Kweli Journal

02/01/2023

Did you hear? Registration for the 2023 Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference is officially OPEN!

Take a look of this year's line-up of classes, faculty and keynote speakers!

Among our guest faculty are Edwidge Danticat, Fatimah Ashgar, Safia Elhillo, Michaela Goade, Donna Barba Higuera, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Malinda Lo, Jacquline Woodson and many more.

REGISTER at link in our profile and join us at Barnard College this spring. will be co-sponsored by the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW) and the Barnard English Department's Creative Writing Program.

02/01/2023

⏰ LAST CALL!

Check out the current issue of Kweli Journal before it hits the archives next week when our new issue drops!

READ now at 👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/currentissue

01/26/2023

As we make final preparations for our upcoming 2023 COLOR OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE CONFERENCE, our annual spring conference for BIPOC kidlit writers and illustrators to learn, get inspired, and network, we’re taking a look back at what participants at the generously shared with us about their experience.

If you’re a BIPOC kidlit author or illustrator, we hope you will join us at our conference this year, happening Friday, March 31 through Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Registration will open real soon!

01/25/2023

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship - NYFA

Heads up, New York:
Today’s the LAST DAY to apply for the New York Foundation for the Arts Artist Fellowship, a $8,000 unrestricted cash grant available to artists living in New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located therein.
Learn More at https://www.nyfa.org/awards-grants/artist-fellowships/

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is a $8,000 unrestricted cash grant available to artists living in New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located therein. This grant is awarded in fifteen different disciplines over a three-year period (five categories a year) and the application is free to...

01/19/2023

Upon hearing the wonderful news that our friend Meg Medina will be our next National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, we went back to the Kweli Journal archives and found some incredible clips from a conversation Medina had with fellow authors Ibi Zoboi and Jerry Craft at our 2021 Color of Children’s Literature Conference.

Registration for our 2023 conference will open soon!

01/18/2023

BIPOC writers, looking for community and space in which to hone your craft in the new year?

Join Hannah Bae, freelance journalist and 2020 nonfiction winner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, in her upcoming ONLINE creative nonfiction workshop at Kweli Journal!

She’ll be teaching:
THE CREATIVE NONFICTION TOOLKIT
Mondays from 1/30 to 3/6
7-9PM EST
Via ZOOM

The class fee is $325. Enrollment is limited to 12 writers so sign up before the class is full. →

https://www.kwelijournal.org/the-creative-nonfiction-toolkit-workshop

01/15/2023

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Civil Rights leader, was born on this day January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia.

This is an excerpt from a powerful speech he gave to the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO labor union in 1961.

Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress.

12/31/2022

2022 Kweli International Literary Festival Highlights

As the year comes to a close, we’re taking a look back at the summer, when we returned to in-person gatherings with a hybrid Kweli International Literary Festival, hosted by Barnard Center for Research on Women.

Our event brought together 109 participants, with 45 writers attending virtually on scholarship and was headlined by poets Nikky Finney and Tyehimba Jess.

Check out our highlight video below. 👇

⏰ And there’s still time to support Kweli Journal—and uplift BIPOC authors—with an end-of-year gift.

👉 Head to kwelijournal.kindful.com

OR

👉 Text SUPPORT to 347-308-7736

Your support ensures Kweli will continue its unique programming, like the festival, which Nikky Finney calls like no other writers conference in the world.

Check out the video. 👇

And thank you for your generous support.

As 2022 comes to close, we take a look back to the summer, when we returned to in-person gatherings with a hybrid Kweli International Literary Festival, hosted by…

12/30/2022

ICYMI

⏱️ There’s still time to support Kweli Journal—and uplift voices—with an end-of-year gift.

Donate TODAY!

Visit our link in bio

or

Head to kwelijournal.kindful.com

or

Text SUPPORT to 347 308 7736.

THANK YOU!
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12/28/2022

Kweli 2022 Year in Review

Thank you to everyone who made 2022 an amazing year at Kweli Journal!

Check out our 2022 recap video below ↓

And thanks to our generous supporters, this is what we accomplished this past year:

→ We published four issues of Kweli Journal, amplifying the voices of 36 underrepresented writers.

→ Our annual spring event, the Kweli Color of Children’s Literature Conference, hosted 297 participants, including 70+ scholarship recipients.

