Please join Black Writers Read for this special virtual event where we’ll be in conversation with Danielle Legros Georges and Jonathan Todd. We’ll be discussing their work as authors, editors, educators, and community builders and how they specifically create spaces for specific communities – both in their own literary voices and uplifting the works of other writers.

This is a one-time, special event. It will be recorded to be shared on the audio podcast platform at a later date. It will not be live-streamed similarly to other Black Writers Read interviews.

There is an opportunity to get in as an event sponsor!

Supporter Sponsorships are $25. Those who purchase tickets at this price will receive the following perks:

• Name mentioned during the virtual, live event.
• Name mentioned in social media posts.

Producer Sponsorships are $75. Those who purchase tickets at this price will, receive the Supporter Sponsorship perks along with:

• Website link shared across social media.
• Name mentioned on the audio podcast, which will exist in perpetuity.

About Our Panelists

Danielle Legros Georges is a poet, translator, and editor whose work has been supported by fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, MASS MoCA, the Boston Foundation, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. She was appointed Boston’s second Laureate in 2014. She is the author of several books of poetry including The Dear Remote Nearness of You; Island Heart, translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French poet Ida Faubert; Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters; Blue Flare: Three Haitian Poets: Évelyne Trouillot, Marie-Célie Agnant, Maggy de Coster (translations); and the forthcoming Three Leaves, Three Roots: Poems on the Haiti-Congo Story (Beacon Press, 2025).

Jonathan Todd is a cofounder of the Boston Kids Comics Fest and former second-grade teacher. He was a Jacqueline Woodson Fellow in the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing program at Lasell University, where he studied writing for children and young adults. A frequent comics teacher in children’s and young adult departments in libraries and schools, Jonathan was the 2015 Graphic Novelist-in-Residence at the Morse Institute and Bacon Free libraries near Boston. Before writing and drawing graphic novels for kids, Jonathan studied journalism and illustration at Syracuse University and English and history at Emory University. He was also an education reporter and political cartoonist. His cartoons have appeared in dozens of newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Tennessean, and the Cincinnati Enquirer. He lives near Boston with his wife, two children, and an irresistible lemon beagle named Cariño.

Join Black Writers Read for our inaugural book club meeting. We’ll be reading Crystal Senter-Brown’s The Rhythm in Blue in preparation for her chat with Black Writers Read scheduled for Thursday, October 10 at 5 p.m. IN PERSON at Monsoon Roastery. Crystal will join us for this facilitated discussion about her book! Please bring questions to pose to the author and your copy of the book to get it autographed!

You can choose to either read the book or watch the film before our book club meeting.

To purchase the book, visit AMAZON. To watch the film, visit AMAZON VIDEO.

Cost to Attend: $5

Complimentary desserts and treats provided.

Limited Capacity, so reserve your spot TODAY!

About The Rhythm in Blue

NOW an award-winning feature film! Mason loves his fiancée, but he’s fed up with the stress of planning and preparing for the wedding. Enough already! He needs a few days away. He knows he should have just checked into the nearest hotel, but instead he finds himself driving south. His destination? Jasmine’s house. Aside from that one night many years ago, he and Jasmine have managed to maintain a strictly platonic relationship. A few days away with a friend, he thinks, is just what the doctor ordered. Right?See how the lives of Mason and Jasmine will intertwine with those of Jacob, Keisha, Frankie, and so many others in the small southern town of Blue, Virginia.Blue is full of good food and sweet Southern graces, but it also proves to be filled with a few dark secrets. This is a story about failure, redemption, forgiveness and, above all, love. These characters are stirred by unique passions and colorful pasts. See how ten people become the pulse of this tiny little town; they are, quite simply, the rhythm in Blue.

About Crystal Senter-Brown

Crystal Senter-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and adjunct professor at Bay Path University. Born in Morristown, TN, to a bass-playing Baptist preacher and a visual artist, Crystal discovered her passion for poetry at the age of six. She has been featured in Redbook Magazine, Vibe Magazine, and Essence Magazine. Crystal is the author of several books, including The Rhythm in Blue, Gabby Saturday, and Doubledutch. Her book The Rhythm in Blue was adapted into an award-winning feature film. Crystal has received numerous accolades, including the Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Bay Path College Pathfinder Award, the Harold Grinspoon Spirit Award for her children’s book Gabby Saturday, the African American Female Professor of the Year by the African-American Female Professor Award Association (AAFPAA), and the BusinessWest Difference Maker for 2018. She is also known for her community work, including founding the Ella Louise Backpack Project, which provides school supplies to homeless children in Springfield, MA.