The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College & Yonkers Public Library present

The Stories We Tell, The Stories We Write

An evening with bestselling author Clint Smith & Kishauna Soljour

Thursday, April 21st at 7:30pm EST

Zoom Event

Open To The Public

Please note: due to campus policy, this is now a fully virtual event.

How can oral history unlock the stories around us? As writers and readers, what does it look like to honor the power of storytelling through oral history? Join Clint Smith, bestselling author of How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History of Slavery Across America, and Sarah Lawrence College faculty member and Yonkers Public Library Public Humanities Fellow Kishauna Soljour for an intimate conversation on how oral history can offer a new understanding of our country's history and the stories we tell. This virtual event will include an audience Q & A. 

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times Bestseller, and the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New American, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and the Harvard Educational Review and elsewhere. 

Kishauna Soljour is a historian, public humanities scholar and curator. She is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Public Humanities Fellow. In this role, she is a visiting assistant professor of History at Sarah Lawrence College and develops public programming at Yonkers Public Library. Her research highlights the importance of oral history, migration narratives and popular cultural as well as artistic expressions of identity.
 

About the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College

Since 1983, the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College has offered writers a robust and supportive community, with workshops, classes, seminars, conferences, readings and more. Our virtual and on campus classes are open to all writers, including classes for beginners, advanced prose and poetry workshops, teen programs and publishing seminars. View upcoming classes and events at the Writing Institute here.


About Yonkers Public Library

Yonkers Public Library is the largest library in Westchester County. It consists of three locations: Riverfront Library, our main branch, in downtown Yonkers, the Grinton I. Will Library on Central Avenue, and the Crestwood Library in the Crestwood section of the city. Our mission is to change lives every day. Our expert, trusted staff help all the people of Yonkers find the information they need, the programs they enjoy, and the reading they love. For more information about Yonkers Public Library, visit www.ypl.org.