The National Black Writers Conference with Donna Hill

[00:00:00] Our group of students, of readers, young Black readers, were essentially not part of the literary landscape. So now we have all of these writers that have come in to fill that gap. What's good? I'm Nikesha Elise Williams and this is Black & Published on the Mahogany Books Podcast Network. Bringing you the journeys of writers, poets, playwrights, and storytellers of all kinds.

[00:00:26] We have a bonus episode this week featuring Donna Hill, the newly named Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar-Evers College, a predominantly Black institution, or PBI, right in the heart of Brooklyn. Today, as in Thursday, March 27th, 2025, kicks off the center's signature event, the National Black Writers Conference.

[00:00:53] This year is their two-day biennial symposium, highlighting middle grade and young adult fiction. We have this whole group of writers who are on the battlefield, essentially, trying to fight this battle for our young people. And once we have young people that are engaged in reading, we build a new readership for the next generation.

[00:01:18] In our conversation, Donna discusses her favorite memories over the course of the conference's more than 20 years in existence. Plus, the reason major publishers aren't heavily involved in a conference and the potential threats the center faces from the new regime in Washington. And the plan Donna is putting into place to make the Center for Black Literature in Brooklyn as big as the Schaumburg and Harlem.

[00:01:45] That and more is next, when Black & Published continues. Tell me about the National Black Writers Biennial Symposium. The Center for Black Literature, which is housed at Mega Everest College, part of the CUNY system, has part of its mission to spread literacy programs, educational resources and workshops.

[00:02:12] And so one of the things that we do, one of the centerpieces of all of our programs is the National Black Writers Conference. So every other year in the odd year, which is this year, it's a symposium, which is usually two days. Our National Black Writers Conference, which will happen in 2026, is a four day conference.

[00:02:33] So this year, our Biennial Symposium is honoring the writers and creators of literature for young readers and for young adult readers. So we're looking at young adult and middle grade readers, and that's the audience for the books themselves. But who we are recognizing are those writers and artists that create these books for our young people.

[00:02:58] So this year, we are honoring Tony Medina and Rita Williams Garcia, and they will be getting the Nikki Giovanni Award at the end of the conference, which we will have an awards dinner and presentations. So they will be receiving that award.

[00:03:17] And throughout the conference, there are a variety of workshops that talk about the issues that our young people are facing. Everything from gender and identity to family crises to relationships, self-affirmation, integrity, all of those different issues that reflect our young people.

[00:03:44] So that for very long, our group of students, of readers, young Black readers, were essentially not part of the literary landscape. So now we have all of these writers that have come in to fill that gap. And that's what we are recognizing at this conference. Can you tell me why for this year, for the symposium, you wanted to focus on young readers and young adult literature, specifically in middle grade literature?

[00:04:14] Well, each year we have a different theme. So, for example, we look at last year, we did speculative fiction. And this year, when we think about the conference, we think about what are some of the trends that are happening in the literary community, in the world? What are we dealing with? What will people relate to?

[00:04:36] And so one of the things that we realized in doing our research was this wealth of literature that was geared towards our young Black readers that was not necessarily being recognized in the overall mainstream. So they have their own little pockets. And so we wanted to be able to highlight this, to bring this level of reading to the public.

[00:05:01] And the thing that's so interesting about especially young adult literature is that adults read it because the stories are just like so good. So, you know, you're thinking, oh, it's just, you know, for teenagers or, you know, the 20s. Adults read young adult literature because they don't make young adults like they used to when I was little. So, you know, it's a whole different generation now. But that's the reason why we did it. Each year, we try to think of, you know, what is relevant in the world.

[00:05:28] And this was one of the things that we wanted to bring to the forefront. All right, Ms. Donna, you said it first. So I'm going to go where you're leading me. You talked about what is relevant in the world and what is happening in our world.

[00:05:40] And the United States specifically, especially in the literature space, is targeting of young adult literature for book bands and trying to keep books out of their hands and certain stories out of the hands of children who are old enough to read and sometimes old enough to make their own decision. Was that at any point part of the process of deciding the theme for this year? Oh, absolutely.

[00:06:05] We want to make sure that with the pressure that has been put on young adult literature, Black literature in general, and just Black people in general now, you know, because we're just like the new target. You know, that was one of the things that we really wanted to bring to the forefront because one of the writers that we wanted to get, the only reason why he couldn't come is because he is in California, is Jerry Craft. His books were banned. And his book is about the new kid in school. Like, come on.