→ In the summer, Kweli returned to in-person gatherings with a hybrid Kweli International Literary Festival, hosted by Barnard Center for Research on Women. Our event brought together 109 participants, with 45 writers attending virtually on scholarship.

→ We hosted 4 fully-funded in-person Writing and Illustration Retreats at Akwaaba for 17 writers.

→ And we held Readings and Conversations with authors—multi media events featuring live music and choreographed dance segments that complemented the poetry and prose.

Your generous support has allowed Kweli to continue nurturing Black, Indigenous and POC writers, creating opportunities for their voices to be heard, recognized, and valued.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to this year’s end of year campaign and our $10K match! We’re so grateful for your help nurturing writers who want to tell their stories and inspire change in a world that desperately needs it.

If you haven’t yet gotten a chance to give, there’s still time to make a difference with an end-of-year gift.

Donate TODAY!

Visit our link in bio

or

Head to kwelijournal.kindful.com

or

Text SUPPORT to 347 308 7736.

THANK YOU!

https://vimeo.com/779303273/9e7f610d94

2022 has been an amazing year! We published four issues of Kweli Journal, amplifying the voices of 36 diverse writers. Our annual spring event, the Kweli Color…

12/23/2022

With your support, Kweli Journal can continue its commitment to building community for poets and writers, like Rubén Degollado.

Donate TODAY

👉 Visit kwelijournal.kindful.com

OR

👉 Text SUPPORT to 347-308-7736

Thank YOU!

12/21/2022

Your support ensures Kweli Journal can continue its commitment to amplifying the voices of writers and poets, like, Autumn Allen, who credits the positive impact Kweli had on her career.

Donate TODAY

Visit 👉 kwelijournal.kindful.com

OR

👉 Text SUPPORT to 347-308-7736

Thank YOU!

12/20/2022

With your support, Kweli Journal can continue its commitment to nurturing BIPOC authors and illustrators.

Donate TODAY 👉

Visit kwelijournal.kindful.com

or

Text SUPPORT to 347-308-7736.

Thank YOU!

12/19/2022

KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

Our hearts are singing with joy and gratitude.

Kweli announced today a grant award totaling $49,500 from New York State Council on the Arts to support the recovery of the nonprofit arts and culture sector.

Learn more 👉

An online journal by and for writers of color.

12/07/2022

Sing the Truth! with Rubén Degollado — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

NOW up on our Sing the Truth! Blog: our interview with author Rubén Degollado.

His latest book “The Family Izquierdo,” has earned starred reviews and glowing write ups. And he’s at work on the next installment in his Degollado Fictional Universe.

Read the full Q&A here 👇

Maggie is easy to write. I can get into her voice. She’s very exaggerada and full of life. Readers love her.

12/03/2022

A few weeks ago, we got to sing happy birthday to Edward P. Jones at Akwaaba. Will never forget that look of complete surprise on his face when Monique Greenwood came out with the red velvet cake and we all started singing happy birthday to ya Stevie Wonder style. Loud and off key. We celebrated Edward‘s birthday during Kweli’s long weekend writing retreat at Akwaaba in October.

Today is Kweli’s birthday!

13 years! Can you believe it?

And Akwaaba will be part of today’s birthday celebration too.

Join us online at 2PM EST for our anniversary reading with Kemi Alabi and Omotara James. We have giveaway prizes, including twi gift certificates for Kweli Writing Retreat at Akwaaba.

See you there. Link in bio.

12/02/2022

“A song is really a story set to music. The story has to be strong enough to hold the audience or they will get up and leave their seats. The rhythm has to be just right or things fall apart.” —Laura Pegram, editor in chief of Kweli Journal: at.pw.org/NovDec2022

11/29/2022

Kweli Journal, Inc. | Kindful

Uplift the voices of writers on .

In this short video, Nicole Dennis-Benn, the award-winning author of HERE COMES THE SUN and a Kweli alum, explains the impact of Kweli’s programs.

Donate to Kweli Journal
👉 kwelijournal.kindful.com

And THANK YOU for your generous support!

11/24/2022

IN SOME AMERICA / A GUN by Iain Haley Po***ck — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The poem, “IN SOME AMERICA / A GUN” by Iain Haley Po***ck, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/1/in-some-america-a-gun-by-iain-haley-pollock

I imagine their eyes / late autumn / winter /early spring / dilated with fear. Or, narrow / with no capacity to understand. / The killer’s mind a hailstorm / of anger and confusion.

