 2023 installment of the Bauder Lecture Series, featuring Nadia Owusu, author of “Aftershocks“, hosted by Tope Folarin, author of “A Particular Kind of Black Man“.

Join us for this free and public event, in person at the Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center on the HCC campus, or online streamed live via Vimeo at this link. The day’s events begin with a reading and keynote at 12:30 p.m., followed by a short reception and second reading at 6:00 p.m. Signed books will be available for purchase from HoCoPoLitSo to in-person attendees following both presentations.