|
Art
Sanctuary Expands
Celebration of Black Writing
Conference
By Junious Ricardo Stanton For nineteen years Larry Robbins a Jewish
bookstore owner spearheaded and worked with several local
Philadelphia writers/activists to produce the Celebration of
Black Writing Conference. Two years ago he decided it was time
to fuse new blood into the conference. He put out a call for
stalwart souls to accept the baton and Lorene Cary's fledgling
group, Art Sanctuary readily accepted the challenge. Art
Sanctuary is a North Philadelphia community based program that
uses the power of black art to transform, unite and draw
inspiration from the inner city.
Last year Mr. Robbins and Art Sanctuary produced the
conference jointly. This year it was solely Art Sanctuary. Art
Sanctuary kept the basic theme of the conference, which was to
celebrate and promote black writing, share information about
writing, publishing and the state of black writing with aspiring
writers, honor those who blazed the trail and expand the
conference to include greater interaction between writers and
the community. Art Sanctuary founder and Executive Director
Lorene Cary, a published author and tenured university
professor, relished the opportunity to keep the vision of the
conference alive.
"Larry came to us and asked if we would do this, and we
said, 'we'd love it; it's absolutely on our mission.' We were a
little scared; we are a new organization. Celebration is
nineteen years old and we're only four and half but we said we'd
try to grow to the challenge. Last year was our transition year;
we worked with Larry to put it on. This year we're experimenting
with the format; we're trying to fold in suggestions from many
people. We started in July gathering together an advisory
committee of about thirty people who helped us think through a
huge laundry list of suggestions we collected from people last
year and prioritize them. Based upon their recommendations:
increasing the visibility of the award and awardee, establishing
the criteria for the award, increasing our marketing, making the
award ceremony a fun filled multi-media affair and themed
reading nights, we established our schedule and itinerary."
This year Art Sanctuary expanded the conference from a
three-day weekend to a four-day event. To help pull it off, they
established local partnerships with the University of
Pennsylvania, corporate sponsorships and support from entities
such as BET Books, Citizens Bank, Philadelphia City Council,
Tasty Baking Company, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the Lomax Family
Foundation, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, New City Writing,
Friends of the Free Library, Temple University's Institute for
Literature and Culture and the Philadelphia Commerce Department.
They also leveraged their relationships with Community College
of Philadelphia, Church of the Advocate, Black United Fund of
Pennsylvania, The Franklin Institute and the Free Library of
Philadelphia to build upon Robbins's yeoman work and take the
conference to another level.
For the first time anywhere, Art Sanctuary had renowned black
science fiction writers Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Steven
Barnes, Tananarive Due, and Toure together at one venue, the
Franklin Institute reading and talking about their craft. The
special effects of the Franklin Institute Museum provided an
added attraction. They had over 2,000 people at Irvin Auditorium
to see and hear this year's Lifetime Achievement Awardee, Chinua
Achebe on Friday afternoon.
Their Writers-in-Schools program sent fifteen big name
writers into Philadelphia inner city schools to interact with
students on Thursday and Friday. The Saturday panel discussions
which included a stellar line up of panelists and experts who
also facilitated workshops for aspiring writers and bibliophiles
this year included journalism and book collecting workshops as
well as the usual poetry, screen writing, publishing, play
writing, non-fiction and fiction workshops.
The expanded format offered something for everyone -- a
Friday evening reading and signing on Black Love with Elaine
Brown, Nick Chiles, Michael Datcher, Leslie Esdaile, Selwyn Sefu
Hinds and Denene Millner was held at the Church of the Advocate.
Saturday evening following the panel discussions and workshops
at Community College which featured Valerie Boyd (journalism)
Nega Mezlekia (Fiction) Elaine Brown (Non-Fiction), Janet Hill
(Publishing), Trapeta Mayson (Poetry), Ed Shockley
(Playwriting), and Sam Pollard (Screenwriting), moderated by
Michael Datcher. The Award Ceremony was at the main branch Free
Library. The weather put a damper on the Sunday activities
scheduled for The Church of The Advocate.
Except for the weather, Project Coordinator Jeffrey Hart was
ecstatic about how the four day conference turned out.
"There weren't as many nightmares as there could have been.
We had five different venues we worked with this year. In
working with five different venues, the challenge for me was to
make sure I kept connection with all five venues from the
University of Pennsylvania's Irvin Auditorium, to the Library,
to Community College, to the Church of the Advocate, to Franklin
Institute. Sometimes there were struggles but it was a
logistical thing especially with this weather."
This year's expanded format was especially gratifying for
Hart because of the increased community involvement. "The
Franklin Institute probably never had a Black History Month
Program like we had for them with the likes of Octavia Butler
and Samuel R. Delany. And we had Achebe here. We had name
writers going to schools and two women's shelters. BET Books
donated one hundred books and we're giving them to the shelters.
These authors were able to go there and share their experiences
and give of themselves and they did it without one instance of
hesitation. We're happy with what we're doing" Hart stated.
"Our volunteers have been unbelievable they've taken on the
responsibility and stepped up to the plate. It reminds me of the
old days when everybody just pitched in and helped. Adding on
the new things just meant more detail and attention to detail by
me, making sure I had accessibility for people with
disabilities, things we take for granted. The challenge was just
being on top of everything."
Art Sanctuary continues their program with a fund raising
concert featuring Rachelle Ferrell on Friday march 7th at 7 PM.
For more details about the myriad programs at Art Sanctuary
visit their Website
info@artsanctuary.org |