11/23/2022

ON BLACK QUARTERBACKS & DOGFIGHTS IN VIRGINIA WOODS by Iain Haley Po***ck — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The poem, “ON BLACK QUARTERBACKS & DOGFIGHTS IN VIRGINIA WOODS” by Iain Haley Po***ck, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/1/on-black-quarterbacks-amp-dogfights-in-virginia-woods-by-iain-haley-pollock

When he danced in the pit / where boys break boys / & those who survive / become men who break / men, when he soft-shoed, / boogalooed on the clipped grass, / we cheered for him.

11/23/2022

ICYMI:

Check out our CURRENT ISSUE before it hits the archives and before our last issue of the year drops!

READ 👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/currentissue

11/23/2022

blink fitness by Lark Omura — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The poem, “Blink fitness” by Lark Omura, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/1/blink-fitness-by-lark-omura

I'm tired, all the ellipticals in me are tired, of being object / and smack, of whistles and low moans and beautifuls / grasping at our ankles like thick vines in heat.

11/22/2022

a study on yellow: 14:14 looking directly into the sun after the lampyridae return by Attorious Renee Augustin — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The poem “a study on yellow: 14:14 looking directly into the sun after the lampyridae return” by appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/1/a-study-on-yellow-1414-looking-directly-into-the-sun-after-the-lampyridae-return-by-attorious-renee-augustin

showtime sugar, this is it / what lies down dorothy’s brick road / the golden token heavy in the pocket

11/19/2022

Home Sweet Home by Porsha Allen — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The searing poem, “Home Sweet Home” by Porsha Allen, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/23/home-sweet-home-by-porsha-allen

An empty / vase sits on the kitchen table. My mother,/ like a dead flower in it. Empty beer / bottles, bupropion, & blackened / crackpipes cover the coffee table.

11/19/2022

Artwork: Study of Vinzula by Lisa Teasley — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

“Study of Vinzula,” an acrylic painting by artist and writer Lisa Teasley, graces the cover of the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ more about the artist here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry-1/2022/8/23/artwork-study-of-vinzula-by-lisa-teasley

This acrylic painting is called the Study of Vinzula by artist and writer, Lisa Teasley.

11/18/2022

Glossolalia by Lisa Teasley — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The short story, “Glossolalia” by Lisa Teasley , appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/fiction/2022/8/2/glossolalia-by-lisa-teasley

With nothing to lose, and on a family friend’s recommendation, our long-divorced parents took Ike to see a curandera in New Mexico.

11/17/2022

Snapshot of Andrea L. Rogers’ debut book celebration MoCADA Museum 🥰 As we move into the end of the year, we’ve been thinking of Andrea’s debut journey, which we’ve been honored to support. Read on for Andrea's Kweli story.

Andrea attended her first Kweli Conference in 2016. According to Joseph Bruchac & Debbie Reese, this was “the largest gathering of Native children’s book writers in one single place since the Returning the Gift gathering in the 1990s.”

Andrea wrote about her experience in the anthology ALLIES (DK Publishing, 2021)

“The writing conference sponsored by Kweli was a completely different experience from all that had come before. The first time I met her in person, at the check-in tables for the Color of Children's Literature Conference, Laura's voice sang out to me, 'Andrea, I'm so glad you're here!' I was alone in [NYC] for the first time in my life…surrounded by Brown faces and anticipated meeting other Native writers that morning. For an Indigenous writer accustomed to the micro aggressions of majority white writing spaces, this was a new feeling. BIPOC people have had to bring their own chairs to a lot of tables. As a Cherokee writer, even finding the tables in the publishing world had been a challenge. Laura Pegram saw a need for a table where marginalized writers could grow, a place where they could work on the stories singing in their souls. Laura built that table. Before I attended the Kweli Conference, being a writer had been a lonely experience. For the first time, I felt like becoming a published author was truly in reach.”

A familiar story to writers, Andrea faced industry pushback on her unique voice. Laura worked w/ Andrea closely to publish her brilliant short story, “Man-Made Monsters" in Kweli Journal (2018). She introduced Andrea to an editor at , which published her debut collection of YA stories that sings the truth so beautifully about the horrors of empire and dispossession. “Man Made Monsters” is the collection’s title story 😊 It was our absolute honor to celebrate the launch of her book...We have one more special announcement about Andrea & coming up that'll bring her debut journey full circle--stay tuned!

