Black Talk

Textile presents its inaugural fall literary event, Black Talk: In Conversation with Hanif Abdurraqib and Antonio Michael Downing, including readings from Hanif’s and Antonio’s newest works — “There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” and “Stars in My Crown,” respectively.

Together, they will discuss shaping Black identity, the weight of excellence as expectation, and expected to touch on the relationship between the arts and culture, space and place, and Black life. How is Black life archived in Waterloo Region? How do we protect Black histories from gentrification? How do we distinguish between cultural theft and cultural integration? What do we get wrong about Black masculinity and basketball? How are geography and memory intertwined when we try to recount our stories? What can nostalgia teach us?