We are ecstatic to share that we'll be hosting our first Black Lesbian Literary Legacies conversation on December 1st! Join us as Jewelle Gomez and Penny Mickelbury share the tea on writing, publishing, and whatever the heck else they want us to know about living their lives out loud. We promise you don't want to miss this conversation! You can register for the event by using this link or scanning the QR code below.

Click here to register.

Click here to register.

Charis welcomes Jewelle Gomez in conversation with Krystal A. Smith for a celebration of Still Water: Poems. African American, Cabo Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway all converge in Jewelle Gomez’s exquisite collection of poetry that explores the legacies of family heritage, history, and identity. This event is co-hosted by BLF Press. 

Gomez contemplates her sexuality, multi-ethnic and class identities, and what it means to experience love, loss, grief, friendship, and solidarity with other women during times of political upheaval. Gomez’s poems are a gift: at times sumptuous and impassioned, and always striking in their clarity.

Jewelle Gomez (Cabo Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway) is a playwright, novelist, poet and cultural worker who was born and raised in Boston, MA. She was on the original staff of one of the first weekly Black television shows, Say Brother, (now Basic Black) at WGBH TV in Boston. She lived in New York City for 22 years before moving to the Bay Area. She’s the author of eight books including three poetry collections and the first Black Lesbian vampire novel, The Gilda Stories. It was recently optioned by Cheryl Dunye (Watermelon Woman, Lovecraft Country) for a television mini-series. Her plays, Waiting for Giovanni, Leaving the Blues and Unpacking in Ptown, were commissioned by New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco for their west coast premiere. The TOSOS Company premiered Waiting for Giovanni and Leaving the Blues in New York City. She was the recipient of a Bram Stoker Legacy Award from Horror Writers Association (2021). Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @VampyreVamp

Krystal A. Smith is a poet and speculative fiction writer. Her poems have appeared in Entropy Magazine, Serendipity, Kissing Dynamite, and Sinister Wisdom. Her collection Two Moons: Stories was a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Her poetry collection, This is Not About Love (BLF Press, 2021), explores the complexities of human emotion and relationships via memory, experience, and imagination. Follow Krystal on Twitter @authorkasmith. 

BLF Press is an independent Black feminist publishing house dedicated to amplifying the work of Black, Indigenous, and queer women of color. Our goal for this press is to create a space for forward thinking, creative women of exceptional talent. We embrace difference, and envision BLF Press as an outlet for the expression of various types of writing that exemplifies the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and queer women of color in the United States. 

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

We will be archiving this event and adding closed captioning as soon as possible after airing so that it will be accessible to deaf and HOH people. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

On April 10, We will be hosting BLF Press Presents: Krystal A. Smith in conversation with DeMisty D. Bellinger. We are so excited to celebrate Krystal's first collection of poetry and we hope that you will join us. If you are able, grab your copy of This is Not About Love: Poems, a tasty beverage or snack, and join us.

Krystal A. Smith is a Black lesbian writer of poetry and speculative fiction. Her poetry can be read at Entropy Magazine, Kissing Dynamite, Emerge Literary Journal, and Serendipity Literary Magazine. Her debut collection Two Moons: Stories was released from BLF Press (2018) and was a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

DeMisty D. Bellinger lives and teaches in Massachusetts. Her writing has appeared in many places, including Contrary Magazine, Okay Donkey, and Best Small Fictions 2019. Her chapbook, Rubbing Elbows, is available at Finishing Line Press and her full-length collection, Peculiar Heritage, is forthcoming in 2021 with Mason Jar Press. DeMisty is poetry editor at Porcupine Literary and with Malarkey Books.

Please use the link below to register for the event. On the day of the event, the Zoom link will be emailed to you at the email address you provided. Please contact us at info@blfpress if you have any questions.

Register here.

Register here.

Charis welcomes Stephanie Andrea Allen in conversation with Jewelle Gomez for a celebration of Allen's daring collection of speculative fiction, How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions. Stephanie Andrea Allen attends to the lives of Black women, mostly lesbian or queer, all keenly aware of the forces seeking to consume them. This event is co-sponsored by BLF Press. BLF Press is an independent Black feminist publishing house dedicated to amplifying the work of Black women and women of color. Click here to learn more.  

A Black lesbian working the gig economy runs into a trio of motorized scooters and helps them escape from Earth. An enchanted sleep mask gives a woman the gift of slumber, but what will it cost her? A suburban housewife is framed for murder by her homophobic neighbor. And in the follow up to “Luna 6000,” a young woman investigates her mother’s untimely death and learns the truth about her family.  

Stephanie Andrea Allen’s How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions is an unapologetic,  often humorous, foray into the quotidian magic that envelops Black women’s lives. The eleven stories in this collection are filled with characters who will entice and delight readers as they traverse the worlds around them. With a mix of fabulism, near future, and speculative fictions, Allen reminds us in exquisitely nuanced prose that the fantastical can be found amongst the ordinary.  

This event is free and open to all people, especially to those who have no income or low income right now, but we encourage and appreciate a solidarity donation in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Charis Circle's mission is to foster sustainable feminist communities, work for social justice, and encourage the expression of diverse and marginalized voices. https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/CharisCircle?code=chariscirclepage

We will be archiving this event and adding closed captioning as soon as possible after airing so that it will be accessible to deaf and HOH people. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. We are actively learning the best practices for this technology and we welcome your feedback as we begin this new way of connecting across distances.

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

Stephanie Andrea Allen is a southerner, scholar, and writer. Her work can be found in Big Echo: Critical Science Fiction Magazine, Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing, Sinister Wisdom, and in her debut collection of short stories and essays, A Failure to Communicate.

Jewelle Gomez (Cape Verdean/Ioway/Wampanoag) is a writer and activist and author of the double Lambda Award-winning novel, THE GILDA STORIES from Firebrand Books. Her adaptation of the book for the stage "BONES & ASH: A GILDA STORY," was performed by the Urban Bush Women company in 13 U.S. cities. The script was published as a Triangle Classic by the Paperback Book Club.

“Stephanie Andrea Allen’s story collection embraces the acerbic complexity of Joanna Russ, the practical science  of James Tiptree Jr., the moral center of Rod Serling along with the finger-popping, sister sense of your local black  beauty shop. Not a combo you want to pass up.” Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories

Join BLF Press Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Andrea Allen as she hosts BLF Press's first virtual event! She will be joined by ten BLF Press writers, who will read from their respective BLF Press titles. After a short reading period, we will open up the meeting to questions from guests. So grab your copy of your favorite BLF Press title, a tasty beverage or snack, and join us!

Please use this link to register for the event. The Zoom link will be emailed to you at the email address you provide 24 hours before the event. Please contact us at info@blfpress if you have any questions.