Words & Music 2020

Words & Music 2020 will bring you four days of workshops, discussions, and performances inspired by and created by New Orleans. The festival is presented by One Book One New Orleans, a nonprofit dedicated to adult literacy. Festival proceeds go toward adult literacy resources and free, year-round public programming.

The festival will livestream on Words & Music's Facebook page and One Book One New Orleans' YouTube channel.

CHAECK OUT THIS INCREDIBLE SCHEDULE!

Thursday, November 19

11:15am-12:15pm: A Conversation with Niyi Osundare (Christopher Louis Romaguera; Niyi Osundare)

12:30pm--1:30pm: City of a Million Dreams (Jason Berry, Dr. Michael White)

1:30pm-2:30pm: A Long Way from the Strawberry Patch: The Life of Leah Chase (Antoinette de Alteriis, Carol Allen Edgar “Dook” Chase IV)

2:45pm--3:45pm: When Not Performing ( David Spielman, John Boutte, Don Vappie, John Rankin, Helen Gillet)

4:00--5:00pm: Queering the South: LGBTQ+ Writers on Home, Love, and History (Brad Richard, Megan Volpert, M’Bilia Meekers, Matthew Draughter )

5:15pm: Keynote and Reading with Jarvis DeBerry and Kelly Harris-DeBerry (Kelly Harris-DeBerry, Jarvis DeBerry, Megan Braden-Perry)

7:30pm: Peauxdunque Review Issues 3 and 4 Celebration (Alex Jennings, Sarah Jiang, Freesia McKee, David Meischen, Jackson Musker, Michael Quess? Moore, Hamza Rehman, Ana Fores Tamayo, Kaitlin Murphy-Knudsen, Tad Bartlett, Larry Wormington)

Friday, November 20

9:00-10:00am: Publishing 101 (Antoinette de Alteriis)

10:15-11:15: Immortal Lives in Speculative Fiction (Alex Jennings, Jamey Hatley, Megan Giddings)

11:30-12:30: Writing Music (Melissa A. Weber, Joel Dinerstein, Kyle DeCoste, Tony Bolden)

12:30-1:30: Mid-Day Music: Helen Gillet

1:30-2:45: Winging It: Improv and the Arts (Randy Fertel, Stephen Nachmanovich)

3:00-4:30: Words & Music Writing Competition Reading (Constance Adler, Elizabeth Gross, Andy Young , Titus Chalk, Katie Divine, R. Tiara Malone)

4:45-5:45: Home and Haunting (Annell Lopez, Michael Zapata, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, Maisy Card)

6:00pm: The Modern Memoir (Robert Feiseler, Beth Ann Fennelly, Sarah Broom, TaRessa Stovall, Morris Ardoin)

8:00pm: Late Night Lit: Poets, Presidents, and Pandemics: A Reading for These Times (Jane Spokenword, Karisma Price, Justin Rogers, Lupe Mendez , Tyehimba Jess)

Saturday, November 21

9:00-10:00am: Youth Poetry Workshop with Quartez Harris

10:15-11:15: Justice and Inclusiveness of Vision in the Modern Southern Periodical: Editors' Roundtable Discussion from the Oxford American, Bitter Southerner, and Scalawag (Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Lovey Cooper, Josina Guess, Eliza Borné)

11:15-12:15: Literature and Libations (Andy Borbely)

12:30-1:15: Mid-Day Music: Robin Barnes

1:30-2:30: Picturing New Orleans (Julian Jackson, Cheryl Gerber, Leigh Wright, Polo Silk)

2:45-3:45: Reimagining Memory: Historical and Fantasy Fiction (Candice Huber, Marita Crandall, Alys Arden, Daniel José Older)

4:00-5:00: Heartbreak, or Research? Poets on the Writing Process (Stacey Balkun, Elizabeth Gross, Melinda Palacio, Skye Jackson, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Aimee Nezhukumatathil)

5:15-6:15: Mystery in Motion: African American Spirituality in Mardi Gras (Kim Vaz-Deville, The Divine Prince Ty Emmecca, Peteh M. Haroon, Big Chief Shaka Zulu, Zenia Smith)

6:30pm: An Evening with John Warner Smith (Christopher Louis Romaguera , John Warner Smith)

Sunday, November 22

10:00-11:00am: Affirming Voices: Howard University Graduates on Black Intellectualism as Resistance (Carmin Wong, Aye B. Diallo, Sadiyah Malcolm, Tierra Jackson)

11:15am-12:15pm: The Power of Jazz & Place in Tom Dent Poetry: A Workshop with Skye Jackson (Skye Jackson, Stacey Balkun, Joshua Benitez, Liz Granite, Sonny Miro, Kiana Naquin, and Lisa O’Neill)

12:30pm: Tom Dent's Ritual Murder ( No Dream Deferred Theater Company)

2:30pm: Remembering the New Orleans Griot (Kalamu ya Salaam, Jerry Ward, Ben Dent, Lindsey Dent, Laura Dent)