The Women Gather
The Women Gather: Building a Network to Embrace Black Women Writers
Wintergreen Women Writers Collective, with our fiscal sponsor Educopia, is thrilled to announce an award in the amount of $750,000 from the Mellon Foundation. This grant will support our implementation-focused project, “The Women Gather:Building a Network to Embrace Black Women Writers”.
Read details about the grant, planned activities, new partnerships and collaborations
Booklist
The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker by Maryemma Graham
Our lives are so full of achievement and personal triumphs and milestones. After many years of tireless research on the life of Margaret Walker, Maryemma Graham publishes The House Where My Soul Lives with Oxford Press. It is the first comprehensive biography of this poet and writer, who was “a pillar in American culture for the majority of the 20th century.”
“Being amid enormous creativity invites renewal and supports productivity. I need Wintergreen in my life! It stretches my imagination and offers new possibilities as I enter and reenter our sisterhood. I gain inspiration learning from my sisters, always there is something more emerging.
At the same time, Wintergreen allows for witnessing through a shared community where differences are respected, do not produce conflict but allow us to complement one another. Wintergreen is often like a spiritual blanket that keeps you warm, whether you are together or apart. Continuously validating and encouraging everything each of us does, Wintergreen also opens crucial spaces for meaningful, healthy critique.
Many of us live in a world that takes from us more than it gives us. Wintergreen is that balance that allows us to reclaim what is lost or taken, allowing for us to grow and age in constructive, meaningful ways, becoming better versions of ourselves.” - Maryemma Graham
Bigger: A Literary Life by Trudier Harris
Trudier Harris examines the literary life of Bigger Thomas from his birth to the current day. Harris explores the debates between Black critics and Communist artists in the 1930s and 1940s over the “political novel,” the censorship of Native Son by white publishers, and the work’s initial reception—as well as interpretations from Black feminists and Black Power activists in the decades that followed, up to the novel’s resonance with the Black Lives Matter movement today.
“The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective has meant circles within circles of comfort, support, and friendship. Thirty-seven years ago, when I was invited to join Wintergreen, I was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, worked in a mostly European-American university, and lived in a decidedly European-American neighborhood. I routinely traveled away from Chapel Hill to visit with other people of color, including other professional women.
Going to the first Wintergreen gathering was truly a treat, and I have valued my ties to that special group of women since then. Over the years, I have been inspired by what my wonderful Wintergreen Sisters have achieved, encouraged when they listened and responded to my projects, and deeply satisfied when they have read my work and responded with applause or with suggestions for improvements.
Our network has allowed for mutual support over the last three decades, and I am happy to be in a group that welcomes each woman as she is, extends profuse congratulations about various achievements, and allows each of us the creative space to reach the height of our potential.” - Trudier Harris
Path To Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement by Ethel Morgan Smith
In Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement, Wintergreen Woman Ethel Morgan Smith shines light on unsung heroes of the civil rights movement, the ordinary citizens working behind the scenes to make an impact in their communities. Also included are interviews with such esteemed but less studied figures as writer Gloria Naylor, fashion designer Ann Lowe, and educator Constance Curry.
“The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective has inspired and supported me in more ways than I can list. Daryl Cumber Dance supported and ushered me through the complex publishing process. She believed in my work and motivated me to move forward. Nikki Giovanni and Virginia Fowler were my introduction to the world of the academy. They continue to lift me up with love and encouragement. Opal Moore has been a friend and sister for more than 30 years. She's the best listener I know. Her advice is always thoughtful and filled with honesty and humor. When I launched Path to Grace last year, six Wintergreen Women came from four different states. I tear up just thinking about how exciting and exhilarating the event was. Of course, I am thankful to all of the women of Wintergreen. All of you have touched and influenced me.” - Ethel Morgan Smith
Gatherings
Happy 90th Birthday Sonia Sanchez!
“We celebrate the important milestones that define our lives. On September 9, 2024, we joined Sonia Sanchez for her 90th Birthday at the Schomburg Research Center in New York with 300 people in attendance and more than 4500 online. Janus Adams, Joanne Gabbin, and Alysia Dempsey collaborated with Schomburg Director Joy Bivins and Program Director Kevin Matthews to host this amazing event. Other Wintergreen Women present were Brenda Greene, Jessea Gabbin, Maryemma Graham, DaMaris B. Hill, and Lauren K. Alleyne A Black galaxy of stars including Haki Madhubuti, Walter Mosley, Susan Taylor, Elizabeth Alexander, Kevin Powell, Mahogany Browne, Cornelius Eady, Tyehimba Jess and Jericho Brown showed up to honor her.” - Joanne Gabbin
Furious Flower Conference 2024: The Worlds of Black Poetry
Many Wintergreen Women gathered together for the Furious Flower Conference, which took place between September 18-21, 2024. Intergenerational, international, and intentional in its focus on the expansiveness of the Black poetic tradition, the 2024 Furious Flower Conference celebrated The Worlds of Black Poetry and is jointly dedicated to the inestimable Elizabeth Alexander and Kwame Dawes.
“We belong to each other. We exist in each other. We live in each other. We home to each other. We nation of each other. We love and we love and we love each other. We here with each other. We are word and world to each other. We say Ashe and it is good.” - Lauren Alleyne
CityLit Project 2024: The Queendom of Literary Women
“The transformative cultural impact of women writers gathering in sacred spaces cannot be underestimated. Founders and representatives of five organizations gather to discuss their origins, significance, and influence in the literary community.”
Carla DuPree, Director CityLit Project
Zora’s Den-Victoria Kennedy Well-Read Black Girl: Glory Edim Wintergreen Women Writers Collective: Tyechia Thompson & Carla Dupree Scribente Maternum: Rachel Berg Scherer
Upcoming
A Furious Flower Blooms-Honoring the intellectual and political leadership of Dr. Joanne Gabbin
Founder and Organizer of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective, Dr. Joanne Gabbin is an activist, educator, poet, scholar, and community organizer, with work that spans the intellectual, political, and cultural gamut. Jaimee Swift (swiftja@jmu.edu) has shared a call for papers celebrating and honoring her intellectual and political contributions. Deadline for submissions is December 1st.
Leah Glenn Dance Theatre presents- A Tribute to The Wintergreen Women Writers Collective
Join us as we celebrate the work of members of the Wintergreen Women Writers Collective and explore how dance and spoken word work synergistically to build community through the use of kinesthetic empathy and storytelling. This concert will also feature music by Grammy-nominated artist, Hannibal Lokumbe.
The performance will take place on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 7:30 PM (ET) at the W&M Concert Hall (551 Jamestown Road) in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Vision: The history and legacy of Black women writers are honored and preserved. Black women writers have access to intergenerational spaces where, in community and mutuality, they can nurture one another and locate resources to support their creative practice.
Mission: Through nurturing and encouraging Black women writers, WWWC will publish, document, preserve, and celebrate their creative work.