[00:06:35] So, when we think about the immense pressure that Black writers in general are under, just in terms of getting published, being out in the world, being recognized, we have this whole group of writers who are on the battlefield, essentially, trying to fight this battle for our young people.

[00:06:56] And once we have young people that are engaged in reading, that can see themselves in the books and in the words and in the situations and circumstances, we build a new readership for the next generation. And so, as part of what the Center for Black Literature does is to promote literacy. And we can't do that if we're just going to tie literacy to me and you.

[00:07:25] We need to look at, you know, once we move on, who's coming up behind us? How well are they educated? How critical do they think about things? What kind of choices do they make in terms of reading and literacy? And so, this is one of our ways to be able to do that. You have the Center for Black Literature housed at the college. And in the literary landscape, there's lots of conversation about how there are no MFA programs at HBCU.

[00:07:54] And at this year's AWP, which will be taking place when this episode comes out and I will actually be at, there's going to be a panel about what it would look like to create an MFA program at an HBCU for students who would want to go through those programs. Because a lot of writers talk about when they go through MFA programs, Black writers, writers of color that I've had on this program, say that, you know, their MFA program have been sites of violence.

[00:08:21] As far as like trying to change their voice or saying that they're not serious writers or that their stories don't matter or whatever the case may be. And so, yet you have this Center at this predominantly Black institution. What was the idea behind the creation of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College? The idea goes back to its founder, Dr. Brenda Green. She founded the Center in 2002.

[00:08:47] And her goal was essentially what I was talking about. That here we have this predominantly Black institution in the heart of central Brooklyn. And we want to make sure that our students, our constituents, our community have the opportunity to have these types of resources brought to them.

[00:09:13] And what better place than a predominantly Black institution in the middle of our community? And so, that was the vision at the beginning. Let's bring our literary resources to the forefront. Let's do workshops. Let's bring in Black writers. Let's highlight what's happening in the Black literary marketplace. And that's what she began in 2002.

[00:09:40] So, it's been over 20 years that the Center has been in existence. And we've had everyone that you can imagine come to Mega Everest College to support the National Black Writers Conference. We've had Toni Morrison, Sonia Sanchez, Michael Eric Dyson, Jesma. All kinds of people have come. Alice Walker has been there.

[00:10:05] So, we have writers of every caliber across a variety of genres that come to support the vision of literature and literacy for our community. From me to you, I have a book coming out in January next year, so I'm coming. So, put me on the schedule. You're laughing. I'm serious. Okay. I got you. This is from me to you in advance.

[00:10:35] I'll tell the team for real, but put me on the schedule. You were recently named the executive director of the Center for Black Literature. What does that mean to you to helm this organization that has already created such a rich history for the community in Brooklyn? It's an honor to be able to step into the role. It can be daunting just to think about the weight of the mantle that has been passed to me.

[00:11:06] You know, like, don't mess it up. Like Samuel L. Jackson said during the Super Bowl. Don't mess this up. And so, that is what I have to keep in my mind. I'm still in onboarding. I actually came on board the end of January.

[00:11:24] And I am still under the light hand of Dr. Green, who is there to continue to support me as well as the center going through into the summer when she is officially retired. But it's a lot, you know, we have come to be expected to produce a lot.

[00:11:48] And I do not want to see the caliber of what we do become reduced. We would like to be able to expand our reach in terms of our partnerships with so many of the art institutions and nonprofit organizations. One of the things that we'll be looking at going forward.

[00:12:09] And of course, to continue to bring the programs that have established us as a centerpiece at the college as well as in the community and beyond. When you say produce a lot, what do you mean by that? The centerpiece of the Center for Black Literature is the National Black Writers Conference. That's our big tent item. But we also have an online book club.

[00:12:34] We also have Re-envisioning Our Lives Through Literature, which is our program that goes out into the community and works with schools and students. And we have a specific program just for them. They're part of the conference as well. We have the Dr. Edith Wright Elders Writers Workshop. So those are all of our elders with all of their real stories writing their memoirs. And they come together, you know, every two weeks to sit down and write and research.

[00:13:04] They're also part of the conference. These are ongoing programs. In addition to that, we produce the Killens Literary Journal of Arts and Letters. That's we reach out to the community to get essays, short stories, poetry, art. And that's published twice a year. We have a radio show that comes on every other Sunday. It's called WOW. Wow. And so these are all of the other things that we do.

