The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center gets right to the heart of what the organization is all about with its inaugural event, “Raise Your Voice! Protest Literature and Midterm Matters!”
The engaging workshop and discussion, which is free and open to the public, happens today, Saturday, Nov. 1, 1 to 3 p.m., at the Seminole Heights Branch Library, 4711 N. Central Ave., Tampa.
The discussion will cover protest literature from the Antebellum South, Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights eras, and will include work by Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, Ann Petry, Gwendolyn Bennett, Carolyn Rogers, Gwendolyn Brooks and more. Then, participants will get the chance to create their own protest literature, reflecting on the current social and political climate, during a creative writing workshop.
“This event is about social unrest, about making changes, about raising your voice,” said Sheree Greer, director of Kitchen Table.
And it’s no coincidence that this event is taking place just days ahead of the midterm elections.
“We've really been working to encourage people to vote — the midterm elections are so important and don't always receive the attention it demands as it relates to our daily lives,” Greer said. “Voting is something we all need to do. It's part of making a difference in all the ways we can.”
She added, “With the murder of so many black youth, with the economic woes we're facing in our communities, the challenges to equality and empowerment for girls, women, people of color, LGBTQ, it's almost as if we're going back in time. Or worse, that we're stuck. To look back at the protest literature of the Civil Rights era and Reconstruction period after slavery and more, the themes are still relevant, the problems still unsolved. Maybe seeing how long we've been at it can inspire us to get busy doing the work of moving forward, for real.”
Kitchen Table, named after a press of the same name founded by writer and activist Barbara Smith in 1980, is dedicated to inspiring girls and women of color and to providing a platform to share the often overlooked contributions of minority women writers. The group will provide arts education through community workshops, lectures, and reading series.
“We are really targeting alternative and charter schools, as well as, underserved populations like youth in group homes and adults who may not be able to attend college, but have interest in writing and literature,” Greer said. “And our focus is helping to discover and cultivate the voices of women and girls. It's critical that we encourage our voices in this way, maybe now more than ever.”
Find more information on the Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center here.