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Unerased and DC Public Library Present “Authors, Activists, Artists Speak! Writing Our Story, Righting Our History”
On International Women’s Day, more than a dozen authors, journalists, scholars, artists, and civic leaders will gather at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library to address a defining question: Who controls the public story of Black women and what shifts when Black women claim authorship?
Authors, Activists, Artists Speak! Writing Our Story, Righting Our History takes place Sunday, March 8, from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. Presented by Unerased | Black Women Speak in partnership with DC Public Library, the program centers Black women as narrators of their history, labor, health, culture, and civic power. Through panel conversations, Lightning Talks, artistic expression, and interactive spaces, the gathering affirms storytelling as cultural preservation and a living practice of resistance, remembrance and imagination.
“At a moment when so many of our narratives are being erased or distorted, this gathering affirms Black women as essential architects of memory, imagination, and change,” said Gwen McKinney, Unerased | Black Women Speak campaign director.
“Libraries are trusted institutions because they safeguard the public memory,” said Richard Reyes-Gavilan, executive director of the DC Public Library. “That memory is incomplete if it does not include the experiences of Black women in their voices. Hosting this gathering as part of our responsibility to ensure that all stories are documented and accessible.”
The program opens with journalist and political analyst Tiffany D. Cross in conversation with Joy D. Calloway, president and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative. Together they will examine the professional and personal costs Black women often face when speaking plainly in media, health care, and public life; and the stakes of doing so anyway.
A second panel brings together Washington Informer publisher Denise Rolark Barnes; Howard University professor Dana A. Williams; civil rights leader Melanie L. Campbell; and artist Nina Angela Mercer. Their discussion will focus on how media, scholarship, civic leadership, and creative practice intersect to shape collective memory, and how that memory can be revised with intention.
Four featured talks expand the conversation:
- Novelist Diane McKinney-Whetstone on family narrative as identity formation.
- Biographer A’Lelia Bundles on researching ancestral legacy and reclaiming lineage.
- Memoirist Bernardine “Dine” Watson on survival, community, and the human networks behind medical resilience.
- Economist Dr. Rhonda Sharpe on what data reveals about Black women’s labor and economic impact in the United States.
Poet Ariana Matondo will open the program with a spoken word performance. The afternoon includes book sales and signings, a Storytelling Station where attendees may record personal reflections, and the “In the Loop” Video Showcase highlighting Black women historymakers.
To learn more and register, click here.
About Unerased | Black Women Speak
Unerased | Black Women Speak is a public engagement initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices, stories, and cultural contributions of Black women through storytelling, dialogue, and community-centered programming.