[00:13:32] And then in between all of that, we'll have, you know, another program. For example, during Black History Month, we had Hakeem Jeffries came. So there was a big program around him. We just had another program with Deneen Milner, who was the moderator for Our Black Girls, Exhausted Not Broken. So that was another program that we did. And so in between all of our pillar programs, we do other things as well.

[00:14:00] We partner with other organizations. We partner with the Brooklyn Book Festival, for example. And so we have a presence there as well. So those are all of the things. When I say programming, that's sort of like the tip of the iceberg. And what has been the community's response to all the programs that you just named and having the Center for Black Literature housed at Mecker-Evers College in Brooklyn?

[00:14:26] The support from the community has always been strong. We get great turnouts. We get support from our political leaders. Community resources support us as well. When we have our programs, we have, you know, our local newspapers that support us, our small businesses, community organizations. So there's always been that support.

[00:14:52] And so Dr. Green was very intentional, you know, over the past 20 years to build these alliances, not just within the community, but outside of the community as well. If you go to any literary anything, conferences, businesses, arts organizations, and you mentioned her name, they're going to know who she is because she has built those relationships over the years. Our political allies as well.

[00:15:18] So those are the things that have sustained us and that, you know, I want to be able to continue to cultivate over time. But that's why, you know, we're important to the community. You talk about the relationships that have been built and the partnerships that have been forged between the Center for Black Literature and the community, political leaders, and arts organizations. I wonder, do you have any of those same partnerships and relationships with publishing, big or small publishers?

[00:15:46] Well, what we do in terms of publishing, because I'm an author as well, I really, you know, would like to see more of that. But one of the things that I want to also make clear as well is that the Center is self-sustaining, which means that in order for us to continue to exist, we have to be funded. So we're not funded by the college.

[00:16:15] So we have to seek grants. We have to seek discretionary funds from our council people. We have to get grants from different literary organizations in order to sustain what it is that we do. So that's a large part of what we need to do to be able to keep going.

[00:16:35] So in these times where we're seeing this administration going after DEI and doing cuts and funding cuts to the Department of Education and threatening colleges with cutting off their federal grants, is the Center's existence under threat by this administration of no longer existing? Or are there other means that you all are able to find funding that do not include federal dollars?

[00:17:00] A lot of our funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, for example. We get state funding, you know, as well. And so, of course, we're going to have to be mindful and we're going to have to be creative because even though they're state funded, some of that funding comes through federal pipelines. And so there's going to be, you know, I'm sure across the board, there's going to be cutbacks.

[00:17:30] And so, of course, you know, going to events and taking the temperature of, you know, what other organizations are dealing with will also be helpful. And you asked me before and I sort of went off on a tangent about funding was about publishers and our partnership with publishers. And so our partnerships with publishers, you know, I would like for it to actually be stronger, that they would really be, you know, sponsors for us when we have events and things like that.

[00:17:58] But our partnerships with publishers really rely very often on who we have as our guest. So we try to partner with the publisher to make sure that they're supporting their authors, if they want to do in-kind contributions, you know, those types of things. But we don't get like funded or anything like that from publishers. We'll get books or we'll maybe get tote bags or, you know, things like that. But that is because they don't have people think publishers have a lot of money.

[00:18:26] They don't have a lot of discretionary money. So they don't, you know, go out and like fund events. The most they might do is like, you know, sponsor a table at an event, invite some of their authors or, you know, have their big annual parties. So that's sort of a different kind of dynamic, the relationship with us and publishers. I asked the question about publishing partnerships only because we all saw in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and so many others in 2020,

[00:18:55] the corporate response to that tragedy to embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. And that corporate embrace was also within publishing, right? And now we're in this wave of backlash to that. That has hit many industries. I'm not sure if it is going to hit publishing as it has hit others just because the lead time for books is so long.

[00:19:20] But seeing that New York is the center for publishing and that the center for Black literature is also in New York, I would think that that partnership would be stronger.

[00:19:30] Or even if it was perhaps like a pipeline, you talked about yourself being an author as a way to introduce voices that maybe don't have the literary pedigree that publishing looks for into the pipeline to get other types of stories out and through. You know, in an ideal world, that would be great.

[00:19:54] I think that part of what we do when we are trying to connect with the publishing houses is to show them, look, we're showcasing your Black authors. This is who we have. These are the people that we are honoring. These are the people who are being recognized by their community. Maybe you didn't think that they were important, but we think that they're important. And so that's part of our work.

[00:20:22] Hopefully it will help some of the publishers to recognize the value that they have with some of their authors. Because everybody isn't a New York Times bestselling author. Everybody doesn't have total name recognition. So we hope that through our work, we're able to do that, not just for the publishing house, but of course, for the community. To bring to them writers that they have not heard before.

