Durham conference celebrates history and future of Black Southern writers

Though last Friday's weather held an autumn chill, the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University had a warmer environment — one of community, fellowship and a sense of family.

From Nov. 10-12, co-founders and co-directors of Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference Khalisa Rae Thompson and Eric Thompson held their annual event. 

After moving to Durham in 2019, Thompson said she and her husband wanted to create a space for celebrating and bringing awareness to Black Southern stories. 

“Because the history of Black Southern writers is that we are often undervalued, underappreciated, not taken seriously, we usually aren't studied, we don't win awards," she said. "The Southern voice is one where people have told us that it is ignorant, that it's not academic, that it's not polished, that it's not in the canon. And so oftentimes we are removed from the canon in a way that creates erasure."

Part of the conference's mission is to reclaim the voices and stories of Black writers whose voices have been lost in history, Thompson said.

She designed the conference to connect writers at all skill levels, stages and genres and foster a sense of family.

“I think that for me, it was important for there to be a space where contemporary Black writers were amplified in a way that we hadn't seen anywhere else,” Thompson said.

The three-day conference began with a public event sponsored by Duke University, welcoming writers from all backgrounds and featuring readings from poets such as Mahogany L. Browne and Terrance Hayes, both based in New York City.

Upon entering, participants were greeted by smiles from event coordinators, stickers and informational pamphlets regarding the conference schedule.

“I feel that the comfort of home in a space like this, and especially for a conference like this, is very important, especially within today's time — you don't find a lot of open arms, you don't find a lot of embrace and inclusion,” Danaye Pulley, a conference attendee, said.

During the Friday event, attendees listened to guest speakers in a personal setting as the spotlight illuminated the panelists and their words sparked inspiration.

“It's a gorgeous celebration of artistry and activism and understanding self,” conference attendee Natalie Dent said.

Throughout the weekend, participants had the opportunity to engage in craft workshops, career advice talks and panels exploring the past, present and future of Black Southern history and writing.

In Browne’s reading and workshop, she invited participants to close their eyes, take in the world around them and remind themselves of opportunities to come.

Poet and teacher Jennifer Bartell Boykin was one of the poetry speakers at the conference. Her writing focuses on her experiences growing up as a Black woman in rural South Carolina.

“Conferences like this are really essential — as Black writers, it's important that we have safe spaces to come and be in community, have workshops, have talks, have panels, collaborate, network, meet new people, all that good stuff," Boykin said.

For Orange County Arts Commission Advisory Board member Fred Joiner, conferences like this one are more important than ever. With a recent uptick in bans on books with stories featuring people of color and people from underrepresented communities, he said Griot & Grey Owl's collaborative environment allows attendees to strategize how to build better institutions for sharing their work.

As Poet Laureate of Carrboro from 2019 to 2022, Joiner recalled how the pandemic limited people from gathering in person and sharing those ideas.

“I think we are trying to figure out how to be together again, and I think that's especially important for Black writers and Black Southern writers,” Joiner said.

As she attended, Pulley found the conference to be a way of documenting the future of Black Southern writing and inspiring participants to evoke change.

Thompson said she hopes that attendees and participants left the conference with a new appreciation for Black Southern writers and what they bring to the world.

“And so I think that those Southern roots get washed over because we don't want to remember, don't want to remember that time,” she said. “But we're here to reclaim it, to dig it back up and to celebrate it.

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