The team has been speaking a lot about full-circle journeys like Andrea's this harvest season. We know there are so many brilliant, essential writers of color who need this kind of community and support. If you can, please give to our end-of-year campaign to support these writers. We raising funds to provide scholarships for to attend our lit fest, subsidize retreat fees & more.

Please DONATE & SHARE: https://kwelijournal.kindful.com

11/17/2022

Soundproof Niño by Jared Lemus — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

The short story, “Soundproof Niño” by Jared Lemus, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal

READ it here
👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/fiction/2022/8/29/soundproof-nio-by-jared-lemus

That’s going to be a sick scar, Pablo said. I wish I could get a scar like that.

11/16/2022

Muchacho by Alejandro Heredia — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

ICYMI:

“Muchacho” by Alejandro Heredia, a short story about protest, motherhood, and police violence, inspired by the Washington Heights Protests of 1992, appears in the current issue of Kweli Journal .

READ it here
👉

Everyone on the block knew about the side hustle and looked the other way because he offered a joke when he handed out groceries across the counter, gave his mother money to split the bills, let the mothers on the block slide when their WIC checks didn’t last them the full month.

11/15/2022

Current Issue — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora's Boldest Voices

LAST CALL for the current issue. Read these stories before our last issue of the year drops later this month.

The current issues features:

NONFICTION

"‘We do tell you the best of stories’: Islam In My Saudi American Narrative" by Eman Quotah

POETRY

"IN SOME AMERICA / A GUN"
"ON BLACK QUARTERBACKS & DOGFIGHTS IN VIRGINIA WOODS"
by Ian Hailey Po***ck

"Home Sweet Home" by Porsha Monique Allen

"a study on yellow: 14:14 looking directly into the sun after the lampyridae return" by Ahmose René

"blink fitness" by Lark Omura

FICTION

"Glossolalia" by Lisa Teasley

"Muchacho" by Alejandro Heredia

"Soundproof Niño" by Jared Lemus

ARTWORK

"Study of Vinzula" by issue contributor Lisa Teasley

One of our favorite communal threads in this issue is narrators learning to adapt, even daring to thrive, in the midst of grief. The voices here have been sustaining us as we edited this issue and we hope they do the same for you 🧡

READ 👉 https://www.kwelijournal.org/currentissue

Launched in December 2009, Kweli is an online literary journal that celebrates community and cultural kinships. In this shared space, you will hear the lived experience of people of color. Our many stories. Our shared histories. Our creative play with language. Here our memories are wrapped inside ...

11/11/2022

Kweli Journal on Instagram: "In celebration of (Nov 7-13), we’re sharing an exclusive clip of our Color of Children’s Literature Conference panelists, the extraordinary illustrators (and sisters) and...

In celebration of (Nov 7-13), we’re sharing an exclusive clip of our Color of Children’s Literature Conference panelists, the extraordinary (and sisters) Yuyi Morales and Magaly Morales, in conversation with author Leah Henderson about their upcoming 2023 picture book, THE COURAGE OF THE LITTLE HUMMINGBIRD: A TALE TOLD AROUND THE WORLD. Which we are so lucky to feature as our cover art. 😍

In this clip, Magaly talks about her creative process.

Want to learn more about our upcoming Color of Children’s Literature Conference?

Sign up for our KidLit newsletter for news and updates on next year’s conference.

Kweli Journal shared a post on Instagram: "In celebration of (Nov 7-13), we’re sharing an exclusive clip of our Color of Children’s Literature Conference panelists, the extraordinary illustrators (and sisters) and Magaly Morales, in conversation with auth...

11/10/2022

Honored to share photos & reflections from last week’s CLMP Annual Benefit, where our EIC, Laura Pegram & Kweli Journal were presented w/ CLMP’s inaugural Platinum Review Award for Excellence in Literary Magazine Publishing!

Laura was unfortunately under the weather so our radiant 2022 Writing Fellow, Heran Abate, kindly accepted the award on Laura's behalf, presented by the one and only Edward P. Jones! Edward’s speech had our whole team tearing up—we’re sharing it in full because who could bear to cut down an Edward P. Jones’ speech?