[00:20:48] What do you want people unfamiliar with the Center for Black Literature and the National Black Writers Conference to know that they may not? That we're there. That we are there in the community. We are there for our population. That we have so much to offer and we welcome collaborations.

[00:21:13] We welcome you to visit the website to see the wealth of information that is there. We are currently in the process of continuing to build our historical archive of all of the conferences, the people who have come through, the readings, people that have been interviewed. It's amazing.

[00:21:37] So part of it is done and we're continuing that work because we want to be able to document the important work that the Center for Black Literature does. And that will be there for eternity or for however long it will last. What has been one of your favorite memories over the course of the Center's existence? You talked about all the speakers who've come through, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Jasmine Moore. What has been one of your favorite memories from the Center?

[00:22:07] Toni Morrison came to Megan Everest College. And a friend of mine who was another author, Bernice McFadden, we were there together. We were going to the dinner. And Bernice is not shy about taking pictures with anybody who has any reputation whatsoever. She will take a picture.

[00:22:30] And me, on the other hand, I saw Toni Morrison sitting next to Sonia Sanchez and we're literally in the green room with them. I was so in awe of sitting, standing in literal literary greatness that I couldn't do anything.

[00:22:56] However, my very current niece went on over and put her arm around Toni and said, take the picture. So I took the picture. I'm not in it, but I took the picture. So that was one event. I will never forget that as long as I live.

[00:23:16] And how I was introduced to the magnitude of the National Black Writers Conference was in the early, early days of it. Alice Walker came to the college and the place was standing room only. And we have an auditorium that holds over 400 people. It was standing room. And people were outside. I never will forget that.

[00:23:43] That was one of the big, those two big moments in terms of the experiences with the Center for Black Literature. So you talk about these incredible memories. What are you looking forward to as you lead the Center for Black Literature in the future? I would like to add probably a new dimension to the center. What we do is concrete.

[00:24:13] That I would never change. If anything, I might like to add. I would like to see the Center for Black Literature become similar to the recognition that the Schomburg gets and the Langston Hughes Library in Queens. They are known for their resource of Black Literature. Books, history, etc.

[00:24:40] And that's what I would like the Center for Black Literature to become for Brooklyn. How we go about doing that, we're starting to do that now with our archives. I would love to be able to be a resource of our program. So that's what I would like to see.

[00:25:02] And to just really continue to spread the word about what we do and continue to get the support of the community and beyond. Partner with like organizations and centers in other parts of the country so that all of us will be unified, which makes it a little bit more difficult to dismantle. And so those are some of the things that I, you know, I envision going forward.

[00:25:33] I love that. Is there anything about the Center for Black Literature or the National Black Writers Conference that I have not asked you that you would like to say? Make sure people come.

[00:25:44] One of the things that I would stress or encourage people to do for folks that can't come, we have a virtual presentation that people can join online to listen to the conversations of some of the scholars who are talking about Black literature for young adults and middle grades.

[00:26:09] The topics are amazing and people can engage directly with the speakers. There'll be a Q&A, there's interaction. So that's something that people can definitely do who are unable to actually visit us in person. And of course, you know, we would love to have you all there, you know, so.

[00:26:30] And anybody who is interested in finding out more about the Center, about the work that we do, I strongly encourage everyone to go to the website, centerforblackliterature.org, and you will see the amazing things that we are doing and that we'll continue to do. Big thank you to Donna Hill for being here today on Black Unpublished.

[00:26:54] If you're listening to me right now and are in New York or can get to New York easily, please go to the events this weekend for the National Black Writers Conference Biennial Symposium. Tickets are free for seniors. For anyone else, the cost is $30 or less, especially for students. I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode of Black Unpublished.

[00:27:16] I'll be back on Tuesday with a new episode featuring Jodi M. Savage, who wrote the essay collection, Death of a Jaybird. Essays on mothers and daughters and the things they leave behind. I'll talk to you then. Peace.

[00:27:46] What's going on, family? This is Derek Young. And Ramonda Young. Owners of both Mahogany Books and the Mahogany Books Podcast Network. We really want to thank each and every one of you for listening to this episode. And if you enjoyed what you just heard, drop us a review and rate us on whatever platform you download podcasts on. We truly appreciate each and every one of you for supporting us and making us your go-to for Black books. And we look forward to connecting with you all sometime in the future. Thank you again, fam. And always remember, Black books matter.