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Join us for a discussion of Julia Wright’s powerful new poetry collection, moderated by Professor Greg Thomas. Julia will join via Zoom to share insights and answer questions. Friday, March 20, 2026

About The Event Haiti and the Revolution Unseen invites scholars and artists of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) to know Haitians as Ginens (African Haitians) and Haiti as Ayiti Ginen (Africa Haiti). This form of knowing demands a decolonial understanding of the Haitian Revolution that privileges Africans and the immense political influence of their knowledge practices in Saint Domingue; and it also demands a reevaluation of stories of the Revolution as told by influential twentieth century Caribbean writers and supported by scholars who teach and write about Caribbean classics of the Revolution. These stories misremember and misrepresent the Revolution as a republican feat led by Caribbean born revolutionists. They write Africans out of the uprising and fail to engage resistant peoples on their own cultural terms, which results in artistic and critical engagements with the Revolution that are not only defeatist at conception, but they are fundamentally unable to nurture the reader’s decolonial imagination as intended. Natalie M. Léger is an Associate Professor of English at Temple University, who specializes in twentieth century anti-colonial thought and decolonial philosophy in Caribbean literature and African diasporic fiction. Her research interests also focus on race and visual culture, Latin American literature, and magical realist cultural production. She received her PhD in English Literature from Cornell University in 2011, completed an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Tufts University in 2014 and was a 2016-2017 Ford Postdoctoral Fellowship Recipient. Her first book, Haiti and the Revolution Unseen: The Persistence of the Radical Decolonial Imagination was recently published with Vanderbilt University Press in September 2025. Professor Carole Boyce Davies is Chair of the English Department at Howard University and H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters emerita and Professor of Africana Studies and Literatures in English at Cornell University. She is the author of the prize-wining Left of Karl Marx. The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones (2008); the classic Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject (1994); Caribbean Spaces. Escape Routes from Twilight Zones (2013) on the internalization of Caribbean culture; and a bi-lingual children’s story Walking/An Avan (2016/2017) in Haitian Kreyol and English. In addition to over a hundred essays, articles published in major professional journals, Dr. Boyce-Davies has also published fifteen critical editions on African, African Diaspora and Caribbean literature and culture such as the two-volume collection of critical and creative writing Moving Beyond Boundaries (1995): International Dimensions of Black Women's Writing (volume 1), Black Women's Diasporas (volume 2); the 3-volumeEncyclopedia of the African Diaspora (Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 2008) and Claudia Jones Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Poetry, Essays (2011) and Pan-African Connections (2019) A member of the scientific committee for UNESCO’s updated GeneralHistory of Africa, she edited the epistemological forum on “Global Blackness” for the African Diaspora volume and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the African Humanities Forum (based in Mali). Her most recent publication is Black Women’s Rights. Leadership and the Circularities of Power (2022/2023). She is a past president of the Caribbean Studies Association which organized under her leadership the first CSA Conference in Haiti in 2016. Her popular essays and reviews have appeared in The Guardian (London), The Washington Post, The Crisis, Ms Magazine, Ithaca Journal, The Black Scholar, Miami Herald, Trinidad Express, Trinidad Guardian, Caribbean Today, Caribbean Contact, Newsweek.

Poetry as Protest - New Age Poetry Showcase and Open Mic Join us every second Wednesday of the month at Sankofa! New Age Open Mic is a free, youth-led poetry showcase and open mic held every 2nd Wednesday at Sankofa. New Age centers Poetry As Protest: where poetry meets revolutionary work. With tunes by DJ Kamea, live drummer Sundiata Gittens, and an in-house cafe and bookstore, this isn't just a mic, it's a community experience! Organized and hosted by 2025 Youth Poet Laureate and Howard Freshman Kai Diata Giovanni and slam & typewriter poet Jayden Antwine.

''We honored the legacy of Dr. King on Monday with a packed teach-in at Sankofa Cafe with Frank Chapman, longtime activist and Executive Director of NAARPR. Moderated by KB and Amber-Jane of DCAARPR, we discussed the roots of the Black liberation movement, including the historic demand of community control of the police and Frank’s book, Black Liberation and Socialism. Throughout the event, we connected the threads of history with our current moment in time and what we can do to fight back against racist and political repression in our communities today.'' - DCAARPR

Sankofa proudly presents the launch of No More Worlds to Conquer by Brian G.Gilmore, a compelling exploration of Washington, DC’s rich Black literary history and its lasting influence on American poetry.

ምጥቀት በቅኔ አክናፍ : የኢትዮጵያዊው ባለ ቅኔ እና ጸሐፊ ተውኔት ጸጋዬ ገብረ መድኅን የሕይወት ታሪክ በተሰኘው የፋሲል ይትባረክ መጽሐፍ ዙሪያ ከአስተዋይ መርድ ፣ አለም ጸሐይ ወዳጆ፣ ጴጥሮስ ቶጃ (ዶ/ር) እንዲሁም ዮዲት ጸጋዬ ጋር የምናደርገውን ውይይት ተገኝተው እንዲካፈሉ በአክብሮት እንጋብዛለን። #EthiopianLiterature #sankofa #ethiopia #TsegayeGebreMedhin