Our heartfelt thanks to CLMP, Edward, our Fellows Heran and Trinee Adams for representing us, and all of you who’ve trusted us to be part of your artistic journeys.

As we get ready for our own year-end anniversary benefit celebration, we’ve been thinking about the many full-circle moments we’ve experienced this year—from the honor of celebrating the debut books of 14+ Kweli alum this year alone!! to the experience of having Edward, one of our literary heroes, present us with a literary honor. We’re especially humbled that Edward attended the CLMP benefit for Laura as he usually doesn’t attend galas. To Laura, Edward is family as well as an inspiration 💗 This harvest season, we’ll be celebrating more moments from this year--stay tuned!

For now, we leave you with an excerpt from Heran’s CLMP acceptance speech:

“On this occasion, I asked a friend and editor in Nairobi, the nuances of the word “Kweli” in Swahili.

Kweli means 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝘁
Kweli is truthfully, without doubt a community – one that gathers writers & readers across borders and boroughs, histories and futures, and practices an ethic of solidarity that is informed and meaningful.

Kweli also means 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗱
And indeed the journal is a home that sees us – emerging writers – for our promise and our needs, and responds with unhurried attention, sound advice, and most importantly calls on us to be bold, to speak – no to sing truth.”

And our heartiest congratulations to fellow 2022 honorees, Sarah Gorham of Sarabande & of Books & Books!

Photos: Beowulf Sheehan

10/25/2022

💫 The book event blessings continue NEXT TUESDAY 11/1, 7PM EST, with a multimedia event featuring author Andrea L. Rogers and musician Kalyn Fay! Andrea will read from her debut YA collection, MAN MADE MONSTERS 👻, and Kalyn will sing original music in the Cherokee language. Andrea will then be in conversation with our EIC, Laura Pegram--expect plenty of craft convo goodness!

Event will be held at the wonderful MoCADA Museum & will also feature dance and photography! Masks & vaccination required for our collective safety! RSVP HERE: https://tinyurl.com/ynv6hrvv (Stay tuned for virtual RSVP link!)

Tommy Orange, author of THERE THERE, says of the collection: “Man Made Monsters is a brilliant and expansive journey across time, seen through a Cherokee lens, written by the brilliant and essential voice of Andrea Rogers. This collection is full to the brim with voice and breadth, including but not limited to magic, horror, and fantasy. The book is fun, funny, and dead-serious. It is beautifully written, and it is full of monsters.”

We were lucky enough to publish the TITLE STORY of this collection at Kweli! Read in our archives: https://www.kwelijournal.org/fiction/2018/11/12/man-made-monsters-by-andrea-l-rogers

P.S. don't forget to RSVP to join us online this Thursday @ 7PM EST for a discussion between Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of new memoir THE MAN WHO COULD MOVE CLOUDS, and Hannah Bae. Just blessings on blessings this witching season 🧙🏾‍♀️

10/20/2022

What a month it has been for book events! Last night's multimedia evening w/ Cynthia Dewi Oka was spellbinding 💫 We hope you’ll join us online NEXT THURSDAY 7PM EST for a much-anticipated conversation between Ingrid Rojas Contreras and Hannah Bae on Ingrid’s new memoir, The MAN WHO COULD MOVE CLOUDS, which is now a ✨ 2022 National Book Award FINALIST ✨ We're over the moon for Ingrid!

Registration is FREE and open to the public so make sure to tune in and tell your friends! RSVP: https://tinyurl.com/3pjnvtnb

New York Times Book Review writes, “Rojas Contreras reacquaints herself with her family’s past, weaving their stories with personal narrative, unraveling legacies of violence, machismo and colonialism…In the process, she has written a genre-defying ancestral history.”

Ingrid’s groundbreaking debut novel, FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE, was a NYT editor’s choice, and her memoir has been named a Time Best Book of the Summer, among many other honors!

We’re so lucky to have the conversation held by Hannah, a winner of the Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award and Peter Taylor Fellow, who taught an excerpt of Ingrid’s memoir this summer at . We love her love for this book—a feeling shared by us too!

P.S. get a glimpse of last night's event on our story! We'll share more soon. ALSO, keep your eye out for a special book event w/ Andrea L Rogers at the top of November--details soon!!